All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Sunday, October 17, 2021

Dana H. Broadway Review. Deirdre O'Connell lip-syncs an incredible trauma by Jonathan Mandell

"Dana H." is unlike any play you've ever seen on Broadway. It's 75 minutes of an actress sitting on a chair, lip-syncing to a tape of a woman recounting the horrific story of a deranged crim…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:48PM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 14, 2021

The Lehman Trilogy on Broadway Review. Changing with the times, but enough? by Jonathan Mandell

The country has changed in the two and a half years since The Lehman Trilogy came to America, wowing audiences at the Park Avenue Armory with a theatrical epic, inventively staged and ext…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:24PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Thoughts of a Colored Man Review: Ntozake Shange meets The Wire by Jonathan Mandell

"Thoughts of a Colored Man,"  Keenan Scott II's often powerful, often entertaining debut Broadway play about a day in the life of seven Black men in Brooklyn,  is performed by a …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:52PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 12, 2021

Letters of Suresh Review. Unfolding the mysteries of the heart by Jonathan Mandell

Rajiv Joseph's epistolary play begins with some meager clues to the mysteries at its heart " a stack of letters from a man named Suresh, and an origami sculpture of a bird " before it slowly…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:02PM[SHARE]

Six, Chicken & Biscuits, Is This A Room. Theater Boosters. Darren Criss, Pal Joey to hustle on Broadway at last. #Stageworthy This Week by Jonathan Mandell

"Booster" has taken on a new meaning in the age of COVID, which Broadway has embraced in its own way. Some 250 people have been hired (so far) to serve as safety team members in Broadway the…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:59AM[SHARE]
Monday, October 11, 2021

Broadway Review: Is This A Room. Reality Winner's FBI Interrogation Verbatim by Jonathan Mandell

Much is improbable about "Is This A Room," starting with the name of the real-life whistleblower who's the subject of the play (Reality Winner), and the fact that she received a stupefyingly…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:47PM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 10, 2021

Chicken & Biscuits on Broadway Review. Funny Funeral with Happy Ending by Jonathan Mandell

Beverly Jenkins doesn't wear black to her father's funeral. "We already Black! We should be honoring my Daddy in style, COLOR! Hell, canary yellow was his favorite, and he wore it l…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:04PM[SHARE]
Saturday, October 9, 2021

Hit Your Mark, Die Beautiful Review. What's so bad about Off Off Broadway. by Jonathan Mandell

 "Hit Your Mark, Die Beautiful" lured me in because it was being promoted as a "Waiting for Guffman" for Off Off Broadway, which I took to mean a comic but affectionate look at how bad Ne…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:26AM[SHARE]
Thursday, October 7, 2021

Six Review. Wronged Queens in a Broadway Musical of Sonic Wave Feminism by Jonathan Mandell

"Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived." The first six words of "Six" sum up the fate of each of King Henry VIII's six wives. The first six minutes of "Six" (the length of t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:40AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Saving New York Independent Theater: An Update by Jonathan Mandell

If you think that reopening has solved the problems of New York's theaters and theater artists, listen up: "We're talking about life and death: The life and death of our neighborhoods; the l…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:23PM[SHARE]
Monday, October 4, 2021

Reopening…and Reclosing? Daniel Craig, Thornton Wilder Back on Broadway. #Stageworthy This Week by Jonathan Mandell

In what may be the busiest October for theater in generations, there are fifteen shows scheduled to open on Broadway, more than half of which are new, as well as much Off and Off Off Broadwa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:56AM[SHARE]
Sunday, October 3, 2021

Chasing Jack Review. Theatrical Malpractice That Might Set Records. by Jonathan Mandell

In "Chasing Jack," nothing is as it seems. That's true of Dr. Jack Chase, the heart surgeon who is being sued for malpractice after his patient died on the operating table. And it's true of …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:38PM[SHARE]
Saturday, October 2, 2021

The Nosebleed Review: A Long-Dead Father, Vulnerability, Failure and Healing by Jonathan Mandell

"The Nosebleed," Aya Ogawa's sly, strange and ultimately rewarding autobiographical play that's at the Japan Society through October 10, focuses on Ogawa's long-dead father and their failed …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:01PM[SHARE]
Friday, October 1, 2021

October 2021 New York Theater Openings and Reopenings by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a day-by-day selection of the theater that is scheduled to open in October, organized by opening date*, including fifteen shows on Broadway, more than half of which are new, as w…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:24PM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 30, 2021

Theater Quiz for September 2021: Reopening and Awarding. by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to a very busy theater month? Answer these ten question to find out. Loading…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:42PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 29, 2021

La MaMa Puppet Festival 2021: Lunch with Sonia by Jonathan Mandell

Aunt Sonia, who is gathering the whole clan for one last meal before she ends her life, looks different from when I last saw her. She once was just a huge head, with a mouth that seemed p…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:08PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Persuasion Review. Bedlam's staging of Jane Austen's last, romantic novel by Jonathan Mandell

Bedlam's return to live in-person theater with its new adaptation of Jane Austen's romantic final novel " about a woman who meets once again the man whose proposal of marriage she rejected e…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:19PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 27, 2021

A Commercial Jingle for Regina Comet Review by Jonathan Mandell

In this slight musical comedy with an on-the-nose title, Broadway veteran Bryonha Marie Parham portrays a fading diva named Regina Comet who hires two aspiring jingle writers (Alex Wyse and …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:30PM[SHARE]

Tony Night 2021: Memorable Moments and Contradictions. #Stageworthy This Week by Jonathan Mandell

Four hours full of spectacular musical numbers, ending with three famous musical duets from the past  " Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel performing "For Good" from Wicked, Anthony…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:07AM[SHARE]
Sunday, September 26, 2021

2020 Tony Award Winners (in 2021) by Jonathan Mandell

Below are the winners of the much-delayed 74th annual Tony Awards, honoring the much-truncated 2019-2020 Broadway season, selected from 18 eligible shows, which opened between April of 20…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:10PM[SHARE]

I Squeezed Really Hard: The Healing Power of Theater, Whether on Broadway or Off Off Avenue B by Jonathan Mandell

The day of the Tony Awards might seem a strange time to write about an Off-Off Broadway solo play, playing in a theater off Avenue B, with the downbeat title "I Squeezed Really Hard" (a refe…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:48PM[SHARE]
Saturday, September 25, 2021

Watch 5 New Broadway Musicals Previewed in Bryant Park by Jonathan Mandell

Watch musical numbers performed by cast members from the new Broadway musicals "Six," "Diana," and "Mrs. Doubtfire," as well as the new revivals of "Company" and "Caroline or Change," at the…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:22PM[SHARE]
Friday, September 24, 2021

Sanctuary City Review. Ironic, heartbreaking tale of two young immigrants by Jonathan Mandell

"Sanctuary City" is full of surprises, rarely happy ones for the boy and girl who have grown up together " or for the audience. Martyna Majok's challenging, intelligent play focuses on two i…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:34PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Phantom Pain Review. 5 Women Living Through Trauma, In One Body by Jonathan Mandell

Why are these five women in the same play? A prostitute in Amsterdam; a mother from Guatemala; a sister from the Midwest;  a food vendor in the Central African Republic; an internation…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:38PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 21, 2021

The Medievalists Review. A monstrous family, thanks to history by Jonathan Mandell

"I loathe that word 'nice,'" Hallie says, and so apparently do both her parents; all three could not be more unlikeable in the first 100 minutes of the 110-minute play "The Medievalists," wr…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:29PM[SHARE]
Monday, September 20, 2021

Watch Broadway videos, from Sondheim to Six #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Over the past week, there has been so much hoopla bout Broadway " reopening nights, festival concerts, TV spots, heartfelt speeches about Broadway being back (Kristin Chenoweth: "There's no …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:19AM[SHARE]
Saturday, September 18, 2021

Repulsing the Monkey Review: A play about gentrification, staged at the White Horse Tavern by Jonathan Mandell

"Repulsing the Monkey," which is set in an old bar in Pittsburgh about to be sold to (and destroyed by) gentrifiers, takes place in an old bar in New York, the White Horse Tavern. This is th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:31PM[SHARE]
Friday, September 17, 2021

Wicked Back on Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

 "There's no place like home," Kristin Chenoweth said on the reopening night of "Wicked," on September 14, 2021, eighteen years after it opened on Broadway (on October 30, 2003) and 18 mo…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:40PM[SHARE]
Thursday, September 16, 2021

Fall 2021 Theater Books: 3 Memoirs, 2 Biographies by Jonathan Mandell

Alan Cumming and Billy Porter have written memoirs that are being published this fall, which will also see biographies of Oscar Wilde and Emily Mann, plus a book "by" Noel Coward. Click on t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:51PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Waterman Review by Jonathan Mandell

Thicket & Thistle is the kind of company that anybody serious about theater in America would want to encourage. This is what drew me to "Waterman,"  which turns out to be a Fringe-…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:52PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, September 14, 2021

Hamilton on Broadway 2021. A cast of newcomers and returning favorites. by Jonathan Mandell

Below are new production photographs of the 2021 cast of "Hamilton," which is reopening on Broadway tonight, along with "Chicago," "The Lion King" and "Wicked," after eighteen months, the lo…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:53PM[SHARE]

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