All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Monday, April 26, 2021

Low-key at The Oscars, though Tony winners howl like a wolf and dance Da Butt. Digital Theater Forever! #Stageworthy News of the Week. by Jonathan Mandell

Yes it's true that Frances McDormand howled like a wolf during one of her acceptance speeches for "Nomadland," which won Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actress (her), and Glenn Close d…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:24AM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 25, 2021

Oscar Winners 2021: Nomadland Best Picture, Director, Actress by Jonathan Mandell

Best Picture "Nomadland" Best Director Chloé Zhao, "Nomadland" Best Actress Frances McDormand, Nomadland Best Actor Anthony Hopkins, The Father Best Supporting Actor Daniel Kaluuya, "Judas …

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

Watch Steven Spielberg's West Side Story trailer released during #Oscars2021 by Jonathan Mandell

Watch 90 seconds from "West Side Story," Steven Spielberg's first movie musical, scheduled for released in movie theaters in December, starring g Ansel Elgort and Rachel Zegler as Tony…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:03PM[SHARE]

Broadway at the Oscars Quiz, 2021 Edition by Jonathan Mandell

The 93rd annual Academy Awards take place tonight, so it seems a good time to test your knowledge of Broadway at the Oscars, both this year's and throughout its history. Loading…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:39AM[SHARE]
Saturday, April 24, 2021

6 To Catch This Weekend Before They Close: Last 5 Years, Neat… by Jonathan Mandell

I've viewed and recommend the following five plays and a musical that are still available, though two of them only through this weekend. (For theater that is opening this weekend, check o…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:58AM[SHARE]
Friday, April 23, 2021

The Woman's Party Episode 1 Review: The push for the ERA…in the 1940s! by Jonathan Mandell

Viewers may first be drawn to Clubbed Thumb's "The Woman's Party" because of the fascinating, little-known history it dramatizes, but another reason becomes immediately clear: It's terrific …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:33PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 22, 2021

A Letter to Harvey Milk Review: Gun violence, bigotry, lesbians, the Holocaust, and Borscht Belt gags by Jonathan Mandell

Is this the right time for a work of theater that explores the aftereffect of gun violence and bigotry and a flawed criminal justice system? Sure.  How about one that compares Jewish h…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:52PM[SHARE]

Clowns Get Political: American Circus Alliance's Open Letter to Biden and Harris by Jonathan Mandell

Like many a performer, Jan Damm has been climbing the walls during the pandemic, but he did it literally. After live performances dried up, he started creating at-home skits for the Bindlest…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:14AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Two Sisters and a Piano Review: Jimmy Smits as Infatuated Enemy by Jonathan Mandell

In "Two Sisters and a Piano," Jimmy Smits plays a lieutenant in the Cuban army in 1991 who is supposed to keep tabs on the two women (Daphne Rubin-Vega and Florencia Lozano) who are under ho…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:56PM[SHARE]

Watch Into The Woods preview, a sample of changes to come at Encores! by Jonathan Mandell

"Into The Woods" was "a huge smash hi," when it opened on Broadway in 1987, we're told in the ten-minute video below, the latest from the "Encores! Inside the Revival." Given that the video …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:03PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 20, 2021

"Our job now is to honor George Floyd": Harris, Biden on Chauvin conviction. Video and transcript by Jonathan Mandell

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke after the jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd convicted him on all three counts, including two for murd…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:24PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 19, 2021

Scott Rudin to "step back." Fallout continues. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

There are so many productions opening/being announced now that it feels as overwhelming as any April (even moreso, since BroadwayCon 2021 went virtual over the weekend, which you can still w…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:59AM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 18, 2021

Watch Dancers at iHeartDance concert emerge into the sun by Jonathan Mandell

It was sunny on the roof of the Empire Hotel overlooking Lincoln Center when more than a dozen dancers today from Broadway and ballet and modern dance companies took a break from a dark year…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:30PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 16, 2021

Until the Flood at Studio Theatre. Ferguson's police killing, before George Floyd and Daunte Wright and… by Jonathan Mandell

As the trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota is nearing its end, Studio Theatre of D.C. today debuts a new streaming production …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:23PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 15, 2021

The Wandering Review. Immersive, Queer, Cockamamie Show about Schubert by Jonathan Mandell

"The Wandering," which its creators bill as an immersive theatrical experience inspired by the music of the 19th century classical composer Franz Schubert " "part visual album, part qu…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:00PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Book Review: My Broken Language. Quiara Alegría Hudes memoir of a born (West Philly) playwright by Jonathan Mandell

Before she wrote the libretto and then the screenplay for "In The Heights," before she became the Pulitzer Prize winning playwright of "Water By The Spoonful," Quiara Alegría Hudes create…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:59PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Shadow/Land Review: Hurricane Katrina in your ear by Jonathan Mandell

In "Shadow/Land," the opening play of Erika Dickerson-Despenza's projected ten-play-cycle  about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, Ruth has come by on August 29, 2005 to pick up her…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:28PM[SHARE]

Easy Sleazy, Mick Jagger's new pandemic anthem. Watch the video. Read the lyrics. by Jonathan Mandell

"It's a song that I wrote about coming out of lockdown, with some much needed optimism," Mick Jagger announced today in a statement about his new pandemic anthem, Easy Sleazy. "Thanks to …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:44PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 12, 2021

Will theater become even more segregated and inaccessible? Scott Rudin=Bully. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Ten days into the much ballyhooed reopening, April has been as busy a month for theater as it usually is " I've seen a play every day this week (see my reviews)" but the April overload is du…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:25PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 11, 2021

Babette in Retreat Review: Justin Sayre reaches toward campy farce by Jonathan Mandell

Babette, like Garbo, just wants to be alone. The legendary French courtesan has retired to her country estate,  designed for "trading the sins of lust for a more relaxed sin of sloth,"…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:36PM[SHARE]
Saturday, April 10, 2021

Amber Iman on Broadway: Second NYPopsUp Matinee by Jonathan Mandell

When Amber Iman was asked to perform on Broadway as part of NYPopsUp, "I began to freak out." The pressure was on: "I should at least get either a Tony nomination or a husband or both if I d…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:32PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 9, 2021

Reverb Theater Arts Festival Review: Theater makers With Disabilities Connect by Jonathan Mandell

Below is the video of the Reverb Theater Arts Festival, viewable until Thursday, May 20. It is close-captioned. For separate videos that provide ASL interpretation and audio description o…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:41PM[SHARE]
Thursday, April 8, 2021

John Cullum An Accidental Star Review. 60 years of Broadway, 91 of life by Jonathan Mandell

At 91, John Cullum has had a long and remarkably varied Broadway career,  spanning six decades and some 30 shows " musicals ranging from "Camelot" to "Urinetown," straight plays from "…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:41PM[SHARE]

The Last 5 Years Review: Jason Robert Brown's 20-year-old love story gets a pandemic theater makeover by Jonathan Mandell

This thrillingly-sung new version of Jason Robert Brown's beloved (and problematic) musical about love lost (and gained) almost feels like a laboratory experiment in pandemic theater. Will t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:03AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, April 7, 2021

Erika Dickerson-Despenza wins 2021 Susan Smith Blackburn Award by Jonathan Mandell

Erika Dickerson-Despenza and her play "cullud wattah" have won the the 43rd Annual Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and $25,000 The play is about a family of Black women struggling to survi…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:14PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Poetic Reflections: Identity, or Why I like Irish Rep's reopening most. by Jonathan Mandell

So there is poet and refugee Evgeny Shtorn in front of me reciting his poem "From the Confinement," a title I find ironic, given that he's speaking on the beautiful green shore of a ca…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:01PM[SHARE]
Monday, April 5, 2021

Cock Review: Randy Harrison as an indecisive lover in a bisexual triangle by Jonathan Mandell

"You're a lame duck, you're a stream,"  a character was screaming oddly, just as my screen froze while watching  the streaming of the play "Cock."   Was this a problem with…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:53PM[SHARE]

Reopened* Thrilling or Frustrating? #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Broadway reopened over the weekend …for 36 minutes (as a New York Times headline put it) with a double bill: Savion Glover in a one-man musical, and Nathan Lane in "Playbills!" a monologue…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:28PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 4, 2021

Read Paul Rudnick's hilarious new Broadway play "Playbills," starring Nathan Lane by Jonathan Mandell

Below is the full text of Paul Rudnick's "Playbills," the first play presented on a Broadway stage in more than a year " in a one-time-only socially-distanced matinee on Saturday at the St. …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:45PM[SHARE]
Saturday, April 3, 2021

Mike Daisey pandemic year monologue on stage and online: What The F**k Just Happened? by Jonathan Mandell

Mike Daisey performed his latest monologue to 22 masked and vaccinated theatergoers in person Friday night at the 99-seat Kraine Theater in the East Village, and simultaneously to another 50…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:30PM[SHARE]
Friday, April 2, 2021

Theater Blog Roundup: Recovering. by Jonathan Mandell

"…you must go on, I can't go on, I'll go on," Samuel Beckett wrote in 1953; Terry Teachout quotes that line in his blog About Last Night, right before his entry on the same day that he …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:38PM[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