5,790 stories by "Jonathan Mandell"
How well were you paying attention to New York theater in the month of February? Answer these ten questions to find out, plus an extra question to match the extra day because it's a Leap Yea…
Below is a calendar of theater opening* in March, including five shows opening on Broadway, two of them new musical adaptations of popular novels. Jeremy Strong returns to Broadway after …
The Adventures of Curious Ganz I could tell you about the fascinating life of Joachim Ganz, who was the first Jew to settle in the first English colony in America in the late 1500s. He was a…
"You might have seen me in the official revival of "1776" playing Edward Rutledge, aka the villain," Sara Porkalob begins. And indeed we did " although many New York theatergoers might remem…
With "The Ally," playwright Itamar Moses clarifies with laser precision the dilemma facing liberal American Jews largely because of Israel. But the play takes wider aim as well, exploring so…
It's been seven years since Cynthia Nixon has appeared on a New York stage (when she won a Tony for "The Little Foxes"), but that's not what Jordan Seavey's new play is about, despite the co…
There will be 18 shows opening on Broadway in March and April, starting next week! Sure, that might feel overwhelming. But in his article on the "Crazily Crowded Broadway Spring Season" M…
In "The Hunt," Tobias Menzies portrays a preschool teacher whose community turns against him after a false accusation by one of his five-year-old students.  The play is an English-l…
I didn't know what a bunny hug is, nor its place in musical theater history, and I couldn't precisely describe a surrey, before I browsed Thomas S. Hischak's "Broadway Decoded: Musical Theat…
Puppets are in the spotlight this weekend and over the next couple of weeks, most prominently at the third annual Puppetopia Festival: Puppetopia 2024 HERE Arts Center, February 27 to March …
"Jelly's Last Jam" offers a starry showcase of exquisite blues singing, lively jazz playing and energetic tap dancing to tell the fascinating story of an important figure in the history of A…
Unlike past years, none of the ten best picture Oscar nominees in 2024  were adapted from a play or musical. But could any of them be adapted into one?  Answering this question,…
The first meeting between Kenyatta and Nina is tense, as it surely would be for any father and daughter who have not seen each other for many years. But their encounter in this revival of Do…
February is always a month for love, presidents, and Oscar anticipation: What Broadway says about love on Valentine's Day 2024(See also a video below of Jordan Fisher and Lola Tung as the ne…
It did seem like a clever idea, for at least five seconds:Â Â Use the Broadway musical "Six" " the Broadway rock musical in which the six wives of Henry VIII compete to determine whom he…
Which of the ten movies nominated this year for the Best Picture Oscar would make the best play? The worst play? The best musical? Take the poll below. With so many movies, even blockbusters…
Now that women's bodies have become a political and legal battleground, it seems a good time to revisit Nathaniel Hawthorne's Puritan tale of the shunned and shamed Hester Prynne. Reworked f…
Santino Fontana, Sarah Miles, and Julie Halston are each familiar to both theater lovers and filmgoers, so it feels fitting that they would be performing together in one of the thirty-four e…
The first play in New York written by Tina Howe, which was entitled The Nest, "must be on any reasonable short list of the worst plays I have ever seen," New York Times critic Clive Barnes w…
Shows currently on Broadway are full of love and kisses " some sweet, sexy, some with a decidedly dark edge " as these scenes and shots attest: From & Juliet: Francois: I just proposed t…
It's not exactly inaccurate to describe "Between Two Knees" as a play about American Indian history told through the experience of one indigenous family over several generations, from the ma…
Off Broadway Week begins today All five shows that I reviewed this past week (see below) could be described as avant-garde theater.  But what does avant-garde even mean in 2024? It's a…
A commercial for the forthcoming movie musical "Wicked" during the Super Bowl came closest to Broadway fare, but it isn't a complete stretch to offer a few other moments that were of interes…
Tickets are on sale for Off-Broadway Week, where you can buy two tickets for the price of one for 31 different Off-Broadway productions, for performances from February 12 to March 3. Click h…
After Russia invades her native Ukraine, Olga Ivanovna, 82 years old,  calls Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to strategize; admonishes both Chancellor Olaf Scholz of German…
