5,771 stories by "JONATHAN MANDELL"
Below is a list of theater books to read in 2024, which I divide into three groups:  2. Four books (all but one published in 2023) that I've been meaning to read and might actually do …
An 89-year-old Broadway producer complaining about Broadway ticket prices was the most popular post yet again on my NewYorkTheater.me blog in 2023, although the post is from May, 2022. It ju…
Here are the ten biggest stories about New York theater in 2023, some of them major recurring issues, some of them events, most of them serious, one of them silly, some glimpsing the sublime…
My last-minute guide to New Year's Eve in New York City, when 2023 turns into 2024, features information on: Times Square.Dining OutTheater: Plays as parties, Broadway show schedule, family …
The last week of the year is, if not time of reckoning, at least summing up: Top 10 Lists of Top 10 NY Theater in 2023: Merrily, Sweeney, Purlie "Merrily We Roll Along" is the most acclaimed…
In this traditional day of moviegoing, here are ten new feature films, most of them only available in cinemas, ranked from those I most enjoyed to those I most regret seeing. American Fictio…
When, near the end of the new movie musical "The Color Purple,"  Fantasia Barrino as Celie sings "I don't need you to love me….I'm beautiful, yes I'm beautiful, and I'm here," …
Below are some of the people from the theater community who died in 2023, listed alphabetically. Click on any photograph (and click the ⌽ button) to read the caption, most of which link…
"Merrily We Roll Along" is the most acclaimed show among theater critics whose lists of top 10 New York theater for 2023 are featured below, and in a poll I took of some 250 theatergoers.…
From the Ukrainian infant-actress breastfed on stage at the beginning of the year, to the four old bums who collapse on top of one another at the end, 2023 has been full of memorable moments…
Below are my favorite stage performances from 2023, listed (more or less) alphabetically " first by 20 outstanding individual human beings (some of them in pairs or trios), then four ensembl…
Below is a list of worthwhile shows I saw in 2023 that are still running, but closing within the next month. Some I liked better than others; a few I loved. I list them according to their…
"Appropriate," the last play to open on Broadway in 2023 and one of the best-acted productions of the year,  tells the story of a dysfunctional family who reunite after the death of th…
I asked Charles Dickens yesterday why  "A Christmas Carol" has been adapted for the stage more often, and on more stages, than any other novella in history. "I believe it is because th…
"Buena Vista Social Club" is electrifying as a concert of fifteen classic Cuban songs performed in Spanish by multitalented singers, dancers and musicians who are easily as vibrant as the ve…
American Fiction" is both a smart, funny satire of the way the white establishment pigeonholes Black artists, and a warmhearted if cool-eyed family drama. No small reason for its appeal …
Below is the schedule of Broadway shows for Christmas Week. Only three shows have performances on Christmas Day, which falls on a Monday this year, the traditional day off for most of Broadw…
It's refreshing to come across a theater book entitled "Crisis" that's not about the crisis in theater, but about every other crisis in the world " a book that makes the case that theater ha…
In the videos below, Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff, and Lindsay Mendez record the song "Old Friends" and the title song from "Merrily We Roll Along," the Stephen Sondheim/ George Furth mu…
In a glitzy silver pantsuit, Rachel Bloom enters on stage and at once introduces us to her dog, who is sitting in the lap of a handler (or is it Bloom's husband?) in the front row of the Orp…
It wasn't until Jenn Freeman was thirty-three years old and a well-established dancer and choreographer that her therapist diagnosed her as having Autism Spectrum Disorder. "To arrive at a d…
Theater in 2023 was barely surviving but also thriving, depending on which end-of-year assessment you read (see below), but everybody agrees on Stephen Sondheim as the bright spot of the yea…
"How To Dance in Ohio" is a musical adaptation of a 2015 documentary film of the same name about a group of autistic young adults at a counseling center in Columbus, Ohio, who, as part of th…
What did you think was the best of the thirty-five shows opened on Broadway in 2023? Which was the worst? Take the two polls below. Judge the quality of the show as you see it, not how it di…
