All stories by JONATHAN MANDELL on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Merrily We Roll Along Broadway Review by Jonathan Mandell

People will be watching “Merrily We Roll Along” in 2040, if all goes as planned. That’s the year that director Richard Linklater plans to release a movie adaptation of the Stephen Sond…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:46PM
Monday, October 9, 2023

(pray) Review. Black Women’s Spirituality…and Machetes? by Jonathan Mandell

“(pray)” might feel at first like a theatrically heightened version of a traditional gospel church service, with church ladies in their Sunday finest preaching and praying, clapping and …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:29PM

Indigenous Theater Gets its Day. Tony Awards 2024 set for Lincoln Center. Nathan Lane hates puppets?! #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Today is Indigenous People’s Day, which since 2021 has been officially recognized as a national holiday — not coincidentally on the same day (the second Monday in October) as Columbus …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:02PM
Sunday, October 8, 2023

Prelude Festival: Exposure. Radiohole Weirdness by Jonathan Mandell

“We’re here to celebrate the body – squirts, blasts, noises and inappropriate acts,” proclaimed our host, the performer known as Fantasy Grandma,  introducing “Exposure,” a gro…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:35PM
Friday, October 6, 2023

Theater Blog Roundup: A New Era in New York Theater by Jonathan Mandell

Many long-time leaders of New York theaters have been retiring or dying, as Jan Simpson catalogues in a post in her blog Broadway and Me. The questions she ponders: Who will replace them and…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:45AM
Thursday, October 5, 2023

Jaja’s African Hair Braiding Broadway Review by Jonathan Mandell

Jocelyn Bioh’s inviting workplace comedy, presenting a day in the life of a hair braiding salon in Harlem, would be a shoo-in for two separate Tony Awards, if either existed – one for ha…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:05PM
Wednesday, October 4, 2023

Three Love Stories Near a Railroad Review. Hemingway and Eugene O’Neill, the Krymov way by Jonathan Mandell

To get the full flavor of what the great exiled Russian director Dmitry Krymov does with (to?) Ernest Hemingway’s two short stories, which are hard to see as love stories at all, and to Eu…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:56PM
Monday, October 2, 2023

Sondheim Side by Side by Side. Melissa Victorious! #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Almost two years after Stephen Sondheim death at the age of 91, October will see the opening at The Shed of what’s billed as the composer’s “final musical” – “Here We Are” – …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:52AM
Sunday, October 1, 2023

October 2023 New York Theater Openings. Sondheims, Reunions, and Zoomers beyond the vintage venues. by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a calendar of theater opening* in New York in October, with two greatly-anticipated musicals by Stephen Sondheim, one never produced before. The other, “Merrily We Roll Along,” …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:08PM
Saturday, September 30, 2023

Theater Quiz for September 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to the theater news, views and reviews in this month that launched the Fall 2023 season? Find out in the quiz below. Loading…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:22PM
Thursday, September 28, 2023

Melissa Etheridge: My Window Revier by Jonathan Mandell

Melissa Etheridge was so young when she started playing the guitar that her fingers bled, but she kept at it, which seems a fitting start for her rocky road to rock star. On her 17th birthda…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:01PM
Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Purlie Victorious Review by Jonathan Mandell

It’s hard to picture a better cast for this first Broadway revival of Ossie Davis’s 1961 broad, biting comedy about racism in the Old South. As the title character, Leslie Odom Jr., assu…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:00PM
Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Wanted: New Blood for Broadway. The Wiz sets opening. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

“The Wiz” announced its opening date in April, starring Nichelle Lewis as Dorothy, Deborah Cox as Glinda and Melody A. Betts (featured in this first photograph above) as Aunt Em an…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:27PM
Sunday, September 24, 2023

Broadway’s View of the Jew by Jonathan Mandell

The photographs below offer a small sample of the many Jewish characters that have been portrayed in plays and musicals on Broadway, focusing on the most familiar and the most recent.  The …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:27AM
Saturday, September 23, 2023

ASL on Broadway Fall 2023 by Jonathan Mandell

 In celebration of the International Day of Sign Languages, proclaimed every September 23 by the United Nations since 2018, below is the schedule of ASL-interpreted performances on Broadwa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:50AM
Friday, September 22, 2023

Mary Gets Hers Review by Jonathan Mandell

The story told in Emma Horwitz’s “Mary Gets Hers,” about an orphan girl who falls into prostitution, and then is rescued from it,  follows nearly scene by scene a tenth century play …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:25PM
Thursday, September 21, 2023

Refuge at PAC NYC: More than a concert, an act of faith by Jonathan Mandell

During the second of the five concerts that are launching the new performing arts center at the World Trade Center, the violinist Trina Basu went up to the microphone after her set and said …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:49PM
Wednesday, September 20, 2023

9 Kinds of Silence Review by Jonathan Mandell

The soldier is silent. This frustrates the woman who is not exactly his captor but not his keeper either; she works for the motherland, which disapproves of his silence.  If he doesn’t b…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:13PM
Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Prometheus Firebringer Review. Artificial Intelligence on Stage by Jonathan Mandell

Half of what happens in “Prometheus Firebringer” is extraordinary, unprecedented. But you wouldn’t know that just by watching what’s on stage, which is mostly a series of monologues …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:57PM
Monday, September 18, 2023

Broadway 2024: 4 more. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

 Broadway favorites  Kelli O’Hara, Brian d’Arcy James, and Heidi Schreck are returning, and Rachel McAdams making her Broadway debut, in two plays and two musicals that were newly ann…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:03AM
Friday, September 15, 2023

Psychic Self Defense Review. A Curtain Raiser for the Ages by Jonathan Mandell

“Psychic Self Defense” – gorgeous, impish and enveloping — had long ended before I understood the title, although the show itself remained ineffable. To be clear, I never doubted it …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:05PM
Thursday, September 14, 2023

alt-Hamlet Review. A “post-Roe satire” by Jonathan Mandell

Susan and Bella, two students at UC Berkeley who are twin sisters, keep on getting pregnant – their pregnancy represented by red balloons —  and they keep on popping “M&Ms” –…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:50PM
Wednesday, September 13, 2023

PAC NYC officially opens, with two billionaires, two mayors, two matinee idols, and a governor by Jonathan Mandell

The Perelman Performing Arts Center, or PAC NYC, held a ribbon connection (rather than ribbon cutting) ceremony today on a stage in the lobby that will offer free entertainment every day fro…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:25PM
Tuesday, September 12, 2023

Infinite Life Review. Pain on Stage, Sex in Mind. by Jonathan Mandell

Shortly before I attended Annie Baker’s new play about a group of mostly older women spending their vacations at a pain clinic in Northern California, I saw a new musical about a group of …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:23PM
Monday, September 11, 2023

Reframing 9/11, with Theater. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

The new performing arts center at the World Trade Center smartly decided to hold its official opening day ceremony on Wednesday,  not today. But if all goes well, the marble cube of the Pe…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:23AM
Sunday, September 10, 2023

Fall Preview 2023: 5 Movies for Theater Lovers by Jonathan Mandell

Each of the following movies slated for release in cinemas and/or streaming services before the end of the year may be of interest to legitimate theater fans because it directly adapts a sta…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:18AM
Saturday, September 9, 2023

Broadway Poll: The Fall 2023 Show You Most Want to See by Jonathan Mandell

Choose the show that you are most looking forward to, of the ten that have an official opening on Broadway from September to December 2023. They are listed chronologically below by opening d…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:32AM
Friday, September 8, 2023

The Writing On The Stall Review: 5 Ways this “bathroom graffiti musical” made me uncomfortable by Jonathan Mandell

Caitlin Cook has reportedly spent ten years researching graffiti in public bathrooms, and five years turning the graffiti into songs, which she now has put together for an hour-long show bil…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:33PM
Thursday, September 7, 2023

Charles Busch Books: Leading Lady and Beyond Ridiculous by Jonathan Mandell

Charles Busch has always worshipped Leading Ladies, even before he became one. That happened almost four decades ago, thanks to the surprise success of his play “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom.…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:13PM
Wednesday, September 6, 2023

Relapse Review: Mentally ill youth who can really sing. by Jonathan Mandell

Bryan is bulimic.  Melinda is schizophrenic. Kendra has borderline personality disorder. Newcomer Adam is an addict. They are young patients in group therapy at a rehab ward, presided over…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:56PM
Tuesday, September 5, 2023

Fall Previews. #Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Summer officially ended with Lea Michele singing “My Man” at the curtain call for the final performance of “Funny Girl” (see video below), a song introduced by Fanny Brice in the Zie…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:57AM

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