5,788 stories by "JONATHAN MANDELL"
Broadway vet David Chase explains this vital position As a young man, David Chase told a Broadway dance arranger he wanted to move to New York and become a dance arranger himself, eve…
Speaking before Harvard's Secret Court investigating the crime and embarrassment of homosexuality on campus, an undergraduate named Stanley Gilkey explains that the only reason he associated…
Speaking before Harvard's Secret Court investigating the crime and embarrassment of homosexuality on campus, an undergraduate named Stanley Gilkey explains that the only reason he associated…
This new play about the courtship of two residents of a nursing home follows a predictable course but is also fresh and lively, thanks to two veteran actors.
At the beginning of the second act of Spider-Man 2.0, the evil Green Goblin explains how he was transformed from scientist Norman Osborne to genetic mutant: It took weeks and cost $65 millio…
“The Book of Mormon” has won the 2011 Tony for Best Musical and eight other awards, and “War Horse” has won for best play, and in four other categories, in a ceremony…
Below is the list of winners for the 2011 Tony Awards, so far. (Winners will be indicated, as they are announced throughout the evening, in bold face with *). (Scroll to the bottom for early…
Even in his most popular work, Tennessee Williams offered a hint of what the New York Times recently called (in an editorial about Anthony Weiner) the "profoundly squalid and offensive." It …
"Lysistrata Jones," a new musical being staged in a church gymnasium, should be very annoying. It takes Aristophanes' bawdy anti-war comedy out of Greece and turns it into "Grease." The sold…
Mario Fratti's four short "gay-themed" plays all end with a twist, but the biggest twist is how little any of them say about contemporary gay life.
Quiz: What musical has won most theater awards so far this season? How is Daniel Radcliffe being a good sport? John Malkovich will appear on stage in a musical about a serial killer, true or…
The finale to This season’s finale of American Idol, which crowned 17-year-old Scotty McCreery after tallying an unprecedented 122 million votes, included a number of guest performers,…
It has 75 performers, 88 crew members, stunts with names like “Wheel of Death,” and even a plot of sorts — and it opens in June. The difference between “Spider-Ma…
Tony Nominee Derek McLane’s approach to set design
What you notice first in Derek McLane's studio are not the scale models of his theatrical sets—he has designed almost two dozen…
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse.” “You don’t understand! I coulda had class. I …
Spider-Man's composer Bono tells Nightline that he and The Edge agree with the negative reviews of Spider-Man. “We really should have known that this is an incredibly difficult thing t…
Steven Spielberg is working on a Broadway musical — sort of. He is the executive producer of “Smash,” a TV series on NBC in the fall about the making of a musical about Mar…
Below are the winners of the 2011 Obie Awards, given for 56 years by the Village Voice for achievement Off-Broadway Performance F. Murray Abraham, sustained excellence of performance André …
Tony nominee Todd Rosenthal designs “The Mothef**ker With the Hat”
More complicated than telling people the name of The Motherf**ker With The Hat is describing the set, especiall…
This 70-minute drama, about a baseball player refusing to sing the national anthem after the death of his brother in Iraq, promises provocation but winds up largely an unsurprising sports …
The resumption of previews for “Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark,” with a new Playbill cover (the one at far right) managed not to upstage much else this week in New York theater, si…
By most accounts, the Broadway 2010-2011 had a high number of quality plays and musicals. But there were, by common agreement, some real clunkers too. There are SO many theater awards for qu…
A minister with a terminal illness presides over a Christmastime gathering of his estranged family in a play with appealing characters but marred by an overly slow pace.
As soon as the Tony Award nominations were announced at the top of this week in New York theater, theatergoers hurrahed and griped, sliced and diced. Some were delighted that The Scottsboro …
What does a woman want? What does a marriage mean? Is Socialism the answer? Was "My Fair Lady" a fluke? These are the questions raised by "A Minister's Wife," a musical adapted from one of G…
