All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Sunday, June 20, 2021

The Alcestiad. Thornton Wilder’s flop resurrected on Roosevelt Island by Jonathan Mandell

The Magis Theater Company’s staging of “The Alcestiad” beneath the dramatic sky on Roosevelt Island is a spectacular resurrection in several ways. The play by Thornton Wilder features …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:44PM
Saturday, June 19, 2021

Intar’s MicroTEATRO Festival. Turning Hell’s Kitchen Into a Reimagined Theater Wonderland by Jonathan Mandell

“This hood isn’t anything like how it used to be,” Officer Garcia is telling me and a teenage girl named Sam, as I watch the two of them play basketball in the gym of the Police Athlet…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:25PM
Friday, June 18, 2021

Juneteenth 2021: A New Federal Holiday, and a Day of Theater and Music by Jonathan Mandell

President Joe Biden signed into a law yesterday a bill establishing Juneteenth as a federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, and the online celebrations dur…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:15AM
Thursday, June 17, 2021

Annual Summer Theater Festivals in New York City 2021 by Jonathan Mandell

Outdoor theater is exploding this summer, with the continuation of New York State’s NYPopsUp and New York City’s Open Culture street performances, with the opening of Little Island park …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:46PM
Wednesday, June 16, 2021

It’s Only A Play review. Terrence McNally’s bitchy semi-updated Broadway backstage comedy by Jonathan Mandell

This George Street Playhouse production of Terrence McNally’s 35-year-old bitchy, witty backstage comedy about the opening night party of a Broadway flop comes almost seven years after its…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:20AM
Tuesday, June 15, 2021

Book Review: In The Heights Finding Home by Jonathan Mandell

After working for some 16 hours on the hottest day of the year singing and dancing  in take after take on the uneven concrete floor of a courtyard between two old brick apartment buildings…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:36AM
Monday, June 14, 2021

The @Lin_Manuel Miranda News Service: New Movie, New Bookstore, New Teaser. Also: Pulitzers. The Boss. by Jonathan Mandell

It’s been three whole years since Lin-Manuel Miranda completely dominated the week’s news – and now he’s back doing it again (almost) with the opening simultaneously of the “In The…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:57AM
Sunday, June 13, 2021

Visiting The Drama Book Shop by Jonathan Mandell

I had one question above all others when I visited the reopened Drama Book Shop over the weekend in its new location at 266 West 39th Street, a very long 28 months after a rent hike chased …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:30PM
Saturday, June 12, 2021

In The Heights Movie: 10 Changes from the Broadway Musical by Jonathan Mandell

Thirteen years after Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical about the Latino community of Washington Heights opened on Broadway, “In The Heights” is now an exuberant, sentimental movie musical d…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:49PM
Friday, June 11, 2021

Katori Hall’s The Hot Wing King wins Pulitzer Prize for Drama by Jonathan Mandell

The Hot Wing King by Katori Hall wins the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Finalists: “Circle Jerk” by Michael Breslin and Patrick Foley — exclusively digital theater! — and “Stew” by Z…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:20PM
Thursday, June 10, 2021

Theater Blog Roundup: Anticipation, and Celebration by Jonathan Mandell

Theater bloggers have “reasons to celebrate,” as Jan Simpson put it in her most recent post in Broadway & Me, which she wrote before the dozens of announcements over the past month s…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:05AM
Wednesday, June 9, 2021

“Broadway you’re finally coming back”: Watch Lin-Manuel Miranda lead quick-hit homage by Jonathan Mandell

Watch the six minute video below of Lin-Manuel Miranda celebrating the return of Broadway in September, managing quick-hit homages to some dozen Broadway musicals, from “Six” to “Hamil…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:54AM
Tuesday, June 8, 2021

What If If Only. Caryl Churchill’s ghostly new play, via NAATCO by Jonathan Mandell

What I can say about “What If If Only?” In short: It’s a new play by Caryl Churchill, 82, who some consider the world’s greatest living playwright, and among the most elusive, whose …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:44PM
Monday, June 7, 2021

4 new Broadway openings: Lehman Trilogy, Skeleton Crew, Paradise Square, How I Learned to Drive. #OffBroadway is open NOW. #Stageworthy News by Jonathan Mandell

The opening date of four new Broadway productions were announced this week, bringing the number to 32. See details in my Broadway 2021-2021 Season Preview Guide, organized chronologically by…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:26AM

chekhovOS /an experimental game Review: The Cherry Orchard as a Virtual Video Game (but not really) by Jonathan Mandell

The day before I was scheduled to view “chekhovOS” (OS as in operating system) — featuring  a literally game cast including Mikhail Baryshnikov as Anton Chekhov,  as well as his da…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:55AM
Sunday, June 6, 2021

Glimpse. Off Broadway Reopens in Prospect Park by Jonathan Mandell

Performers from India and Iran, Colombia and Cuba, Beirut and Johannesburg told tales, played music and danced on Saturday afternoon in Prospect Park,  in a grassy sun-baked field called t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:48PM
Saturday, June 5, 2021

25 New Theater Books for Summer Reading 2021 by Jonathan Mandell

Below are recently published theater books, or those scheduled to be published this summer, in four categories:Scripts and Play AnthologiesBiographies and MemoirsTheater History, Criticism a…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:15AM
Friday, June 4, 2021

Worlds Fair Inn Review. Off-Broadway reopens! by Jonathan Mandell

I was grateful to be one of the 24 people inside the below-ground Axis Theater during the new play “Worlds Fair Inn.” There were 16 members of the audience (masked and socially distanced…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:00PM
Thursday, June 3, 2021

Oslo Review: How Ruth Wilson and Andrew Scott Solved The Middle East, or 4 Ways The Play Worked Better by Jonathan Mandell

“Oslo” tells the extraordinary true story of the Norwegian couple who instigated and pushed along the secret negotiations that resulted in the 1993 Oslo Peace Accords between Israel and …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:58PM
Wednesday, June 2, 2021

#Stageworthy News of the Week: Celebrating! Waiting. Watching! by Jonathan Mandell

June IS busting out all over, but in new ways. For the finale of the 31st annual Broadway Bares, Broadway performers danced maskless atop the TKTS red steps in the theater district — which…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:24AM
Tuesday, June 1, 2021

June 2021 Theater Openings. Meryl Streep AND The Meatpacking District, AND Every Musical on the West End (Online!) by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a selective list of theater that is opening in the month of June* — day-by-day for the first week then a glorious taste of what’s in store for the rest of the month…a schedul…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:08AM
Monday, May 31, 2021

Book Review: Smile: The Story of a Face by Sarah Ruhl by Jonathan Mandell

In “Smile: The Story of a Face” (Simon and Schuster, 256 pages), Sarah Ruhl recounts how, at the same time that her first play was about to open on Broadway, and she was about to give bi…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:42AM

Memorial Day 2021: Remembering Those Who Died from War, COVID-19, Racism by Jonathan Mandell

Memorial Day, which became an official national holiday in 1971, was created to honor Americans who died in military service, some 1.1. million people since the nation’s founding. But it f…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:17AM
Sunday, May 30, 2021

The Broadway is Coming Back Theater Quiz, for May 2021 by Jonathan Mandell

Lots of exciting news in May about reopening, but how well were you paying attention to the details? Test yourself by answering these 11 questions about the theater news, views and reviews o…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:20AM
Saturday, May 29, 2021

In The Heights Movie Sneak Peek: Production Pics, plus cast list by Jonathan Mandell

Thirteen years after Lin-Manuel Miranda’s first, breakthrough musical, “In The Heights,” opened on Broadway, a movie version is coming to theaters and HBO Max on Friday, June 11th. Bel…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:42PM
Friday, May 28, 2021

The Niceties Review: Liberal vs. Left, Black vs. White. Timely vs. Tiresome? by Jonathan Mandell

What do we now make of the incendiary confrontation between a liberal white middle-aged professor and her radical black student in Eleanor Burgess’s ironically titled “The Niceties,” n…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:23PM
Thursday, May 27, 2021

Herding Cats Review: Explosion of Loneliness On Stage and Online by Jonathan Mandell

“I literally exploded,” Justine recounts to her roommate Michael, the first line in “Herding Cats.” And Lucinda Coxon’s play does wind up feeling like an explosion – surely meant…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:10PM
Wednesday, May 26, 2021

Cyberpuppetry: I Am The Bear and Vancouver. Puppetry: Voyeur. Both: Dixon Place. by Jonathan Mandell

In “I Am The Bear,” Jerrell L. Henderson, wearing a t-shirt that says “I Am Black History,” tells the story of how he was walking to work when he was stopped by a police car because …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:03PM
Tuesday, May 25, 2021

George Floyd Memorial Day by Jonathan Mandell

Memorial Day fell on on May 25 in 2020 and I posted: Memorial Day 2020: Remembering Those Who Died of COVID-19. But by the end of the day, a dog walker named Amy Cooper had called the police…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:28AM
Monday, May 24, 2021

Hadestown, Girl From The North Country Reopening. Summer Life After Lockdown! #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

On Bob Dylan’s 80th birthday today, the producers of the Dylan musical “Girl From The North Country” announced its reopening on October 13, more than 19 months after it was the last Br…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:07AM
Sunday, May 23, 2021

May 2021 Theater Openings, Final Week: Broadway Barks, the Platt Brothers, Andrew Lloyd Webber through the years. by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a day-by-day selection of theater* that is opening between May 23 and May 31, 2021 — from Broadway Barks to the National Memorial Concert, and much inbetween, such as Ben Platt a…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:06PM