All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Friday, June 18, 2021

Juneteenth 2021: A New Federal Holiday, and a Day of Theater and Music by Jonathan Mandell

President Joe Biden signed into a law yesterday a bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and the online celebrat…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:15AM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 17, 2021

Annual Summer Theater Festivals in New York City 2021 by Jonathan Mandell

Outdoor theater is exploding this summer, with the continuation of New York State's NYPopsUp and New York City's Open Culture street performances, with the opening of Little Island park at P…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:46PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 16, 2021

It's Only A Play review. Terrence McNally's bitchy semi-updated Broadway backstage comedy by Jonathan Mandell

This George Street Playhouse production of Terrence McNally's 35-year-old bitchy, witty backstage comedy about the opening night party of a Broadway flop comes almost seven years after its s…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:20AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Book Review: In The Heights Finding Home by Jonathan Mandell

After working for some 16 hours on the hottest day of the year singing and dancing  in take after take on the uneven concrete floor of a courtyard between two old brick apartment build…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:36AM[SHARE]
Monday, June 14, 2021

The @Lin_Manuel Miranda News Service: New Movie, New Bookstore, New Teaser. Also: Pulitzers. The Boss. by Jonathan Mandell

It's been three whole years since Lin-Manuel Miranda completely dominated the week's news " and now he's back doing it again (almost) with the opening simultaneously of the "In The Heights" …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:57AM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 13, 2021

Visiting The Drama Book Shop by Jonathan Mandell

I had one question above all others when I visited the reopened Drama Book Shop over the weekend in its new location at 266 West 39th Street, a very long 28 months after a rent hike chase…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:30PM[SHARE]
Saturday, June 12, 2021

In The Heights Movie: 10 Changes from the Broadway Musical by Jonathan Mandell

Thirteen years after Lin-Manuel Miranda's musical about the Latino community of Washington Heights opened on Broadway, "In The Heights" is now an exuberant, sentimental movie musical directe…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:49PM[SHARE]
Friday, June 11, 2021

Katori Hall's The Hot Wing King wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama by Jonathan Mandell

The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Finalists: "Circle Jerk" by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley " exclusively digital theater! " and "Stew" by Zora Howard. …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:20PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 10, 2021

Theater Blog Roundup: Anticipation, and Celebration by Jonathan Mandell

Theater bloggers have "reasons to celebrate," as Jan Simpson put it in her most recent post in Broadway & Me, which she wrote before the dozens of announcements over the past month sched…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:05AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 9, 2021

"Broadway you're finally coming back": Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda lead quick-hit homage by Jonathan Mandell

Watch the six minute video below of Lin-Manuel Miranda celebrating the return of Broadway in September, managing quick-hit homages to some dozen Broadway musicals, from "Six" to "Hamilton," …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:54AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 8, 2021

What If If Only. Caryl Churchill's ghostly new play, via NAATCO by Jonathan Mandell

What I can say about "What If If Only?" In short: It's a new play by Caryl Churchill, 82, who some consider the world's greatest living playwright, and among the most elusive, whose work ove…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:44PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 7, 2021

4 new Broadway openings: Lehman Trilogy, Skeleton Crew, Paradise Square, How I Learned to Drive. #OffBroadway is open NOW. #Stageworthy News by Jonathan Mandell

The opening date of four new Broadway productions were announced this week, bringing the number to 32. See details in my Broadway 2021-2021 Season Preview Guide, organized chronologically by…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:26AM[SHARE]

chekhovOS /an experimental game Review: The Cherry Orchard as a Virtual Video Game (but not really) by Jonathan Mandell

The day before I was scheduled to view "chekhovOS" (OS as in operating system) " featuring  a literally game cast including Mikhail Baryshnikov as Anton Chekhov,  as well as his …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:55AM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 6, 2021

Glimpse. Off Broadway Reopens in Prospect Park by Jonathan Mandell

Performers from India and Iran, Colombia and Cuba, Beirut and Johannesburg told tales, played music and danced on Saturday afternoon in Prospect Park,  in a grassy sun-baked field call…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:48PM[SHARE]
Saturday, June 5, 2021

25 New Theater Books for Summer Reading 2021 by Jonathan Mandell

Below are recently published theater books, or those scheduled to be published this summer, in four categories:Scripts and Play AnthologiesBiographies and MemoirsTheater History, Criticism a…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:15AM[SHARE]
Friday, June 4, 2021

Worlds Fair Inn Review. Off-Broadway reopens! by Jonathan Mandell

I was grateful to be one of the 24 people inside the below-ground Axis Theater during the new play "Worlds Fair Inn." There were 16 members of the audience (masked and socially distanced), t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:00PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 3, 2021

Oslo Review: How Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott Solved The Middle East, or 4 Ways The Play Worked Better by Jonathan Mandell

"Oslo" tells the extraordinary true story of the Norwegian couple who instigated and pushed along the secret negotiations that resulted in the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and the …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:58PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 2, 2021

#Stageworthy News of the Week: Celebrating! Waiting. Watching! by Jonathan Mandell

June IS busting out all over, but in new ways. For the finale of the 31st annual Broadway Bares, Broadway performers danced maskless atop the TKTS red steps in the theater district " which w…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:24AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 1, 2021

June 2021 Theater Openings. Meryl Streep AND The Meatpacking District, AND Every Musical on the West End (Online!) by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a selective list of theater that is opening in the month of June* " day-by-day for the first week then a glorious taste of what's in store for the rest of the month…a schedule …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:08AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 31, 2021

Book Review: Smile: The Story of a Face by Sarah Ruhl by Jonathan Mandell

In "Smile: The Story of a Face" (Simon and Schuster, 256 pages), Sarah Ruhl recounts how, at the same time that her first play was about to open on Broadway, and she was about to give birth …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:42AM[SHARE]

Memorial Day 2021: Remembering Those Who Died from War, COVID-19, Racism by Jonathan Mandell

Memorial Day, which became an official national holiday in 1971, was created to honor Americans who died in military service, some 1.1. million people since the nation's founding. But it fee…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:17AM[SHARE]
Sunday, May 30, 2021

The Broadway is Coming Back Theater Quiz, for May 2021 by Jonathan Mandell

Lots of exciting news in May about reopening, but how well were you paying attention to the details? Test yourself by answering these 11 questions about the theater news, views and reviews o…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:20AM[SHARE]
Saturday, May 29, 2021

In The Heights Movie Sneak Peek: Production Pics, plus cast list by Jonathan Mandell

Thirteen years after Lin-Manuel Miranda's first, breakthrough musical, "In The Heights," opened on Broadway, a movie version is coming to theaters and HBO Max on Friday, June 11th. Below are…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:42PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 28, 2021

The Niceties Review: Liberal vs. Left, Black vs. White. Timely vs. Tiresome? by Jonathan Mandell

What do we now make of the incendiary confrontation between a liberal white middle-aged professor and her radical black student in Eleanor Burgess's ironically titled "The Niceties," now tha…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:23PM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 27, 2021

Herding Cats Review: Explosion of Loneliness On Stage and Online by Jonathan Mandell

"I literally exploded," Justine recounts to her roommate Michael, the first line in "Herding Cats." And Lucinda Coxon's play does wind up feeling like an explosion " surely meant to shock an…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:10PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Cyberpuppetry: I Am The Bear and Vancouver. Puppetry: Voyeur. Both: Dixon Place. by Jonathan Mandell

In "I Am The Bear," Jerrell L. Henderson, wearing a t-shirt that says "I Am Black History," tells the story of how he was walking to work when he was stopped by a police car because he "fit …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:03PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 25, 2021

George Floyd Memorial Day by Jonathan Mandell

Memorial Day fell on on May 25 in 2020 and I posted: Memorial Day 2020: Remembering Those Who Died of COVID-19. But by the end of the day, a dog walker named Amy Cooper had called the police…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:28AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 24, 2021

Hadestown, Girl From The North Country Reopening. Summer Life After Lockdown! #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

On Bob Dylan's 80th birthday today, the producers of the Dylan musical "Girl From The North Country" announced its reopening on October 13, more than 19 months after it was the last Broadway…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:07AM[SHARE]
Sunday, May 23, 2021

May 2021 Theater Openings, Final Week: Broadway Barks, the Platt Brothers, Andrew Lloyd Webber through the years. by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a day-by-day selection of theater* that is opening between May 23 and May 31, 2021 " from Broadway Barks to the National Memorial Concert, and much inbetween, such as Ben Platt a…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:06PM[SHARE]
Friday, May 21, 2021

Drama League Award Winners 2021: The Great Work Begins, Theater in Quarantine, Sondheim's 90th…. by Jonathan Mandell

Below are the five winners of the 87th annual Drama League Awards, the first (and so far only) major theater award to step up to the moment and honor the forms of theater that have flourishe…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:39PM[SHARE]

Little Island Park opens….with two outdoor theaters by Jonathan Mandell

For months I had watched the construction of this strange 2.4 acre public park placed atop new concrete piles like so many oversized golf pegs where the old rotting wood Pier 54 had been " w…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:05AM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off