All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

Saturday, March 17, 2012

The Agony and The Ecstasy of Mike Daisey’s Deceit: Theater vs. Journalism? by Jonathan Mandell

“The Agony and The Ecstasy of Steve Jobs,” Mike Daisey’s well-reviewed monologue currently at the Public Theater, is the subject of an expose in This American Life, the radio program t…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 11:02AM
Monday, March 5, 2012

March on Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

There will be 17 Broadway openings from March 15 to April 26th, an astonishing turnover with only 40 theaters on the Great White Way, almost too overwhelming to consider. So let’s focus ju…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:58AM
Sunday, March 4, 2012

NY Review: 'The Last Days of Judas Iscariot' by Jonathan Mandell

T. Schreiber Studio's production of Stephen Adly Guirgis' play focusing on a retrial of Judas is provocative, playful, and layered but also belabored.

SOURCE: Backstage at 09:15AM
Thursday, March 1, 2012

Carrie Review: Broadway Flop Revived Off-Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

Decades after Carrie wreaked her revenge for being dumped on with pigs blood, “Carrie” the musical, which opens tonight at the Lucille Lortel, has a chance for its own sort of reveng…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 09:47PM
Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Assistance Review: Revenge on Harvey Weinstein by Jonathan Mandell

The finale of “Assistance” is an abused employee’s revenge fantasy: A woman curses out her boss, and then dances defiantly as the office around her self-destructs in spectacular fashio…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 09:00PM

Blood Knot Review: Fugard’s First Anti-Apartheid Play by Jonathan Mandell

Apartheid was virulent and ignored outside South Africa in 1961 when Athol Fugard wrote “Blood Knot,” launching his international career. The American anti-apartheid movement was in full…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:22AM
Saturday, February 25, 2012

Broadway Lottery and Rush Policies For Discounted Tickets by Jonathan Mandell

Each Broadway show has a different policy to enable either the general public, or students, or young people, to buy tickets at a steep discount. Anything Goes General Rush: $30 – limited n…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 09:42AM
Monday, February 20, 2012

NY Review: 'Bad Kid' by Jonathan Mandell

"Bad Kid," David Crabb's one-man show at Axis Theater about his goth-gay Texas adolescence, is vivid and amusing storytelling.

SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AM
Sunday, February 19, 2012

NY Review: 'The Thrill of the Chase' by Jonathan Mandell

Philip Gawthorne's David Mamet–inspired drama for Mad Dog Theatre Company and the Drilling Company feels as endless as a bad marriage.

SOURCE: Backstage at 05:01AM
Thursday, February 16, 2012

Shatner’s World Review: Captain Kirk Back On Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

There is the William Shatner, long forgotten, who appeared with Spencer Tracy in “Judgment at Nuremberg” and replaced an ill Christopher Plummer as Henry V at the Stratford Festival. The…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:28PM
Saturday, February 11, 2012

NY Review: ''The Navigator' by Jonathan Mandell

A GPS device turns out not just to be aggressively helpful but also clairvoyant in Eddie Antar's clever, cautionary comedy about our tech-dependent era.

SOURCE: Backstage at 08:00AM
Friday, February 10, 2012

Merrily We Roll Along Review: Sondheim, Encores! and the Loss of Idealism by Jonathan Mandell

Once young and idealist, now rich, arrogant and corrupted, the main characters of “Merrily We Roll Along,” Stephen Sondheim’s most reworked flop, could be said to resemble the Encores!…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 12:20PM
Tuesday, February 7, 2012

A Pill To Cure The Heartbroken? Rx Review by Jonathan Mandell

In “Rx,” Phil tells Meena that she may be suffering from workplace depression, “which isn’t a personal failure; it’s a disease.” He quickly adds: “We hope.” If it is a diseas…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 06:23PM
Sunday, February 5, 2012

Smash. Flops. Feuds. In February! by Jonathan Mandell

Smash, the new NBC TV series about the making of a Broadway musical, is well-timed for theater people, both because it’s on Mondays (their standard day off), and because it starts in Febru…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:15PM
Thursday, February 2, 2012

Sam Gold, Thomas Kail and Alex Timbers: A New Generation Helming Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

Meet thirtysomethings Sam Gold, Alex Timbers and Thomas Kail, the respective directors of Broadway's Seminar, Peter and the Starcatcher and Magic/Bird.

SOURCE: Playbill at 12:01AM
Sunday, January 29, 2012

These Seven Sicknesses Review: Sophocles As A Party by Jonathan Mandell

“Welcome to blood, sex, sorrow and a good party,” a young man said cheerfully, as he handed out a drink during the Flea Theater’s adaptation of all seven surviving tragedies by Sophocl…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 06:22PM
Saturday, January 28, 2012

Wit Review: Cynthia Nixon Breaks The Nixon Rule by Jonathan Mandell

The Nixon Rule is named after Cynthia Nixon, who is starring as a literature professor dying of cancer in the Broadway debut of “Wit” 13 years after it opened Off-Broadway and won the Pu…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 11:53AM
Thursday, January 26, 2012

Road To Mecca Review: Athol Fugard Without Apartheid by Jonathan Mandell

“It’s not all that important, of course,” the minister says, helping Miss Helen fill out a form to put her in an old-age home. It is one of many shrewd little moments in Athol Fugard�…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 05:37AM
Sunday, January 22, 2012

Porgy and Bess On Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

Is the “Porgy and Bess” currently on Broadway worth seeing? Consider these other questions: Is “Porgy and Bess” racist? Is it an opera or a musical? How important is that goat cart t…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 11:29AM
Monday, January 16, 2012

Broadway Spring 2012. Is Broadway Weak? Oh No, says Apolo Ohno by Jonathan Mandell

“Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.”- Martin Luther King, Jr. What’s on Broadway? Long-running shows, shows about to close, and shows about to ope…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 12:53PM
Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Susan Sontag Reborn by Jonathan Mandell

At around 16 years of age, Susan Sontag 1. offered Thomas Mann a reinterpretation of his “Magic Mountain” 2. had her first affair with a woman, 3. met the professor she would marry. “I…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:26PM
Sunday, January 8, 2012

In the Solitude of Cotton Fields by Jonathan Mandell

This rock-concert adaptation in Polish of an abstract two-character French play is cool in a not very fresh way, despite the fine performances of Wojciech Niemczyk and Tomasz Nosinski.

SOURCE: Backstage at 01:52AM
Monday, December 19, 2011

Theater Matters 2011. Vaclav Havel RIP. Room for Darren Criss AND Carol Channing. Hope for 2012 by Jonathan Mandell

In theater, we don’t go out with the old – here, 12-time Broadway veteran Carol Channing, soon to turn 91 – to ring in the new – here, Darren Criss, 24, about to make his Broadway de…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:33PM
Sunday, December 18, 2011

What’s On Broadway by Jonathan Mandell

Here are the shows that you can see on Broadway as of this writing — or that are scheduled to open in Spring 2012. Many are closing by the end of December, 2011 or January, 2012. Listi…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:52AM
Saturday, December 17, 2011

Reel-to-Real Theater: Krapp’s Last Tape, Misterman Reviews by Jonathan Mandell

Whatever else they have in common – and it’s much – the current productions in Brooklyn of “Krapp’s Last Tape” with John Hurt and “Misterman” with Cillian Murphy share one ab…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:59PM
Friday, December 16, 2011

Titus Andronicus Review: Bloody Awful, Worthwhile by Jonathan Mandell

William Shakespeare is said to have coined several English words and phrases in his first tragedy, “Titus Andronicus,” including “Devil incarnate” and “unappeased” – though not…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:37PM
Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Lysistrata Jones Review: Broadway Voyeurism by Jonathan Mandell

The Broadway version of “Lysistrata Jones” begins with a loud boom, a full moon, a stage full of smoke, and an intoning diva in Grecian attire. Hooded monks move down the aisles of the W…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 09:48PM
Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Top Ten New York Theater 2011. Tweets 87 by Jonathan Mandell

I asked the Naked Cowboy in Times Square what was the best theater of 2011. “Les Miz,” he replied, while he posed in the cold with tourists. Since the revival of “Les Miserables” clo…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:51AM
Sunday, December 11, 2011

On A Clear Day You Can See Forever Review by Jonathan Mandell

It is a swooning moment to hear Harry Connick Jr. sing the title song of a musical now remembered mostly because of that melody, as sung by Barbra Streisand. But Connick sings it only at the…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:27PM
Thursday, December 8, 2011

Stick Fly Review: To Be Young, Gilted And Black by Jonathan Mandell

“There isn’t a single one of you that hasn’t kept secrets or made mistakes,” Dr. LeVay says defensively to his family in “Stick Fly,” a play full of mistakes aired and secrets re…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 11:34PM
Monday, December 5, 2011

Theater Makes You Happy. Theater Makes You Angry. Tweets 86 by Jonathan Mandell

Follow @NewYorkTheater What makes people happiest? The top three answers are sex, exercise, and theater, according to a recent study)` Now, the people studied were 45,000 British iPhone user…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:08AM

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