5,771 stories by "JONATHAN MANDELL"
A Crisis in America's Theaters made the front page this week: "There is less theater in America these days. Fewer venues. Fewer productions. Fewer performances," Michael Paulson wrote at …
There is a lesson that seems aimed squarely at the Governor of Florida in this lively musical for young children, which features cheeky, wacky songs about spider-bitten butts, earth-destroyi…
I laughed at the very first of the many silly sight gags in "The Cottage," as performed by the delightful Laura Bell Bundy, and was surprised and amused by the initial twist in this twisty t…
"Here Lies Love" can be viewed in distinctly different ways.  That's literally  true " one can see the show while standing on the main floor in the midst of the action or seated …
"Lightweight" is a sly and somewhat misleading title for Amie Enriquez's solo show about her year-long stay at an addiction treatment center: Sly because the play is about her eating disorde…
First, the good news: The musical features music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim with a book by David Ives (whose best-known work of theater is probably the Tony-nominated play Venu…
If the average theatergoer were asked about "deaf plays," they might think of William Gibson's "The Miracle Worker" or Mark Medoff's "Children of a Lesser God," both Tony-winning Broadway pl…
They all look pregnant, their bellies as big as the basketball they're dribbling and shooting at the beginning ofCandrice Jones's play "Flex."  But four of these five high school se…
Lady Torrance and Valentine Xavier, two would-be innocents who feel corrupted and brutalized by circumstance, meet on his thirtieth birthday, after he's spent his youth as a drifter and a se…
SAG-AFTRA, the union representing more than 160,000 film and television actors, last Friday joined the picket lines with the 11,000 members of the Writers Guild, who have been on strik…
In "Theater Camp," Ben Platt and Mary Gordon as camp counselors Amos and Rebecca-Diane confront a 12-year-old camper who's just delivered an intense emotional performance during a rehearsal …
Below is a selection of New York theater opening* in July, presented in a day-by-day calendar, including two Broadway shows,  David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's "Here Lies Love" arguably…
How well were you paying attention to theater news this past month? Answer these ten questions to find out. Plus: An impossibly challenging bonus question. Loading…
It's evident as soon as John Douglas Thompson opens his mouth as King Claudius that director Kenny Leon's production of "Hamlet," running for free at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park…
George Salazar, who sang the show-stopper "Michael in the Bathroom" in "Be More Chill" on Broadway, was one of more than two dozen performers to join the Tony-nominated composer of "Be More …
Below is a manageable list of theater books " recently published or soon to be" that look to be good summer reads. These are mostly memoirs and biographies of fascinating playwrights and per…
When I first saw Yeshiva-educated stand-up comic Alex Edelman's solo show about his attendance at a meeting of white supremacist antisemites, it didn't occur to me to compare him to Daniel i…
Three Broadway plays are closing next Sunday, July 2: Fat HamPrima FacieThe Sign in Sidney Brustein's Window  " and four more Broadway shows are closing during the summer: Life of Pi and …
Below is an alphabetical listing of the 8 Broadway plays or musicals currently running (two of them only until next week!) that feature LGBTQ+ characters " some centrally, some peripherally;…
Sheldon Harnick, who died this morning at the age of 99, was a lyricist best-known for "Fiddler on the Roof," but it was just one of the musicals he wrote with Jerry Bock. In the first video…
One more time indeed!  Like "& Juliet," this jukebox musical features songs made popular by Britney Spears; like "Bad Cinderella,"  its central character is a rebellious vers…
Broadway in Bryant Park, the free weekly lunchtime concerts performed by the casts from current Broadway shows, has announced its schedule for Thursdays in July. Below the schedule are vi…
John Rubinstein, a Tony-winning theater veteran who made his Broadway debut 51 years ago originating the role of Pippin, a cheerful curly-haired young prince looking forward to a life of adv…
Fifteen years after Mike Daisey created a show called "How Theater Failed America" he provides a blunt update in the essay below: Nothing has changed and, after COVID, former theatergoers "h…
"Raisin in the Sun" was the first play that Kenny Leon directed on Broadway and it offered plenty of parallels with his own childhood in St. Petersburg, Florida, where he was met with hostil…