5,771 stories by "JONATHAN MANDELL"
Lis Coin's approach to her first-ever Edinburgh Fringe Festival will be "half spontaneous and half supportive." She means as a theatergoer. But that's also not a bad description of "Lizzy Su…
It was past the start time and nothing was happening on stage, when a man in a tracksuit sitting in the front row started applauding rapidly as a show of impatience and protest, leading the …
It was only after I started this novel about an acerbic and soon-to-be reviled theater critic  " which its publisher had discouraged me from reading " when I learned that the book is s…
Four won a Tony for Best Musical. A fifth is returning to Broadway a decade after one of the longest runs in Broadway history. The sixth, with an all-female cast, began life at the Edinburgh…
Amid all the to-do surrounding the tenth anniversary of the Broadway musical "Hamilton" " it opened at the Richard Rodgers on August 6, 2015 " five current cast members performed two of its …
Which of the twelve shows scheduled so far to open on Broadway between now and the end of 2025 are you most looking forward to? Which do you want to know more about? Take the poll and let us…
As Andrew Lloyd Webber prepares to launch the immersive version of "The Phantom of the Opera" on the last day of this month, for a run that has been extended (for now) through October 19, a …
Amid the distressing midsummer news of the defunding of public broadcasting, the suspiciously-timed axing of Stephen Colbert, and the uncertainty behind the arts desk shakeup at the…
By Jonathan Mandell. Teatru Malta's 1881 infused immersive theatre with game design, all in a dark, castle-like setting.
In one of the several moments throughout "Joy" that felt like being trapped inside an old infomercial, albeit an entertaining one, Joy Mangano (Betsy Wolfe) has just sold her first five thou…
An art photographer, who is as famous as the celebrities he shoots, starts having sex with a girl who is in ninth grade, and takes pictures of her naked while she's sleeping in his bed, with…
Broadway's new Elphaba and Glinda performed at Week 2 of this summer's series of Broadway in Bryant Park lunchtime concerts, now celebrating its 25th anniversary season " which is older even…
James Baldwin met Marlon Brando at an adjacent urinal in the men's bathroom at the New School for Social Research when they were both 19 years old and dreaming of success as, respectively, a…
"Connie Francis said to know her voice is to know her," Gracie Lawrence told the crowd at Bryant Park this afternoon, the day after the popular singer died at the age of 87. Lawrence, who po…
Watching Emily Weitzman talk to a couch as if it were her ex-lover brought two names to mind: JD Vance and Andy Kaufman. "You were special…Not just any couch: a pull out couch," she said, …
Michael DeBartolo's path to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival began in a childhood of "profound shame" and a series of unhealthy infatuations with straight boys.  Years later, now a New Yo…
Has a show ever shocked you? Did that make you like it, or dislike it, or was its shock value not the determining factor in your overall reaction? What if a show is deliberately trying to sh…
It is a glorious gospel concert beneath the darkening skies along the Hudson River, and that's all one needs to know to thrill at "Gospel at Colonus." But the experience is deepened by its h…
Cole Escola, Orville Peck, Kecia Lewis, Jak Malone and Sadie Sink were among the performers pushing their puppies at the 27th annual Broadway Barks, the odd and adorable animal adoption even…
They met by Magic. Actually,  the section at the Strand bookstore where they first met is labeled Occult, but that's where the store keeps its books on magic.  Kristen and Jenny'…
The free lunchtime concert series Broadway in Bryant Park launched its twenty-fifth season on Thursday with performances by the casts from six Broadway shows " one of which, "Boop the Musica…
So much ugliness takes place at Westerberg High " homicide and homophobia, attempted suicide and sexual assault " that there's an extensive "content advisory" in front of Stage 1 at New Worl…
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 te…
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 se…
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, …
