All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Thursday, April 4, 2019

King Lear Starring Glenda Jackson: Review, Pics by Jonathan Mandell

As King Lear, Glenda Jackson enters with a casual swagger, giving off a scent of power that’s lasted a lifetime.  But Lear is portrayed by an 82-year-old woman, lean and light and, at 5�…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:15PM

Lucille Lortel Award Nominations 2019 Off-Broadway: Carmen Jones, Rags Parkland, Mlima’s Tale Lead by Jonathan Mandell

The nominations for 34th Annual Lucille Lortel Awards are: Outstanding Play Mlima’s Tale Produced by The Public Theater Written by Lynn Nottage Pass Over Produced by Lincoln Center Theater…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:08AM
Wednesday, April 3, 2019

Puppetry’s Eerie Power and Appeal in Polaire Plexus’s Ashes and on Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

Ashe is a play based on the true story of a pyromaniac who terrorized a Norwegian town by torching homes for a month until he was unmasked as the son of the fire chief. Itis a haunting work …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:40PM
Tuesday, April 2, 2019

Broadway Countdown: 6 plays, 4 musicals. 4 Movie Musicals. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

The first of the April Avalanche on Broadway begins Thursday with the opening of King Lear, starring Glenda Jackson, and ends on April 25 (the Tony eligibility cut-off date) with Beetlejuice…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:12PM
Monday, April 1, 2019

April 2019 New York Theater Openings by Jonathan Mandell

The ten shows opening on Broadway in April include six plays and four musicals. Several are familiar titles presented in unfamiliar ways: Glenda Jackson as King Lear; an avant-garde, diverse…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:06AM
Sunday, March 31, 2019

William Sheepspeare. A Theater Book for Two Year Olds Full of Sheep Puns. by Jonathan Mandell

My childhood friend Wendy has always had two particular gifts – or rather, one gift and one affliction. She understands every word of any Shakespeare play, however or wherever it is perfor…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:41PM

Dad in a Box Review: A comedienne trying to be funny while her father is dying by Jonathan Mandell

On a break from an improv class, Kim Katzberg gets a phone message from her father and calls him back to learn that he has pancreatic cancer and is dying. “I feel so sad AND excited,” sh…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:05AM
Saturday, March 30, 2019

New York Theater Quiz March 2019 by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to the New York theater news and reviews in March? Answer these dozen questions and find out.  

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:27AM
Friday, March 29, 2019

Andy Warhol from A To Broadway: That Time Warhol Produced a Broadway Musical by Jonathan Mandell

Andy Warhol was a Broadway producer – the lead producer of a musical that opened at Broadway’s Little Theater (now called the Hayes) in 1975. It’s a mind-boggling story that, like many…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:18AM
Thursday, March 28, 2019

Chimpanzee Review: Delight and Despair and Transcendence, In The Hands Of Humans by Jonathan Mandell

You need not have read Darwin or watched any of the Planet of the Apes movies to suspect that chimpanzees come closest to humans in the animal kingdom. Scientists have discovered over the pa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:13PM
Wednesday, March 27, 2019

Ain’t No Mo Review: All Black Americans Are Leaving on A Jet Plane, and They Won’t be Back Again by Jonathan Mandell

“Welcome to African-American Airlines, where if you broke & black, we got yo back” – those are the first two messages painted on the wall as we walk up the staircase in the Public …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:38PM

Today is #WorldTheatreDay 2019. How will you be celebrating? by Jonathan Mandell

  Today is World Theatre Day. Created in 1961,it  is celebrated annually on March 27. How will you be celebrating? Below, ten facts about theater, and this year’s World Theatre Day messa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:38AM
Tuesday, March 26, 2019

Happy Birthday Tennessee Williams: “Everybody is nothing until you love them.” by Jonathan Mandell

“Time is the longest distance between two places.” — Tennessee Williams, The Glass Menagerie Tennessee Williams was born on March 26, 1911, and died in 1983. Barely a season goes by wh…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:54PM
Monday, March 25, 2019

Black Breakthroughs on Stage and Behind the Scenes. Sutton Foster Joins Hugh Jackman. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Ephraim Sykes in Ain’t Too Proud, Corbin Bleu in Kiss Me Kate, Daveed Diggs in White Noise: These are some of the black breakout stars in shows that opened last week on Broadway or Off Bro…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:37AM
Sunday, March 24, 2019

Fosse Verdon on FX: Preview, 18 photographs, trailer by Jonathan Mandell

In “Fosse Verdon,” an eight-part series that begins on April 9th on FX, current Broadway royalty and a cast of Broadway regulars (see below) tell the story of a king and queen of Broadwa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:11PM
Saturday, March 23, 2019

Nantucket Sleigh Ride Review: Strangling Disney And Other Imagined Memories by John Guare by Jonathan Mandell

Nantucket Sleigh Ride is an old whaling term, as one of the characters explains in John Guare’s crafty new play. “Sailors would harpoon a whale. The whale would drag the sailors on a fra…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:17PM
Friday, March 22, 2019

Kiss Me Kate Review on Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

The most exciting moment in this fourth Broadway production of Cole Porter’s backstage musical riffing on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew comes at the top of Act II, when the cast …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 05:02PM

Kiss Me Kate on Broadway: Review and Pics by Jonathan Mandell

  The most exciting moment in this fourth Broadway production of Cole Porter’s backstage musical riffing on Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew comes at the top of Act II, when the ca…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:29PM

Happy Birthday Stephen Sondheim and Andrew Lloyd Webber! by Jonathan Mandell

Today Stephen Sondheim turns 89 and Andrew Lloyd Webber turns 71.  Sondheim made his Broadway debut at the age of 26 in 1956 , Lloyd Webber at 23 in 1971, and, along with John Kander (who t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:02AM
Thursday, March 21, 2019

Broadway Review: Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations by Jonathan Mandell

In the six decades since The Temptations began, as we’re told near the end of the latest Broadway jukebox musical “Ain’t Too Proud,”  24 men have performed at one time or another as…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:14PM
Wednesday, March 20, 2019

White Noise Review: Daveed Diggs as voluntary slave in Suzan-Lori Parks illuminating new play by Jonathan Mandell

Leo (Daveed Diggs) makes an outrageous request of his best friend Ralph (Thomas Sadoski) in Suzan-Lori Parks’ bizarre, disturbing and in some ways brilliant new play, White Noise, at the P…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:00PM

White Noise Review, Pics: Daveed Diggs as Slave by Jonathan Mandell

Leo (Daveed Diggs) makes an outrageous request of his best friend Ralph (Thomas Sadoski) in Suzan-Lori Parks’ bizarre, disturbing and in some ways brilliant new play, “White Noise,” at…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:25PM

Raja Feather Kelly, Off Broadway’s Busiest Choreographer by Jonathan Mandell

Raja Feather Kelly is one of the busiest choreographers Off-Broadway, with a half dozen shows currently or soon to be on stage. All but one of them are straight plays. As I detail in my prof…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:26AM
Monday, March 18, 2019

The Final 12 Broadway Shows of the Season, and How To Get Them Cheap(er). #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

A dozen shows will be opening on Broadway over the next six weeks, ending the 2018-2019 season. Two-thirds of them have already announced their policies for official discounted tickets — r…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:56PM
Sunday, March 17, 2019

The Mother Review: Isabelle Huppert As a Depressed Woman in a Disorienting Play by Jonathan Mandell

Near the end of “The Mother,” her son strangles the title character to death. But not really. The mother (Isabelle Huppert) is imagining it, or dreaming it. There is a change of lighting…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:57AM
Saturday, March 16, 2019

Holy Day Review: A Repellent Gothic Tale of Australia by Jonathan Mandell

By the end of “Holy Day,” two hours without intermission or let-up of gothic horror set in 19th century Australia, the audience has been made witness to a missing child, an abduction, bo…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:59PM
Friday, March 15, 2019

Beware the Ides of March through the Ages by Jonathan Mandell

On the Ides of March, exactly 2,063 years ago, Julius Caesar was smug, at least according to Shakespeare. “The ides of March are come,” he tells a soothsayer in Act III. “Ay, Caesar,�…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:36PM
Thursday, March 14, 2019

Actually, We’re F**ked Review: A Pretend Issue Play by Roseanne, Cosby Show Creator/Writer by Jonathan Mandell

Playwright Matt Williams, who is credited with creating, producing and/or writing such once-popular TV series as Home Improvement, The Cosby Show, and Roseanne (tells us in the program that …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:43PM
Wednesday, March 13, 2019

Hugh Jackman to star in 4th Music Man on Broadway. (Watch the 1st, Robert Preston!) by Jonathan Mandell

Hugh Jackman will star as Harold Hill in “The Music Man.” Directed by Jerry Zaks, with choreography by Warren Carlyle, the fourth Broadway production of Meredith Wilson’s musical about…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:48AM
Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Fleabag on Stage Review: Oversexed and Grieving, plus the Perils of Binge-Watching by Jonathan Mandell

“I’m not obsessed with sex; I just can’t stop thinking about it,” says Phoebe Waller-Bridge in “Fleabag” — both the “Fleabag” that’s a funny and sad BBC TV series, curren…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:48PM

Teens Take Over Broadway (but is it real?). A Britney Spears Broadway musical? Hamilton Reconsidered. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

“I’m not a girl, not yet a woman…I’m in between,” Britney Spears sang some two decades ago, and it could almost be the new anthem (gender-adjusted) for Broadway. The opening of Be …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:23PM

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