All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

New York Innovative Theater Award 2011 Nominees by Jonathan Mandell

The 2011 New York Innovative Theater Award nominees, announced August 1st, include 166 individual artists, 55 different productions and 45 Off-Off-Broadway theater companies. Winners will be…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 12:09AM[SHARE]
Sunday, July 24, 2011

The Winter's Tale Review: The Royal Shakespeare Company in New York by Jonathan Mandell

The replica of the Stratford-upon-Avon theater that the Royal Shakespeare Company has built inside the Park Avenue Armory looks from the outside like the bottom half of a rocket ship, which …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 03:36PM[SHARE]
Sunday, July 17, 2011

Harry Potter and All's Well That Ends Well: Life-Changing or Gibberish? by Jonathan Mandell

I saw "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2" on the same day as Shakespeare in the Park’s "All's Well That Ends Well" and was struck by their similarities: Both are dark, both …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 02:47PM[SHARE]
Sunday, July 10, 2011

Broadway Fall 2011 Season by Jonathan Mandell

The Broadway shows announced so far for Fall, 2011, include a revival of a Stephen Sondheim musical, and the debut of a new Woody Allen play; a play imagining the night before Martin Luther …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:51AM[SHARE]

Broadway Fall 2011 Season by Jonathan Mandell

The Broadway shows announced so far for Fall, 2011, include a revival of a Stephen Sondheim musical, and the debut of a new Woody Allen play; a play imagining the night before Martin Luther …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:51AM[SHARE]
Thursday, July 7, 2011

Master Class Review: Tyne Daly as Maria Callas by Jonathan Mandell

Tyne Daly has said she didn't think she was a fit to play the great and tragic opera diva Maria Callas, when playwright Terrence McNally asked her to take on the role in the current revival …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:52PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, July 5, 2011

What Is a Dance Arranger? by Jonathan Mandell

  Broadway vet David Chase explains this vital position As a young man, David Chase told a Broadway dance arranger he wanted to move to New York and become a dance arranger himself, eve…

SOURCE: TDF at 10:40AM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 23, 2011

Harvard's Gay Persecution: Unnatural Acts Review by Jonathan Mandell

Speaking before Harvard's Secret Court investigating the crime and embarrassment of homosexuality on campus, an undergraduate named Stanley Gilkey explains that the only reason he associated…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:12PM[SHARE]

Gay Persecution at Harvard: Unnatural Acts Review by Jonathan Mandell

Speaking before Harvard's Secret Court investigating the crime and embarrassment of homosexuality on campus, an undergraduate named Stanley Gilkey explains that the only reason he associated…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 07:47PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Locuras En Wichita (Wild In Wichita) by Jonathan Mandell

This new play about the courtship of two residents of a nursing home follows a predictable course but is also fresh and lively, thanks to two veteran actors.

SOURCE: Backstage at 12:32PM[SHARE]
Monday, June 13, 2011

Spidey 2.0: Is It Fixed? Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark Review by Jonathan Mandell

At the beginning of the second act of Spider-Man 2.0, the evil Green Goblin explains how he was transformed from scientist Norman Osborne to genetic mutant: It took weeks and cost $65 millio…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 12:37PM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 12, 2011

Tony Award Winners 2011 by Jonathan Mandell

Below is the list of winners for the 2011 Tony Awards, so far. (Winners will be indicated, as they are announced throughout the evening, in bold face with *). (Scroll to the bottom for early…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 05:08PM[SHARE]

Tony Award Winners 2011: Book of Mormon, War Horse, Cheekiness by Jonathan Mandell

“The Book of Mormon” has won the 2011 Tony for Best Musical and eight other awards, and “War Horse” has won for best play, and in four other categories, in a ceremony…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 05:08PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 9, 2011

Tennessee Williams' Profoundly Squalid New Play: One Arm Review by Jonathan Mandell

Even in his most popular work, Tennessee Williams offered a hint of what the New York Times recently called (in an editorial about Anthony Weiner) the "profoundly squalid and offensive." It …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:57PM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 5, 2011

Sex Not War: Lysistrata Jones Review by Jonathan Mandell

"Lysistrata Jones," a new musical being staged in a church gymnasium, should be very annoying. It takes Aristophanes' bawdy anti-war comedy out of Greece and turns it into "Grease." The sold…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:27PM[SHARE]

Quartet by Jonathan Mandell

Mario Fratti's four short "gay-themed" plays all end with a twist, but the biggest twist is how little any of them say about contemporary gay life.

SOURCE: Backstage at 05:07AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 30, 2011

Broadway on TV: Glee Glitch, Spider-Man on American Idol, Smash. Season Surprises. New York Theater Tweets 74 by Jonathan Mandell

Quiz: What musical has won most theater awards so far this season? How is Daniel Radcliffe being a good sport? John Malkovich will appear on stage in a musical about a serial killer, true or…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 05:11AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 26, 2011

Spider-Man on American Idol: Bono, The Edge, Reeve Carney and Jennifer Lopez's Almost Smooch by Jonathan Mandell

The finale to This season’s finale of American Idol, which crowned 17-year-old Scotty McCreery after tallying an unprecedented 122 million votes, included a number of guest performers,…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:29AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Cirque Du Soleil Zarkana: Spider-Man Nemesis? by Jonathan Mandell

It has 75 performers, 88 crew members, stunts with names like “Wheel of Death,” and even a plot of sorts — and it opens in June.  The difference between “Spider-Ma…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 11:40PM[SHARE]
Monday, May 23, 2011

Designing Broadway Worlds by Jonathan Mandell

Tony Nominee Derek McLane’s approach to set design What you notice first in Derek McLane's studio are not the scale models of his theatrical sets—he has designed almost two dozen…

SOURCE: TDF at 01:38PM[SHARE]

Favorite Theater Lines, Shows, Summer Festivals. Theater=Gossip? Tweets 73 by Jonathan Mandell

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:16PM[SHARE]
Saturday, May 21, 2011

Bono on Spider-Man: We Were Way Out Of Our Depths by Jonathan Mandell

Spider-Man's composer Bono tells Nightline that he and The Edge agree with the negative reviews of Spider-Man. “We really should have known that this is an incredibly difficult thing t…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:50AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 19, 2011

Smash: Spielberg's TV Series about a Broadway Musical by Jonathan Mandell

Steven Spielberg is working on a Broadway musical — sort of. He is the executive producer of “Smash,” a TV series on NBC in the fall about the making of a musical about Mar…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 04:31PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, May 17, 2011

2011 Obie Award Winners by Jonathan Mandell

Below are the winners of the 2011 Obie Awards, given for 56 years by the Village Voice for achievement Off-Broadway Performance F. Murray Abraham, sustained excellence of performance André …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 07:23AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 16, 2011

A Broadway Set Like Street Poetry by Jonathan Mandell

Tony nominee Todd Rosenthal designs “The Mothef**ker With the Hat” More complicated than telling people the name of The Motherf**ker With The Hat is describing the set, especiall…

SOURCE: TDF at 12:57PM[SHARE]

No Hay Mejor Amigo, Ni Peor Enemigo (No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy) by Jonathan Mandell

This 70-minute drama, about a baseball player refusing to sing the national anthem after the death of his brother in Iraq, promises provocation but winds up largely an unsurprising sports …

SOURCE: Backstage at 04:45AM[SHARE]

Broadway's Worst. Spider-Man Makeover. Love and Final Curtain. New York Theater Tweets 72 by Jonathan Mandell

The resumption of previews for “Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark,” with a new Playbill cover (the one at far right) managed not to upstage much else this week in New York theater, si…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:30AM[SHARE]
Friday, May 13, 2011

What Was The Worst Show On Broadway 2010-2011? by Jonathan Mandell

By most accounts, the Broadway 2010-2011 had a high number of quality plays and musicals. But there were, by common agreement, some real clunkers too. There are SO many theater awards for qu…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 02:41AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 12, 2011

The Right Reverend Dupree in Exile by Jonathan Mandell

A minister with a terminal illness presides over a Christmastime gathering of his estranged family in a play with appealing characters but marred by an overly slow pace.

SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AM[SHARE]
Monday, May 9, 2011

Tony Nominations. Tony Snubs. Arthur Laurents RIP. New York Theater Tweets 71 by Jonathan Mandell

As soon as the Tony Award nominations were announced at the top of this week in New York theater, theatergoers hurrahed and griped, sliced and diced. Some were delighted that The Scottsboro …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 03:59PM[SHARE]
Sunday, May 8, 2011

A Minister's Wife Review by Jonathan Mandell

What does a woman want? What does a marriage mean? Is Socialism the answer? Was "My Fair Lady" a fluke? These are the questions raised by "A Minister's Wife," a musical adapted from one of G…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:00PM[SHARE]

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