All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Monday, May 25, 2015

A Free Man of Color Review by Jonathan Mandell

If it frustrates our expectations, “A Free Man of Color” - ambitious, inventive, daring — is an honorable failure with much to recommend it, even while it is difficult to s…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 05:58PM

Elling Review: Brendan Fraser, Denis O’Hare as Odd Norwegian Odd Couple by Jonathan Mandell

To the extent that “Elling” works, it is not due to the wisps of plot, which are even more incidental than they are implausible. The entertainment comes from the well-pitched per…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 05:58PM

Broadway’s Almost-True Stories, Part II by Jonathan Mandell

Artists discuss their responsibility to historyBy JONATHAN MANDELLWelcome to Part 2 of our two-part look at how Broadway is currently staging history. Today, we talk to Broadway artists abou…

SOURCE: TDF at 05:58PM

Broadway's Shuttered 'Scottsboro,' Others May Get Another Op'nin' In Hollywood by JONATHAN MANDELL

Not the end of the line? Though the Scottsboro Boys found only a short welcome on Broadway, there's already talk that their musicalized adventures might become a feature film.

SOURCE: National Public Radio at 05:58PM

Is “Three Pianos” a Musical Or Music Theatre? by Jonathan Mandell

With wine and song, three performers push the genre envelopeIt would be wrong to call Three Pianos a jukebox musical, even though it is a stage show created around a series of old songs. Aft…

SOURCE: TDF at 05:58PM

Stage Injuries, New and Old by Jonathan Mandell

How Spider-Man’s mishaps reflect the long history of stage safety Even before Christopher Tierney plummeted some 30 feet off a platform to become the fourth cast member with serious in…

SOURCE: TDF at 05:58PM

Next by Jonathan Mandell

Soldiers during World War II line up to visit a prostitute, and one eventually does, in this intermittently intriguing but underdeveloped exercise.

SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PM

La Barbería (The Barbershop) by Jonathan Mandell

This modest, somewhat clichéd play with a few Latin songs takes place in a barbershop in Washington Heights and is told almost entirely in Spanish and from a Dominican perspective.

SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PM

En el Tiempo de las Mariposas (In the Time of the Butterflies) by Jonathan Mandell

Caridad Svich's stage adaptation of Julie Alvarez's poetic and sorrowful novel chronicling the real-life story of the murder of the revolutionary Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic do…

SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PM

Do People Choose To Be Poor? Good People Review by Jonathan Mandell

But it is hard to judge the script alone when the production has so much going for it — the fine performances, a six-member cast that includes Estelle Parsons as Margie’s babysit…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 05:58PM

The Legend of Buster Neal by Jonathan Mandell

A mysterious but familiar stranger visits a multigenerational household of struggling black men in Jackie Alexander's sometimes insightful play, which is undermined by a vague, predictable p…

SOURCE: Backstage at 05:58PM
Tuesday, May 12, 2015

The explosive Painted Rocks at Revolver Creek. Possibly Fugard’s last look at South Africa (review) by Jonathan Mandell

In what he says may be his last play, South African playwright Athol Fugard explores his characters’ fear, humiliation and desperation, as he has in such well-known anti-apartheid works as…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:11AM
Thursday, April 30, 2015

What show changed your life? Tony Award nominees respond by Jonathan Mandell

We probably all have an answer to ‘What show changed your life?’  For DCTS editor Lorraine Treanor, her path to being an English teacher changed the day she saw Elaine Stritch p…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 03:00PM

Why one Tony Award nominee won’t give up his day job by Jonathan Mandell

While it’s not hard to find an actor or writer waiting tables or bartending in New York to make ends meet, we found one Tony Award nominee who doesn’t plan to give up his day job…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 01:30PM

Tony nominee Brandon Uranowitz talks about American in Paris by Jonathan Mandell

The morning after the 69th Annual Tony Award nominations were announced, Tony Award nominee, Brandon Uranowitz, nominated for creating the role of Adam Hochberg in An American in Paris, sat …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:46AM
Monday, April 27, 2015

Fun Home Broadway Review: Alison Bechdel’s moving memoir of her father by Jonathan Mandell

Fun Home is, yes, a musical about a lesbian cartoonist whose closeted father killed himself, but it is also about how we try to figure out the puzzle of our parents; about how we reassemble …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 10:45AM
Thursday, April 23, 2015

Airline Highway Broadway Review: Lisa D’Amour’s community of misfits in a New Orleans motel by Jonathan Mandell

Airline Highway, Lisa D’Amour’s loving look at the makeshift family of misfits that hang out at a seedy motel along the old Airline Highway in New Orleans, is not a musical, but it is fu…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:50PM

The Visit Broadway Review: Chita Rivera in Kander and Ebb’s grotesque parable of revenge by Jonathan Mandell

When the wealthiest woman in the world returns to her bankrupt hometown in The Visit, reactions range from “Her dress, her jewels…like a great film star!” to “half-Jewish, half-gypsy…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:30PM
Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Something Rotten Broadway Review: Shakespeare’s rivals create the first musical by Jonathan Mandell

There is a musical number early in Something Rotten that thoroughly delivers what the show’s title, cast, creative team, and poster art have promised — Monty Python subversive sillin…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:30PM
Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Doctor Zhivago Broadway Review: A Soapy Romance During the Russian Revolution by Jonathan Mandell

I had hoped that a major benefit of winning the Cold War would be no longer having to sit through a show like Doctor Zhivago, a musical adaptation of Pasternak’s novel that presents the Ru…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:30PM
Monday, April 20, 2015

The King and I Broadway Review: A ravishing revival starring Kelli O’Hara, Ken Watanabe by Jonathan Mandell

From the very first moments of Lincoln Center’s ravishing The King and I, it feels like a privilege just to be sitting in the audience. First the 29 musicians play Rodgers and Hammerstein�…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 09:21PM
Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Finding Neverland Broadway review: Peter Pan. Again. by Jonathan Mandell

Is it pointless to pan Peter? Are we helpless in the face of the massive Peter Pander/Pandemic/Pandemonium (pick your Peter Pan pun.) Shortly after Peter and the Starcatcher and Peter Pan Li…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:30PM
Sunday, April 12, 2015

An American in Paris Broadway Review: A mesmerizing new Gershwin ballet by Jonathan Mandell

Both Gigi and An American In Paris are adapted from Oscar-winning 1950’s movie musicals directed by Vincente Minnelli and starring Leslie Caron. Both take place in Paris. Both have revised…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:30PM
Saturday, April 11, 2015

Hand to God Broadway review: Puppet pleasures and religious people’s pain by Jonathan Mandell

For an evil sock puppet who eventually bites a teenager’s ear off,  Tyrone is quite the philosopher. In the prologue in Hand to God, Robert Askin’s funny, filthy, violent and sensitive …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 02:00PM
Thursday, April 9, 2015

Wolf Hall Broadway Review: Henry VIII, heresy and adultery made dull by Jonathan Mandell

It’ll be another three months before the American Revolution arrives on Broadway, with the hip-hop musical Hamilton. In the meantime, the Great White Way has been pledging allegiance to th…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:30PM
Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Gigi Broadway Review: Vanessa Hudgens in visually stunning production by Jonathan Mandell

Gigi, an imitation French confection of a musical starring High School Musical sweetheart Vanessa Hudgens, is based on a novella by Colette about two aging prostitutes grooming their illegit…

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 08:30PM
Friday, April 3, 2015

Are Theatre Critics … Critical? A critic re-examines his position by Jonathan Mandell

It wasn’t exactly an ambush, but the first question actor Bernardo Cubria posed to me as a guest on his theatre podcast was about a complaint that actors have about critics. I was his …

SOURCE: DC Theatre Scene at 11:05AM
Monday, October 13, 2014

Sondheim’s New Musical. Once Over. Stage Managers Get Their Day. The Week in New York Theater by Jonathan Mandell

While we wait for Stephen Sondheim’s new musical — which the Public Theater has already committed to producing, although there is not even a title yet (see “11” belo…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:05AM
Sunday, October 12, 2014

While I Yet Live Review: Billy Porter’s Memory Play by Jonathan Mandell

Tonya, the cheeky daughter in “While I Yet Live,” has a problem with God (He’s “a wee bit passive aggressive, and vindictive”) and the Bible (“It’s the most violent book I’ve…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:41PM
Saturday, October 11, 2014

Poll: Your Favorite Theater About Theater by Jonathan Mandell

There are three shows on Broadway this season that are theater about theater — The Country House, It’s Only A Play, The Real Thing. What’s your favorite theater about theat…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:25PM
Friday, October 10, 2014

Hellman v McCarthy: Dick Cavett as Dick Cavett on 13 Again, 34 Years Later by Jonathan Mandell

The feud between the writers Lillian Hellman and Mary McCarthy began on public television, so it’s fitting that the play about their quarrel, “Hellman v McCarthy,” with the great Rober…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:23PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 01, 2025: Glengarry Glen Ross
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic