All stories by JONATHAN MANDELL on BroadwayStars

Friday, February 14, 2025

On Valentine’s Day 2025, What Broadway Says About Love by Jonathan Mandell

Nightly on Broadway nowadays, one title character professes her love to the other title character: “My bounty is as boundless as the sea, My love as deep; the more I give to thee, The more…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:09AM
Thursday, February 13, 2025

Redwood Broadway Review. Idina Menzel hugs an IMAX of a tree by Jonathan Mandell

Idina Menzel returns to Broadway as Jesse, a New York gallery owner who, out of grief for the death of her son, leaves her wife and her life, drives cross country, and winds up spending seve…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:58PM
Monday, February 10, 2025

Poll: Which 2025 Best Picture Oscar Nominee Would Work Best and Worst on Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

We already know that “Wicked” would make a good Broadway musical because it IS one. But what about the other nine movies nominated this year for the Best Picture Oscar? Which would make …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:33PM

Who goes to Broadway. The Arts, Black History Under Attack. Denzel: Othello is just a play. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

The average Broadway theatergoer is a 42-year-old white woman from out of town whose family income exceeds $275,000. That’s one way to summarize The Demographics of the Broadway Audience …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:12PM
Sunday, February 9, 2025

Super Bowl LIX: 5 Celebrity Commercials by Jonathan Mandell

My favorite celebrity commercial during the 2025 Super Bowl weren’t selling a product, but promoting an ideal. The others were hawking liquor and condiments.

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:54PM
Saturday, February 8, 2025

Two Centuries of Black Actors on the New York Stage by Jonathan Mandell

When Denzel Washington starts performing as Othello later this month on Broadway, he’ll be following by exactly two centuries the debut portrayal of “the Moor of Venice” by Ira Aldridg…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:26PM
Friday, February 7, 2025

BroadwayCon 2025 Day 1 Scenes and Scents by Jonathan Mandell

Samantha Sehter is the brains – or the nose? – behind “Scents of the Stage,” a brand new company that makes candles that smell like specific Broadway shows – or more precisely, cre…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:03PM
Thursday, February 6, 2025

Still Review. Love vs. Politics by Jonathan Mandell

They meet for drinks after an absence of thirty years, still loving one another, and still sharing a secret.  “Still,” starring Melissa Gilbert (from Little House on the Prairie) and M…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:24PM
Wednesday, February 5, 2025

Mrs. Loman Review. Willy’s Widow Awakens by Jonathan Mandell

  In “Mrs. Loman,” a misfire of a play that attempts a sequel to Arthur Miller’s “Death of A Salesman,”  Willy Loman’s widow Linda experiences a somewhat anachronistic awakeni…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:04PM

Off Broadway Week 2025: 2 for 1 Tickets by Jonathan Mandell

Tickets are on sale for Off-Broadway Week, where you can buy two tickets for the price of one for 29 Off-Broadway productions (18 of them newly offered), for performances from February 17 th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:53AM
Tuesday, February 4, 2025

The Antiquities Review. Extinct humans on display by Jonathan Mandell

In “The Antiquities,” playwright Jordan Harrison offers a dozen stories about the downside of technology through the ages, each from a distinctive year, from 1816 to 2240. If the play ca…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:08PM
Monday, February 3, 2025

Obies and Grammys. Lady Gaga kicked out of her government job. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

“Yes, the darkness is loud, but the light is brighter y’all,” Brandon Victor Dixon shouted while accepting the Grammy for Best Musical Theater album for “Hells Kitchen,” That’s s…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:50AM
Sunday, February 2, 2025

Hells Kitchen Wins Best Musical Theater Grammy 2025 by Jonathan Mandell

Hells Kitchen has won the 2025 best musical theater album at the 67th annual Grammy Awards, beating out five other nominees, all current or recent Broadway shows (the third consecutive year …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:16PM
Saturday, February 1, 2025

Obie Awards 2025 by Jonathan Mandell

The 68th annual Obie Awards, honoring achievement Off and Off Off Broadway, were announced tonight. Below is the complete list, which includes Lifetime achievement awards for Charles Busch, …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:50PM

February 2025 New York Theater Openings by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a calendar of selected theater opening* in February, including a single Broadway show, “Redwood,” starring Idina Menzel, and plenty of star power Off Broadway: Rainn Wilson, Jor…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:30AM
Friday, January 31, 2025

Theater Quiz for January 2025 by Jonathan Mandell

“Wicked” and “Hamilton” are back in the news, as is a certain former reality show host; some once little-known stage actors are now….nominees; and there was plenty new and strange …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:07PM
Thursday, January 30, 2025

The Mother Act. When your mother turns your life into a show. by Jonathan Mandell

Sadie is an actress who so hates motherhood that she put together a one-woman show about how her daughter ruined her life; it is one of the reasons her daughter Jude feels Sadie ruined hers.…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:51PM
Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Theater Blog Roundup: Assessing 2024, Avoiding 2025. by Jonathan Mandell

Some theater bloggers are responding bluntly to the alarming political moment. Don Shewey lists sources of news that haven’t been corrupted by billionaire owners, George Hunka posted �…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 01:18PM
Tuesday, January 28, 2025

JFK, RFK would be “disgusted”: Caroline Kennedy’s SCATHING takedown of her cousin RFK Jr. Video and transcript by Jonathan Mandell

RFK Jr “lacks any relevant government, financial, management or medical experience. His views on vaccines are dangerous and willfully misinformed. These facts alone should be disqualifying…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:19PM
Monday, January 27, 2025

Kowalski Review: When Brando First Met Tennessee Williams by Jonathan Mandell

Not everything is offensively fabricated in “Kowalski,” an account of the first time Marlon Brando ever met Tennessee Williams, to audition for “A Streetcar Named Desire,” the play t…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:07PM

A Wonderful World Coming to an End. Lin-Manuel on SNL. Broadway at the Oscars. TikTok on Stage. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Has it been just a week? It doesn’t feel like such a wonderful world right now. So perhaps it’s fitting that the Louis Armstrong musical on Broadway with that title announced its closing…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:49AM
Sunday, January 26, 2025

Spring 2025 New York Theater Preview: 10 Shows to See* by Jonathan Mandell

This season, there will be two shows starring corpses, two reimagined classics performed by a single actor portraying dozens of characters, two new plays by MacArthur Geniuses, three scree…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:42PM
Saturday, January 25, 2025

The Fire This Time Festival 2025 by Jonathan Mandell

Hagar is fed up with the state of Black playwriting. “These kids aren’t writing anything new. They all keep circling August Wilson. Family dramas are important…but if you’ve seen one…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:22PM
Friday, January 24, 2025

Fringe: Famehungry. TikTok explained and performed by Jonathan Mandell

“Famehungry” is Louise Orwin’s attempt to explain TikTok and demonstrate its appeal – the former intriguing, the latter excruciating.  The 75-minute show is on stage at SoHo Playh…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:54PM
Thursday, January 23, 2025

English Broadway Review by Jonathan Mandell

When Sanaz Toossi made her Off-Broadway debut with this play about four adult students in Iran taking a class to learn English, even the many who praised it described “English” as “con…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:15PM

Oscar Nominations 2025 by Jonathan Mandell

The complete list of nominations for the 97th annual Academy Awards, which will be held on Sunday, March 2, 2025 at the Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood and televised live on ABC start…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:42AM
Wednesday, January 22, 2025

Fringe: Gwyneth Goes Skiing by Jonathan Mandell

The odd trial between Hollywood star Gwyneth Paltrow and retired optometrist Terry Sanderson over a 2016 skiing accident was so innately campy that it makes a theatrical parody both redundan…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:53PM
Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Can theater help? Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Those of us who are shellshocked at the political upheaval are faced with a choice — try to ignore, actively escape, or engage? Can theater help us decide, and then help any of those choic…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:40AM
Monday, January 20, 2025

“We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity, but in love with humanity” – MLK Jr by Jonathan Mandell

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., whose birthday we are officially celebrating today as a federal holiday, spoke about what we need in our leaders during a speech entitled “The Birth of a New Ag…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:46AM
Sunday, January 19, 2025

Healing Arts by Anna Deavere Smith from Music and Mind by Jonathan Mandell

This wide-ranging anthology begins with an anecdote about the power of the arts to heal political division, and includes a chapter by pioneering theater artist Anna Deavere Smith that, with …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:09PM
Saturday, January 18, 2025

The Fluxus Brothers Present Good Art Bad Art at PhysfestNYC by Jonathan Mandell

Yoko Ono was already the most famous artist in the Fluxus art movement when she met John Lennon at her Fluxus exhibition entitled “Ceiling Painting (Yes).” We were told this by the trio…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:27PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre