5,912 stories by "JONATHAN MANDELL"
New York theater in 2015 has been a year of hope and fear; of Spring Awakening and Misery; a year with three different new plays about British royalty on Broadway, and the year when a musica…
A new musical by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, the revival/reimagining of a groundbreaking African-American musical from 1921, the sixth Broadway revivals of dramas by both Arthur Miller a…
The villagers in a Russian shtetl toast "To Life" in "The Golden Bride," too, but they're singing it operetta style in Yiddish, with English and Russian super titles, in a musical that preda…
Colin Quinn, former Weekend Update anchor for Saturday Night Live, has brought back "The New York Story" to the Cherry Lane Theater, where it ran this summer. This strikes me as terri…
There IS time left to do holiday shopping for theater lovers. There are also plenty of shows to see this holiday week — not just holiday shows, although plenty of those. With the…
Tevye is back on Broadway, this time with Danny Burstein as the Russian Jewish milkman who tries to uphold tradition. "Fiddler on the Roof" has become a tradition in its own right. The produ…
On the same weekend that 195 nations reached an unprecedented agreement to take action on climate change, a dozen or so theatergoers were dancing the Climate Change Macarena. Guided b…
The plot is by Shakespeare cleverly transposed to Swinging London of 1964; the original, terrifically tuneful songs in the style of the early Beatles are by Green Day's Billie Joe Arm…
Women dominated New York stages this year, giving the majority of the most memorable performances. My ten favorite individual performers are listed alphabetically, but let's begin with tw…
Near the end of The Color Purple, Cynthia Erivo, as Celie, sings "I don't need you to love me….I'm beautiful, yes I'm beautiful, and I'm here" " which provokes the audience to rise up, tea…
Welcome to my third annual Worst Broadway Show poll. I chose the ten nominees. Feel free to disagree by 1. not voting for a show on the list that you liked, and 2. adding your choice for wor…
Near the beginning of "Marjorie Prime," Jordan Harrison's insightful and only slightly science fiction play, Walter is reminding his wife about the poodle they had –"Not the fussy kind…
This has been an unusual year in theater in several ways. George Takei represents a couple of those ways: Diversity Is the current diversity on Broadway a blip, an exception, or do you fores…
Jackie Hoffman is the only person she knows who's never until now performed in a production of the musical comedy "Once Upon A Mattress," the comic retelling of the fairy tale The Princess a…
There is a push to make the day after Christmas a new event called “Show Day,” in the way that the day after Thanksgiving is “Black Friday” — except instead of …
“Hamilton” made the top or near the top of every critics' top 10 theater list so far for shows that opened in New York in 2015, with the exception of Charles Isherwood, who delib…
Lazarus, the hottest ticket right now in New York, is a startling new musical, featuring 18 songs written by David Bowie (four of them new), a production directed by auteur-du-jour Ivo van H…
Lazarus, the hottest ticket right now in New York, is a startling new musical, featuring 18 songs written by David Bowie (four of them new), a production directed by auteur-du-jour Ivo van H…
Jennifer Hudson, Cynthia Erivo  and Danielle Brooks (from Orange is the New Black) make their Broadway debuts in the first Broadway revival of The Color Purple, based on the Pulitzer-winn…
Near the end of La MaMa's graphic production of "Pylade," the barely-clad princess Electra was grappling with the naked prince Pylade, who minutes earlier had been on the floor doing to a sm…
My list of ten favorite shows on New York stages in 2015 tilt towards Broadway musicals " five out of “ten”  " which is in great contrast to my top ten lists last year and …
“Talk less. Smile more.” #Force4Ham pic.twitter.com/Uh6RlqDVJu " Jonathan Mandell (@NewYorkTheater) December 1, 2015 What do you do on your spare time if you have a big Broadway …
In his first original musical on Broadway in a decade, Andrew Lloyd Webber has chosen to adapt a movie with a plot that could hardly be sillier, and supplies a new score that could hardly be…
In his first original musical on Broadway in a decade, Andrew Lloyd Webber has chosen to adapt a movie with a plot that could hardly be sillier, and supplies a new score that could hardly be…
David Mamet's China Doll involves two dramas. There's the one on stage starring Al Pacino as an old billionaire in something of a cynical primer on wealth and political ambition. Then there'…
