All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, February 5, 2020

The Confession of Lily Dare Review: Charles Busch in a Campy, Weepy Homage and Parody by Jonathan Mandell

As he's done for close to 40 years, Charles Busch sprinkles his latest campy melodrama with Oscar Wilde wit, Barbara Stanwyck grit, Marlene Dietrich glamour and Mae West shtick: "I don't usu…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:57PM[SHARE]

The Only Republican Senator To Vote Trump Guilty. Transcript of Mitt Romney's Speech by Jonathan Mandell

Fifty-two Senators, all of them Republicans, voted to acquit Donald Trump of abuse of power. The lone Republican who voted to convict, Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, explained his reasons why …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:19PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Border People Review: One Man, 11 Identities by Jonathan Mandell

"So you're doing a whole show on borders, huh?" says Border Patrol Special Agent Lopez, the first of 11 people whom Dan Hoyle impersonates over 75 minutes in "Border People," re-creating wit…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:47PM[SHARE]
Monday, February 3, 2020

Hamilton in Movie Theaters 2021. Spike Lee to Film American Utopia. West Side Story Thickens. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

A film of "Hamilton," with its original Broadway cast, is coming to cinema screens across the U.S. and Canada on October 15, 2021, released by The Walt Disney Studios, (which reportedly paid…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:53PM[SHARE]
Sunday, February 2, 2020

New York Theater Quiz for January 2020 by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to New York theater news, views and reviews in January 2020? Answer these dozen questions and find out.

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:33PM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 1, 2020

February 2020 New York Theater Openings by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a selection of New York theater openings in February, organized chronologically by opening date. There's just one show opening on Broadway this month, but it's a doozy: The fifth re…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:36PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 31, 2020

Nellie and the Women of Blackwell: Immersive Theater in a Lunatic Asylum by Jonathan Mandell

Our safety word was "stunt reporter," as Nellie Bly, one of the 19th century's most celebrated journalists, took along the 18 of us undercover to the mental institution at Blackwell Island f…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:05PM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 30, 2020

Medea Review: Bobby Cannavale and Rose Byrne in an avant-garde update by Jonathan Mandell

From the get-go, the "Medea" on stage at BAM looks less like a modern update of Euripides' tragedy than a fashion shoot: Bobby Cannavale talks quietly with Rose Byrne against an empty, blind…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:19PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 29, 2020

Doctors Jane and Alexander Review: A family album of father, daughter scientists/artists by Jonathan Mandell

The Alexander in the title is Dr. Alexander Wiener, a pioneering scientist in the use of blood to identify individuals in ways similar to fingerprints, and co-discoverer of the Rh factor in …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:12PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Paul Rudnick takes aim at Ivanka et al by Jonathan Mandell

He's known as a  playwright ("Jeffrey" and "I Hate Hamlet") screenwriter ("Addams Family Values," "In & Out") novelist (Social Disease, I'll Take It) and essayist (I Shudder, Fierce P…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:46PM[SHARE]

Off-Broadway Week 2-for-1 by Jonathan Mandell

Two-for-one tickets are on sale now for Off-Broadway Week,  February 10 to 24, 2020. The following 33 shows are participating. Those with an asterisk are newly on offer. (Check out my Off…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:57AM[SHARE]
Monday, January 27, 2020

Broadway at the Grammys. Hadestown Wins! BroadwayCon 2020. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

All these Broadway veterans participated in the 62 Grammy Awards, where "Hadestown" won Best Musical Theater Album. The other nominated albums were "Ain't Too Proud: The Life And Times Of Th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:30AM[SHARE]
Sunday, January 26, 2020

First Look BroadwayCon 2020: Watch Six The Musical, Company, Mrs. Doubtfire, Caroline or Change, Sing Street, Girl from the North Country by Jonathan Mandell

Casts from six shows opening this season on Broadway " including shows with music by Bob Dylan and Stephen Sondheim, and a book by Tony Kushner " performed at First Look at BroadwayCon 2020.…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:40PM[SHARE]
Saturday, January 25, 2020

The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker: Theodora Skipitares' puppetry collage about an 18th Century African-American astronomer, a 20th Century bl by Jonathan Mandell

In this gorgeous, enlightening and ambitious "  if over-stuffed " hour-long theatrical collage, Theodora Skipitares uses the eerie visual splendor of puppetry to illuminate a serious subj…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:47PM[SHARE]

"If truth doesn't matter, we're lost" " transcript and video of Adam Schiff's closing arguments in Trump Impeachment Trial Days 4 and 5 by Jonathan Mandell

A transcript and video of the closing arguments both Thursday and Friday by Representative Adam Schiff, the House impeachment manager for the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump in t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:37AM[SHARE]
Friday, January 24, 2020

Review: A Soldier's Play on Broadway at long last. by Jonathan Mandell

Charles Fuller's murder mystery, finally on Broadway in a fine production directed by Kenny Leon some four decades after it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is so good that even if you've s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 12:18PM[SHARE]

A Soldier's Play on Broadway At Last by Jonathan Mandell

Charles Fuller's murder mystery, finally on Broadway in a fine production directed by Kenny Leon some four decades after it won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, is so good that even if you've s…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:36AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 23, 2020

Broadway review: Grand Horizons. A starry cast for a hip, old-fashioned comedy. by Jonathan Mandell

"I think I would like a divorce," Jane Alexander as Nancy French says to her husband of 50 years,  played by James Cromwell. "All right," Bill replies.  Blackout. More production photo…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:18PM[SHARE]

Grand Horizons on Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

"I think I would like a divorce," Jane Alexander as Nancy French says to her husband of 50 years, played by James Cromwell. "All right," Bill replies. Blackout. That's all the dialogue in th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:15PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 22, 2020

When a play leaves you speechless: Cezary Goes To War. As Long As It Lasts. Must Go On. by Jonathan Mandell

Some shows you leave needing to tell people about; some shows you leave thinking about what you are going to have for dinner. A few shows ruin your dinner. If you're a drama critic, you are …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:30PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 21, 2020

"Theater" as political insult. Lesbians on Stage. Broadway Week. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

When did "theater" become an insult? With the impeachment trial scheduled to begin in earnest this week, the one thing that the right and the left, Democrats and Republicans, seem to agree o…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:26AM[SHARE]
Monday, January 20, 2020

Leaving the Blues Review: The (Gay) Life of Alberta Hunter by Jonathan Mandell

"Leaving the Blues" dramatizes the life of the amazing jazz, blues and Broadway singer/songwriter Alberta Hunter. I long thought her story was ideal for a musical, ever since I saw her aston…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:36PM[SHARE]

Martin Luther King Jr. Day 1/20/2020: King on Health Over Hotels, Housing Over War, Morality Over Materialism by Jonathan Mandell

"We must devote at least as much to our children's education and the health of the poor as we do to the care of our automobiles and the building of beautiful, impressive hotels," Martin Luth…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:53PM[SHARE]
Sunday, January 19, 2020

Ich kann nicht anders review: Slovenian avant-garde theater troupe Beton at La MaMa by Jonathan Mandell

"You will hear an unbelievable true story,"  one of the three actors from the Republic of Slovenia on a stage designed to look like a makeshift bunker, tells us at the beginning of the pl…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:04PM[SHARE]

Broadway Review: My Name Is Lucy Barton, starring Laura Linney by Jonathan Mandell

"Lonely was the first flavor I had tasted in my life, and it was always there, hidden inside the crevices of my mouth, reminding me." That's what Laura Linney as Lucy Barton tells us from he…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:54AM[SHARE]
Saturday, January 18, 2020

My Name Is Lucy Barton on Broadway with Laura Linney by Jonathan Mandell

…"My Name is Lucy Barton" is a sometimes poignant, often tedious 90-minute monologue… The hope was that Laura Linney would do for it what France McDormand did in the HBO miniseries that …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:51PM[SHARE]
Friday, January 17, 2020

Ann Harada, from Q to Poo by Jonathan Mandell

Ann Harada, who made her Broadway debut more than 30 years ago, is philosophical about the latest character she portrays. "Sometimes you get to play glamorous roles," she says, "and sometime…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:54AM[SHARE]
Thursday, January 16, 2020

Under the Radar: Feos. Two ugly puppets meet and mate by Jonathan Mandell

They meet on a line for a movie; the man and the woman " each disfigured by childhood accidents "  are used to be stared at, and they are used to being alone. Inspired by the late Uruguay…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:41PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Modern Maori Quartet Two Worlds Review: New Zealand Musical Theater, Via Vegas by Jonathan Mandell

Those theatergoers drawn to "Modern Maori Quartet: Two Worlds" for the authentic music and culture of the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand might feel blindsided by what seems like a La…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:18AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, January 14, 2020

Under the Radar: To The Moon. Laurie Anderson's playful lunar exploration via Virtual Reality by Jonathan Mandell

This 15 minutes of Virtual Reality offering the sensation of looking at, walking on and flying over the moon " created by performance artist Laurie Anderson and new media artist Hsin-Chien H…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:06PM[SHARE]
Monday, January 13, 2020

Diana, MJ, Mack and Mabel, Birthday Candles, Intimate Apparel Complete Their Casts. Who Goes to Broadway! #Stageworthy News of the Week. by Jonathan Mandell

The typical Broadway theatergoer is still a well-to-do , middle-aged woman from out-of-town, according to statistics presented in The Demographics of the Broadway Audience 2018"2019, the 22n…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:54PM[SHARE]

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