Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Theater Blog Roundup: Scott Rudin’s return. Summer Reading. An NEA Alternative? by Jonathan Mandell

Summer is normally a time for R&R – which for theater lovers can mean reading theater books and attending regional theater festivals. But the mood is more complicated these days, more …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:45AM
Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Prince Faggot Review by Jonathan Mandell

I wasn’t sure I wanted to see this play, which imagines a grownup Prince George of England (currently 11 years old) as an out gay man. I was put off by the offensive title, and by what it …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:53PM
Monday, July 7, 2025

Summer Theater. Sondheim Papers. What the “Big Ugly Bill” means for the arts. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

The season for free, outdoor theater is well underway, both throughout the country and here in New York: A new epic “Memnon” began over the weekend (see below.) This coming week,  Br…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:23AM
Sunday, July 6, 2025

Memnon Review. The Classic Ethiopian King Comes to Harlem by Jonathan Mandell

Centuries before Othello, and millennia before Black Panther, there was Memnon, the king of the Ethiopians, who came to the defense of Troy during the Trojan War.  Homer mentions Memnon in…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 07:12PM
Saturday, July 5, 2025

Angry Alan Review. John Krasinski as an Amiable Misogynist by Jonathan Mandell

John Krasinski’s character Roger seems as affable and appealing as Krasinski himself at the start of  Penelope Skinner’s superficially entertaining play, but Roger quickly descends int…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 03:18PM
Friday, July 4, 2025

“With fear for our democracy, I dissent”: Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s Supreme Court dissents. by Jonathan Mandell

Dissent is as American as the Fourth of July, and in honor of both, and as a way to offer solace in the face of a relentless assault on our democratic and Constitutional rights, below are ex…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:16AM
Thursday, July 3, 2025

Patriotic Protest Songs for the 4th of July by Jonathan Mandell

The songs below recall the original spirit of the Fourth of July, when 249 years ago Americans engaged in an act of protest against tyranny. Some of the songs have become such popular anthem…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:45PM
Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Broadway Schedule for 4th of July Weekend 2025 by Jonathan Mandell

Only “Purpose” is performing on the Fourth of July itself, But eighteen of the 30 Broadway shows currently running have added performances either within the two days before or the two da…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:28AM
Tuesday, July 1, 2025

July 2025 New York Theater Openings by Jonathan Mandell

Below is a calendar of New York theater opening* in July, all of it beyond Broadway, featuring some familiar crowdpleasers, such as a unique “Waitress,” and a starry “Heathers,” with…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:12PM
Monday, June 30, 2025

New Broadway Season Shaping Up: Punch, Oedipus, Chess, Taraji! Phantom Goes Immersive. Stageworthy News of the Week. by Jonathan Mandell

Sure, five more Broadway shows closed over the weekend, but not everything has come and gone (30 still running), and there are several exciting new announcements: Taraji P. Henson will make …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:07PM
Sunday, June 29, 2025

Actress of a Certain Age by Jeff Hiller by Jonathan Mandell

Jeff Hiller has written a celebrity memoir to end all celebrity memoirs. Each of his twenty-four chapters is given the title of an actual celebrity memoir, and the age at which the author of…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:47PM
Saturday, June 28, 2025

Theater Quiz for June 2025: Politics, Prizes, and Pride by Jonathan Mandell

How well were you paying attention to the theater over the past month? Answer these ten questions, plus a bonus question, and find out.   Loading…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:59PM
Friday, June 27, 2025

Beau the Musical Review. Coming of Age, and Coming Out, in Tennessee. by Jonathan Mandell

This sweet, lively and original musical deserves a wider audience, or maybe just a much longer run where it is, since the production works so wonderfully well in the intimate Off-Off Broadwa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:55PM
Thursday, June 26, 2025

Gay Broadway 2025: LGBTQ characters in current Broadway shows by Jonathan Mandell

Today, the tenth anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationally, seems an apt day for my annual census of gay characters on Broadway. At a time when LGBTQ …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 02:19PM
Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Lowcountry Review. An exasperating first date. by Jonathan Mandell

As “Lowcountry” begins, David, who just recently was permitted to remove his ankle bracelet, is about to go on a first date with Tally, whom he met on a dating app. Eventually, we learn …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:56PM
Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Duke & Roya Review. Repercussions from American Involvement in a Foreign War by Jonathan Mandell

“Do you realize that the U.S. has only spent under 20 years when we are NOT involvednin war?” the rap star Duke (Jay Ellis) tells an unseen interviewer. “When will that end?” Duke is…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:00PM
Monday, June 23, 2025

More Fallout. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

New Yorkers have a busy week ahead: the Jimmy Awards tonight; tomorrow Primary Election Day; all week, Pride events — including the last of three plays of the Criminal Queerness theater …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:03PM
Sunday, June 22, 2025

The Gilded Age Season 3: Six reasons for theater lovers to see it. Four ways it’s annoying. by Jonathan Mandell

“The Gilded Age”  had a remarkable number of Broadway veterans in its cast over its first two seasons, and many of them are returning for Season 3, which launches tonight – just the …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:14PM
Saturday, June 21, 2025

Passengers: The 7 Fingers performers as travelers and storytellers by Jonathan Mandell

The circus performers in “Passengers” are both powerful athletes and graceful artists, achieving awe-inspiring feats of physical prowess. They are also travelers, and storytellers, in wa…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:57PM
Friday, June 20, 2025

Bear Grease Review. All-Indigenous (Not All Grease) by Jonathan Mandell

“Bear Grease” is billed as a reimagining of the musical Grease, “told through an Indigenous lens” by a husband-wife duo who call themselves LightningCloud. But this proudly amateuris…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:06PM
Thursday, June 19, 2025

“It doesn’t feel as if we’re emancipated now” – Andre De Shields at Broadway Celebrates Juneteenth by Jonathan Mandell

“We can’t let Martin Luther King Jr’s dream become a nightmare because of the current administration,” André De Shields said in a speech accepting the 2025 Legacy Award at the Broad…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 04:31PM
Wednesday, June 18, 2025

ATHE Theater Book Award Finalists by Jonathan Mandell

The eleven finalists for this year’s Outstanding Book Award from the Association for Theatre in Higher Education are a highly eclectic mix of academic theater books, some of which don’t …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:47AM
Tuesday, June 17, 2025

Prosperous Fools Review. Taylor Mac bites the hands that fund the arts. by Jonathan Mandell

After two hours satirizing an arts fundraising gala with barbed caricatures, loopy shtick and shameless slapstick, Taylor Mac takes the stage alone in a fool’s cap to deliver a coda in rhy…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 06:37PM
Monday, June 16, 2025

Do You Hear The People Sing? Smart and Seasoned. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

At the opening performance of “Les Misérables” at the Kennedy Center, during the same week that pro-democracy protestors rallied throughout the country, as Donald Trump ordered the U.…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 09:18AM
Sunday, June 15, 2025

Stage Left: La Dureza. Delivering Politics Theatrically by Jonathan Mandell

“This is one of the most dangerous jobs in the city, “  Hiram Delgado as Barabbás said on stage this weekend in “La Dureza,” which chronicles a day in the life of a Deliverista �…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 11:52PM
Saturday, June 14, 2025

Today’s A Day for Democracy by Jonathan Mandell

Today is both the day of “No Kings” marches and rallies throughout the United States (including New York), and the first day of early voting in the New York City primaries for mayor and …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 12:50PM
Friday, June 13, 2025

Immersive Storytelling at Tribeca Festival: “In Search of Us” by Jonathan Mandell

I’m being strapped into what looks like a homemade electric chair, thick black wires gathered in a pile around my feet and sprouting above my head. A man in a white lab coat puts a fancy p…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:48PM
Thursday, June 12, 2025

Call Me Izzy Broadway Review by Jonathan Mandell

We first see Izzy Scutley, the character Jean Smart is portraying in her first Broadway role in 25 years, in a bathrobe cleaning the toilet in her home in a trailer park in rural Mansfield, …

SOURCE: New York Theater at 10:54PM
Wednesday, June 11, 2025

Tribeca Festival: Seasoned, starring Mandy Patinkin and Kathryn Grody by Jonathan Mandell

On their wedding anniversary, the actors Kathryn Grody and Mandy Patinkin arrive late for a dinner reservation; although they made it two months earlier, the maitre d’ has already given th…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:34PM
Tuesday, June 10, 2025

The 9 Tony Winners You Can Still See. (4 of them: Hurry) by Jonathan Mandell

Of the 29 shows that were nominated for Tony Awards, only 11 took home a trophy. Of these, only nine are still running — and four of them are closing as soon as three weeks from now. Below…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 08:41AM
Monday, June 9, 2025

Tony Highlights. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

“This has all happened by accident,” Harvey Fierstein said at the 78th annual Tony Awards. Tony Kushner had just introduced him as “a great theater artist, a great force for connection…

SOURCE: New York Theater at 05:40AM