All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Fire and Air Review: Terrence McNally’s new play about Diaghilev, Nijinsky and the Ballets Russes by Jonathan Mandell

Fire and Air could not have looked more promising –a starry cast performing a new play by Terrence McNally about one of the most celebrated of dance companies, the Ballets Russes. Pic…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:45PM
Sunday, January 14, 2018

Review: John Lithgow: Stories by Heart by Jonathan Mandell

John Lithgow, a Tony winner for his very first Broadway show in 1973,  has decided to devote his 24th to the reading of two old short stories, Ring Lardner’s “Haircut” and “Uncle Fr…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 04:33PM
Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Disco Pigs Review: Enda Walsh’s impulsive, inseparable teenagers 20 years later by Jonathan Mandell

Enda Walsh, best known in the U.S. for the Broadway musical Once, first gained fame as the playwright of a furious burst of a play he wrote in five days about two intense and inseparable te…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:30PM
Sunday, January 7, 2018

Terrorism, climate change, the subjugation of women. Is theatre equipped to confront any of it? by Jonathan Mandell

“If all theatres were demolished tomorrow, would anybody miss them, and for how long?” Several characters said that at different times throughout A Room in India, a theatre piec…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:06PM
Thursday, December 28, 2017

Most memorable moments on NYC stages in 2017 by Jonathan Mandell

There were so many memorable theater-related moments this year that were not part of any scripted show that they threatened to upstage any moments on stage. Even some of the most encouraging…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:18AM
Sunday, December 17, 2017

Farinelli and the King Review: Mark Rylance as A Mad King Soothed by Music by Jonathan Mandell

Four years after their splendid debut on Broadway, Shakespeare’s Globe returns to the beautiful Belasco Theater with a show that in a few glorious ways resembles their spectacular Twelfth …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:36PM
Friday, December 15, 2017

Twelfth Night Review: Fiasco’s is clear, but not exciting. by Jonathan Mandell

Fiasco Theater offers a Twelfth Night for theatergoers who’ve never seen Twelfth Night or Fiasco Theater before.  For almost a decade, the ensemble company has been praised for its bare-b…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:42AM
Friday, December 8, 2017

Review: Meteor Shower gives off only a few sparks by Jonathan Mandell

Reverting to his early-career wackiness,  Steve Martin enlists four phenomenal performers, including Amy Schumer making her Broadway debut, for a joke-filled, overlong, trickster comedy ske…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:18AM
Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Review: Uma Thurman debuts in Beau Willimon’s The Parisian Woman set in DC by Jonathan Mandell

Uma Thurman and Josh Lucas neither kill a dog nor bed an FBI agent in The Parisian Woman, a tame, tidy, talky and only superficially timely play about a D.C. power couple engaged in politica…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:04PM
Wednesday, November 22, 2017

Holiday shows 2017 in New York City by Jonathan Mandell

The holiday show tradition in New York ranges way beyond Radio City Music Hall and family entertainment, to include shows that are offbeat and others that are decidedly not for children. Let…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:36AM
Wednesday, November 15, 2017

Review: Latin History for Morons on Broadway: John Leguizamo searches for heroes by Jonathan Mandell

The ushers are wearing “Ghetto Scholar” sweatshirts in Studio 54,  where for his sixth solo show John Leguizamo stands in front of a blackboard and lectures on the history, politics, cu…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:42PM
Thursday, November 9, 2017

The Band’s Visit on Broadway: Egyptians and Israelis Making Sad, Funny, Beautiful Music by Jonathan Mandell

What happens when a lovely, low-key musical based on an offbeat Israeli film moves from Off-Broadway to a Broadway theater five times its size? You get the same widely acclaimed show – wit…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:12PM
Monday, October 30, 2017

Illyria Review: a Scrappy Joe Papp and the Public Theater’s Birth Pains by Jonathan Mandell

Before Hamilton, A Chorus Line, Hair, before Joseph Papp built the Public Theater into an institution, he was faced with a fight for survival of his newfound free Shakespeare in Central Park…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:05PM
Monday, October 23, 2017

Jesus Hopped The A Train Review: Killers Finding God by Jonathan Mandell

Two killers in adjoining prison cages face off about God in this killer revival of one of the earliest plays by Stephen Adly Guirgis, the streetwise New York playwright of such acclaimed rec…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:06PM
Thursday, October 19, 2017

Torch Song Review: Michael Urie in Harvey Fierstein’s Groundbreaking Gay Play by Jonathan Mandell

“It’s crazy”, says Michael Urie as Arnold, that “after all these years I’m still trying to justify my life.” Arnold means his life as a gay man, and though he is talking …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:04PM
Monday, October 16, 2017

The Siege Review: Bethlehem Standoff from the Palestinian Point of View by Jonathan Mandell

The Siege, a play dramatizing the 2002 siege by armed Palestinians of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, is in several ways the exact opposite of Oslo, the last drama about the Palesti…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:33AM
Tuesday, September 26, 2017

The Treasurer review: a family’s final drama stars Deanna Dunagan and Peter Friedman by Jonathan Mandell

Max Posner’s play is called The Treasurer because a grown man is forced to take responsibility for the finances of his aged, widowed mother. But the title also suggests that he will take s…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:12PM
Monday, September 25, 2017

A Clockwork Orange Review: Off-Broadway homoerotic dance drama about crime and punishment by Jonathan Mandell

Alex, the sadistic, Beethoven-loving juvenile delinquent at the center of Anthony Burgess’ 1962 dystopian novel and Stanley Kubrick’s 1971 film, has returned, this time Off-Broadway, as …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:42PM
Friday, September 22, 2017

KPOP Review: a wildly entertaining trip inside a K-Pop Music Factory by Jonathan Mandell

KPOP, the wildly (and loudly) entertaining immersive theater piece offering the audience a tour of a Korean pop music factory, begins and ends with 15-minute concerts by the Korean boy group…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:12PM
Saturday, August 26, 2017

Review: Prince of Broadway, a highlights reel of a show by Jonathan Mandell

In his new memoir Sense of Occasion, Hal Prince explains that Prince of Broadway, the new Broadway revue celebrating and sampling Prince’s extraordinary 70-year career in the theater, “w…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:48PM
Thursday, August 10, 2017

The Terms of My Surrender Review: Michael Moore’s Broadway Debut, not just a Trump takedown by Jonathan Mandell

“The only hope until we kick him out of office is to discombobulate him,” Michael Moore says near the beginning of his playful, pointed and partisan one-man show, as he stands in front o…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:42PM
Wednesday, June 7, 2017

The 2017 Tony Awards – here’s who SHOULD win on Sunday night by Jonathan Mandell

Here are my preferences – not predictions – for the 2017 Tony Awards, in keeping with a tradition I’ve been maintaining for a decade. I am a critic, not a seer or a bookie. We’ll lea…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:06PM

Broadway newcomers from the Theatre World Awards sum up the season (video) by Jonathan Mandell

Current and past winners of the Theatre World Awards, given to exceptional performers making their Broadway or New York stage debuts, offer their take on the season just past, sometimes in a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:48AM
Saturday, May 20, 2017

Venus Review: Suzan-Lori Parks Revival about African Woman as Freak Show Wonder by Jonathan Mandell

Zainab Jah, who made an impressive Broadway debut as a sex slave turned soldier in Eclipsed, is back on a New York stage with another vivid portrayal of an exploited but strong African woman…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:48AM
Saturday, May 13, 2017

Happy Days Review: Dianne Wiest, Up To Her Neck in Beckett classic by Jonathan Mandell

“Another happy day,” Dianne Wiest exclaims as Winnie in Samuel Beckett’s bleak, comic and compassionate play, written decades before Groundhog Day, but similarly focused on somebody wh…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:33PM
Thursday, April 27, 2017

A Dolls House, Part 2 Review: Laurie Metcalf as Nora returns 15 years later by Jonathan Mandell

Laurie Metcalf is the fifteenth actress since 1889 to portray Nora Helmer on Broadway, the character in Henrik Ibsen’s play A Doll’s House who slams the door on her husband and three chi…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:31PM
Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Six Degrees of Separation Review: Conning Rich Parents in the ’80s by Jonathan Mandell

Near the end of Six Degrees of Separation, Allison Janney, portraying the first rich  white victim of a young black con man, tells her husband that she doesn’t want to turn the experience…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:31PM
Monday, April 24, 2017

Review: Broadway’s Anastasia turns Russia’s Revolution into a Fairytale Monarchist Musical by Jonathan Mandell

Pity Terrence McNally, Tony-winning playwright, charged with fashioning the book of a Broadway musical out of a 1997 cartoon, which turned the Russian Revolution into a fairytale, grinding a…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:02PM
Wednesday, April 5, 2017

Review of Present Laughter. Kevin Kline’s back but Coward’s comedy feels a bit musty by Jonathan Mandell

After a decade’s absence from Broadway, Kevin Kline returns as the aging matinee idol in Present Laughter.  Kline, the swashbuckler of Pirates of Penzance and the hunk of On The Twentieth…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:48PM
Sunday, April 2, 2017

The Play That Goes Wrong Review: Murder most silly by Jonathan Mandell

Before the play-within-the-play begins, its director apologizes for “the box office mix-up,” expressing hope that “the 617 of you affected will enjoy our little murder mystery just as …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:48PM
Thursday, March 23, 2017

Miss Saigon Review: back on Broadway, with helicopter by Jonathan Mandell

The first Broadway revival of Miss Saigon is being marketed as the return of a classic. But, if the show has become an undeniable fan favorite, the production’s impressive visual spectacle…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 07:54PM

All that Chat

2023-2024 BROADWAY SEASON
May 30, 2023: Grey House - Lyceum Theatre
Jun 26, 2023: Just For Us - Hudson Theatre
Jul 24, 2023: The Cottage - Hayes Theater
Nov 16, 2023: Spamalot - St. James Theatre
Dec 18, 2023: Appropriate - Hayes Theater
Mar 07, 2024: Doubt - Todd Haimes Theatre
Apr 14, 2024: Lempicka - Longacre Theatre
Apr 17, 2024: The Wiz - Marquis Theatre
Apr 18, 2024: Suffs - Music Box Theatre
Apr 25, 2024: Mother Play - Hayes Theater
Jun 10, 2024: The Drama Desk Awards