All stories by Jonathan Mandell on BroadwayStars

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
Saturday, December 3, 2011

LongShotz: Arrivals and Departures by Jonathan Mandell

Six short plays, presented over two separate evenings, offer a loosely connected and uneven glimpse at New York City.

SOURCE: Backstage at 06:47AM
Thursday, December 1, 2011

Bonnie and Clyde Review by Jonathan Mandell

In one of the few funny moments in “Bonnie & Clyde,” Frank Wildhorn’s seventh and best try at a Broadway musical, Clyde’s brother Buck offers his wife a confection he bought with…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:09PM
Wednesday, November 30, 2011

An Evening With Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin Review by Jonathan Mandell

Follow @NewYorkTheater To be excited by Patti LuPone and Mandy Patinkin’s show, you need not know that their first performance together, in “Evita”, made them both stars, and that it h…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 06:21AM
Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Private Lives Review: Is Being Flippant The Answer? by Jonathan Mandell

Follow @NewYorkTheater When Kim Cattrall first appears on stage in “Private Lives,” she is wearing nothing but a towel and earrings – it’s Samantha of “Sex and the City,” you thi…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 11:36AM
Monday, November 28, 2011

Spider-Man, Thankful At One, Book of Mormon at $477. Tweets 85 by Jonathan Mandell

Follow @NewYorkTheater Exactly a year after its first preview, November 28th, Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark certainly has much to be thankful for this holiday season. It has grossed upwards o…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:37PM
Friday, November 25, 2011

Family Is No Holiday: Other Desert Cities Review by Jonathan Mandell

The holidays are hell for the Wyeth family of “Other Desert Cities,” as they seem to be for most fictional families, far more than real ones. Home for the holidays for the first time in …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:39AM
Monday, November 21, 2011

What To See on Broadway If You’ve Never Been. Tweets 84 by Jonathan Mandell

Follow on Twitter at @NewYorkTheater Shows are opening regularly now on Broadway — see my review below of “Seminar” with Allan Rickman — and four new shows were at le…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 09:23PM
Sunday, November 20, 2011

Seminar Review: Are the Best Writing Teachers Abusive? by Jonathan Mandell

In “Seminar,” Alan Rickman, though no longer Severus Snape (his role in all eight Harry Potter films), plays a character with striking similarities: Leonard starts off evil, ends up comp…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:51PM
Monday, November 14, 2011

Broadway Monotheism, Masochism, Gay Marriage. Tweets 83 by Jonathan Mandell

Follow New York Theater on Twitter at @NewYorkTheater On seeing his first play, Harry Belafonte discovered “theater was power: power to influence, power to know of others…”…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 12:18PM
Sunday, November 13, 2011

Gay Marriage Is Funny: Standing on Ceremony Review by Jonathan Mandell

One couple decides to call each other brooms, a combination of groom and bride, and even orders a wedding cake with two little brooms on top. When it comes to same-sex marriage, you can’t …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 07:01PM
Tuesday, November 8, 2011

King Lear Review by Jonathan Mandell

“Mend your speech a little, lest it mar your fortune,” King Lear tells his youngest daughter. This is good advice for the Twitter generation, and in the production at the Public Theater …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:59PM

Venus in Fur Review: Nina Arianda Dominates, Titillates by Jonathan Mandell

The story at the heart of “Venus in Fur” fascinates Americans above almost any other. I don’t mean the sadomasochistic power struggle between a 19th century European nobleman and his d…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 07:58PM

La Mama Cantata by Jonathan Mandell

A cast of 17 joyously celebrate the late Ellen Stewart, founder of La MaMa E.T.C., by performing her words as set to music by Elizabeth Swados.

SOURCE: Backstage at 02:18AM
Monday, November 7, 2011

Godspell Review by Jonathan Mandell

The most revealing moment in the first Broadway revival of “Godspell,” a musical by Stephen Schwartz (now best-known for “Wicked”), may come after Jesus stands up on the piano, mike …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 04:55PM

Hugh Jackman for $350? Funny Girl No More. New York Theater Tweets 82 by Jonathan Mandell

The health of a society can be determined by the art it demands, Edward Albee has said. But what about how much we’re charged for it? This week in New York theater the average ticket price…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:37PM
Sunday, November 6, 2011

Shadow Boxing by Jonathan Mandell

James Gaddas' hourlong monologue for a boxer is made fresh by Jonny Collis-Scurll's performance and by a gay twist in this Brits Off Broadway offering.

SOURCE: Backstage at 02:30AM
Wednesday, November 2, 2011

South Park Goes Broadway. Occupy Wall Street Goes Off-Broadway. Gems (Chinglish) and Bombs (Relatively Speaking). NY Theater Tweets 81 by Jonathan Mandell

If you are surprised to see Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz, Elton John and Stephen Sondheim guzzling beer and gobbling chicken wings at the local Hooters, then you probably did not wa…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 04:43PM

On the Line by Jonathan Mandell

This play about the effect of a factory strike on three blue-collar guys who have been friends since the first grade is strongest as a look at camaraderie.

SOURCE: Backstage at 06:33AM
Monday, October 31, 2011

South Park Goes Broadway. Occupy Wall Street Goes Off-Broadway. Shakespeare-Deniers. Gems (Chinglish) and Bombs (Relatively Speaking) Tweets 81 by Jonathan Mandell

If you are surprised to see Andrew Lloyd Webber, Stephen Schwartz, Elton John and Stephen Sondheim guzzling beer and gobbling chicken wings at the local Hooters, then you probably did not wa…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:30PM
Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Atmosphere of Memory Review by Jonathan Mandell

Before it even begins, “The Atmosphere of Memory,” with its elegant title and world-class cast, promises to be a worthy next play for the Labyrinth Theater, whose last one was “The Mot…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 08:00PM
Saturday, October 29, 2011

Occupy Wall Street On Stage by Jonathan Mandell

There is the man who was laid off a year and a half ago as the creative director for a children’s television production company, and showed up at Zuccotti Park a day ago after being evicte…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:36AM
Friday, October 28, 2011

Woody Allen vs. ‘Modern Family’: Relatively Speaking Review by Jonathan Mandell

There is sparkling wit and great timing these days at the Brooks Atkinson Theater, but it’s just in the window, in an article Elaine May wrote to promote “Relatively Speaking,” a trio …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 05:26PM
Thursday, October 27, 2011

Chinglish Review by Jonathan Mandell

In “Chinglish,” David Henry Hwang’s funny and timely new play, an American man declares his love for a Chinese woman in Chinese: “Frog loves to pee,” he says with feeling. That is …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 06:19PM

Cries and Whispers Review by Jonathan Mandell

At the end of Ivo van Hove’s interminable stage adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s film “Cries and Whispers,” we are rewarded with a breathtaking image: A video of a woman making angel w…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 09:28AM
Wednesday, October 26, 2011

On Suffering And Laughing: Sons of the Prophet Review by Jonathan Mandell

Joseph Douaihy knows about pain. So do the people all around him, the region they live in, and the country his family is from. Yet in Stephen Karam’s “Songs of the Prophet,” all this p…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 11:39AM
Monday, October 24, 2011

Does Theater Matter? Do Spoilers? Can Sondheim Win A Sondheim? New York Theater Tweets 80 by Jonathan Mandell

The opening of a play about the dark side of the iPhone; an Occupy Wall Street demonstration at Lincoln Center and news of the first theater company to bring Occupy Wall Street to the stage;…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:24PM
Sunday, October 23, 2011

iPhone Buyers Remorse: The Agony and Ecstasy of Steve Jobs Review by Jonathan Mandell

However uncomfortable you may feel about Mike Daisey’s pokes at Steve Jobs so soon after the Apple founder’s death cannot compare to the queasiness at the horrors this chronicler of the …

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 02:22AM
Monday, October 17, 2011

Occupy Broadway. The Week In New York Theater Tweets 79 by Jonathan Mandell

On the week that thousands protested in the theater district as part of the Occupy Wall Street movement, two shows opened on Broadway: “The Mountaintop,” about Martin Luther King Jr. and…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 11:40AM
Sunday, October 16, 2011

The Lyons Review: Dysfunction Delight by Jonathan Mandell

How is it that “The Lyons” is the most enjoyable play I have seen so far this season? The characters are unhappy and unpleasant, and not only that, they are the kind of people we’ve se…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 01:29PM
Saturday, October 15, 2011

Occupy Broadway: Man and Boy Review by Jonathan Mandell

Occupy Wall Street has spread around the world. Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Times Square this weekend, passing by the American Airlines Theater, home to “Man and Boy,” a play…

SOURCE: The Faster Times at 10:26PM

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