All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Fall 2019 Movie Preview for Theater Lovers by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a list of movies opening in the U.S. from September to December, organized chronologically by release date. Among the movies of interest to theater lovers: Finn Wittrock (Death of A…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:42PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 26, 2019

In Defense of Dance. Fall Favs. LSD on Broadway! #Stageworthy News of the Week. by Jonathan Mandell

  Good Morning America host Lara Spencer laughed at Prince George (aged 6), the future King of England, for taking ballet classes. The best thing about her ignorant comments is the suppor…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:33PM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 25, 2019

Broadway and the Blacklist. The Chelsea Girls. by Jonathan Mandell

Two books, one a novel and one non-fiction, bring us back to New York in the 1950s and the effect of the Red Scare on the theater.

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:41PM[SHARE]
Saturday, August 24, 2019

Watch Richard Nelson's Uncle Vanya, via WNET's Theater Close Up by Jonathan Mandell

Watch director Richard Nelson's much lauded production of Chekhov's "Uncle Vanya" here online. It was broadcast last night on WNET Channel 13 as part of the TV series Theater Close Up, which…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:21PM[SHARE]
Friday, August 23, 2019

Labyrinth Theater's Free Show in Support of Latinx on the Border by Jonathan Mandell

The Labyrinth Theater Company's new show, which it has entitled "Installation on America" and calls a weekend-long "guerilla theater/pop-up performance art/installation that unmasks the horr…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:20PM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 22, 2019

2019 Henry Hewes Design Awards: by Jonathan Mandell

The 2019 Henry Hewes Design Awards have been given to scenic designer Charlie Corcoran for The O'Casey Trilogy, at Irish Repertory Theatre; costume designer Montana Levi Blanco for Ain't No…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:03AM[SHARE]

Ticket Giveaway: The Play That Goes Wrong by Jonathan Mandell

Win two tickets to see "The Play That Goes Wrong" for free I'm holding this contest to help promote 20at20, a terrific program that offers $20 tickets to 20+ Off Broadway shows, 20 minutes b…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:34AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Broadway Poll: Most Anticipated Fall 2019 Show? by Jonathan Mandell

Choose the show that you are most looking forward to. The list below is for shows that have opening dates on Broadway from September through December 2019 as of this writing, and they are li…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:40AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Rebel Verses. Teenagers on Stage, Not Mean, Not Chill, Just Real. by Jonathan Mandell

Rebel Verses, an exciting and thought-provoking show presenting artists ages 13 to 19 from some dozen youth theater companies,  was almost as impressive for what was not on stage as for w…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:14PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 19, 2019

Opening in NY: Manilow's Harmony, Diana, How I Learned to Drive, The Lightning Thief, A Christmas Carol. Tawdry Broadway. #Stageworthy News Up The W by Jonathan Mandell

The dog days of August turn out to be full of theater news " even about dogs; these comfort dogs were watching Billy Elliot at the Stratford Festival, reportedly to practice what it's lik…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:11AM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 18, 2019

Goodbye King Kong, The Cher Show, Mojada, Broadway Bounty Hunter, etc….Last Chance Tickets by Jonathan Mandell

Seven Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are closing today: King Kong, The Cher Show, Pretty Woman Mojada, Broadway Bounty Hunter, Puffs, and the way she spoke   Then closing August 24th: Wh…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:36AM[SHARE]
Saturday, August 17, 2019

On The Exhale: Gun Violence as Adrenaline on WNET by Jonathan Mandell

The timing in broadcasting a two-year-old play about gun violence may seem right, but it's terribly wrong. The WNET series Theater Close-Up has chosen to broadcast "On The Exhale," Martin Zi…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:18AM[SHARE]
Friday, August 16, 2019

48 Hours in Harlem with Ntozake Shange by Jonathan Mandell

"Like most people of color, black people in the New World, I came by my passion for literature in a circuitous way, a night journey marked by music, movement, improvisation, and smells of pe…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:05AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 15, 2019

Make Believe Review: Bess Wohl's Elliptical Look at Child Neglect by Jonathan Mandell

"Make Believe" begins with a child on stage silently playing with a Cabbage Patch Doll in an attic playroom; after a while her sister calls out "Mom?" a dozen times off-stage.  Then her b…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:51PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 14, 2019

Rave Theater Festival Reviews: Sweet Lorraine, Ni Mi Madre, Stormy Weather by Jonathan Mandell

What is a gay play? These three very different plays in the first week of the new Rave Theater Festival could all arguably fit the label, but it would mean stretching the definition beyond t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:11PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 12, 2019

Broadway in the Age of Anxiety. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

They installed metal detectors in the Al Hirschfeld Theater, the new home of "Moulin Rouge," during the same week that panicking pedestrians a block away mistook a motorcycle backfiring for …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:28AM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 11, 2019

Rave Theater Festival Review: Noirtown. Immersive Bogarting. by Jonathan Mandell

It was uncanny how much "Noirtown" made me feel as if I was living inside a film noir classic like "The Maltese Falcon" or "The Big Sleep" " stylish, seductive, tough-talking and unfathomabl…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:54PM[SHARE]
Saturday, August 10, 2019

No Brainer Review. Touring Town Trashing Trump: TNC's FREE Fun Street Theater by Jonathan Mandell

For the 43rd summer in a row, Theater for the New City is touring a free original outdoor musical in streets, playgrounds and parks throughout all five boroughs (See schedule below.)  As …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:36PM[SHARE]
Friday, August 9, 2019

Moulin Rouge Review: A jukebox musical for the age of Spotify by Jonathan Mandell

"Moulin Rouge" was thrilling from the moment I entered the theater… until about ten minutes after it began. That's because the brightest star in this stage adaptation of Baz Luhrmann's 200…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:16PM[SHARE]

Bat Out Of Hell The Musical Review: Loud, Long, Messy…and Sexy. by Jonathan Mandell

Bat Out of Hell is a frequently enjoyable jukebox musical running at New York City Center through September 8, using the muscular rock opera anthems from singer Meat Loaf's trilogy of bes…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:48AM[SHARE]

Sea Wall/ A Life Review: Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal Talk Modestly About Life and Death by Jonathan Mandell

It's not at all baffling why these two modest monologues by different playwrights were yoked together into a single show at the Public Theater earlier this year. There's an even simpler expl…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:48AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 8, 2019

Sea Wall/A Life: Review, pics by Jonathan Mandell

Tom Sturridge and Jake Gyllenhaal are certainly the reason why "Sea Wall/A Life" has now moved uptown to the Hudson… In the lobby of the Hudson, for $20 you can buy a quartet of magnets wi…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:50PM[SHARE]

Bat Out Of Hell The Musical: Pics, Video and Review by Jonathan Mandell

"Bat Out of Hell" is a frequently enjoyable jukebox musical running at New York City Center through September 8, using the muscular rock opera anthems from singer Meat Loaf's trilogy of b…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:15PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Actors Equity's First Strike, 100 Years Ago Today by Jonathan Mandell

Actors Equity went on strike for the first time on August 7, 1919 " one hundred years ago today. Stars like Ethel Barrymore, W.C. Fields and Marie Dressler joined hundreds of their fellow un…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:43PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, August 6, 2019

The 100 Most Important People in Musical Theatre by Jonathan Mandell

It makes sense that George Abbott is the first theater artist profiled in "The 100 Most Important People in Musical Theatre" (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 288 pages, publication date…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:30PM[SHARE]
Monday, August 5, 2019

National Black Theater Festival. Six on Broadway. Mourning Hal Prince. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

I spent much of the week in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, attending the week-long 16th biennial National Black Theatre Festival, which presented 30 plays and musicals from black theaters in…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:53AM[SHARE]
Sunday, August 4, 2019

Mass Shooting and Theater by Jonathan Mandell

Three mass shootings in a single week " in Gilroy, California last Sunday leaving three dead; in El Paso,Texas leaving at least 20 dead Sunday: in Dayton, Ohio, leaving at least nine dead " …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:56AM[SHARE]
Saturday, August 3, 2019

Harold Prince's Broadway Shows, Playbill by Playbill by Jonathan Mandell

Harold Prince, the consummate Broadway producer and director who died on Wednesday at the age of 91, had his first Broadway credit in April 1950, as an assistant stage manager for "Tickets, …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:55AM[SHARE]
Friday, August 2, 2019

Hannah Senesh, the Anne Frank of Hungary, the Joan of Arc of Israel. by Jonathan Mandell

In "Hannah Senesh," a play running through August 18th at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the title character is a Jewish teenager in Europe in the 1930s who starts keeping a diary at age 13.…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:27AM[SHARE]
Thursday, August 1, 2019

August 2019 New York Theater Openings by Jonathan Mandell

Jake Gyllenhaal and Tom Sturridge deliver back-to-back monologues in the only show opening on Broadway in August. After a promised Broadway run was scrapped, "Bat Out of Hell" is finally ope…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:24AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Broadway dims its lights tonight for Hal Prince, January 30, 1928 " July 31, 2019 by Jonathan Mandell

Harold Prince died this morning at 91 years of age after a brief illness, in Reykjavik, Iceland. There will be no funeral, but a celebration of his life is planned.   The lights of all…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:24PM[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