5,837 stories by "JONATHAN MANDELL"
Betty Smith, Oscar Isaac, Rachel Brosnahan, Jessica Hecht, Parker Posey, Eric Bogosian, Lea Michele, Caridad Svich, Michael Heitzman, Will Davis, Lea Salonga, Constantine Maroulis, Andre De …
When "Sweeney Todd" was finally released as a movie musical in 2007, twenty-eight years after its debut on Broadway, Stephen Sondheim said "everyone who has attempted to translate a stage mu…
In honor of Women's History Month, here are the women playwrights who have won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama, an annual award given for "a distinguished play by an American author…dealing w…
What is it about the homeless that inspires such  groundbreaking theater? Last year, it was "Addressless," digital theater with gameplay. Now, "Love," something completely different, a…
A sleazy photographer convinces a naïve aspiring actress to pose naked for him. Didn't that happen to Irene Cara in "Fame" more than forty years ago?  And even then it felt trite an…
Below is a calendar of theater opening* in March 2023 in New York, including seven shows on Broadway: a new Andrew Lloyd Webber, revivals of Sondheim, Fosse and Jason Robert Brown, a classic…
One scene stands out in Thomas Bradshaw's adaptation of Chekhov for the wrong reasons. It's a play-within-the-play, in which the son of a famous actress stages a show that doesn't go over we…
There is so much love that Sarah Ruhl has put into this play, and into the book from which it's adapted, and into the letters and poems exchanged between Ruhl and Max Ritvo that make up the …
There's something of an inside joke tucked into Lorraine Hansberry's rarely-produced second Broadway play, which director Anne Kauffman has brought to life in a starry revival at BAM. The…
Before she authored the novel "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," Betty Smith wrote a play about the same character, Francie Nolan. Smith's novel, which follows Francie from young girlhood to the cu…
The 66th Obie Awards, which will be celebrated tonight, were announced over the weekend, Full list of Obie winnersAmong the 37 awards,  for shows presented between July 1, 2020, …
How well were you paying attention to New York theater in February? Answer these ten questions, plus a bonus question, to find out. Loading…
Today, the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the national opera theater of Ukraine held a concert called "Ukraine: Free and Unbreakable," and the theater community intern…
The ten most enlightening and entertaining non-fiction books about the American theater that have been published since 2013 have been works of history, criticism, biography and memoir. They …
Some movie critics called "The Whale" stagy , which I consider ironic, since I saw the stage play a decade ago, and, although both the play and the film are written by Samuel D. Hunter, I lo…
We're back in Idaho, a place I've viewed fondly for a decade, although I've never visited the state, because this is where playwright Samuel D. Hunter has set all his quietly amusing and pow…
Bad Behavior by Audiences… and by a Publisher? Are theater audiences behaving badly both on Broadway and in the UK? That's what the BBC, The Stage, The Guardian and Playbill reported.Â…
At least one President is almost always on Broadway, as the photo essay below once again makes clear. Last month there were five, although they looked a bit different than past stage portray…
"I am the director," a young man protested to Dame Edith Evans as she was giving instructions to the other cast members of a play in which she starred. "Never mind," she answered. "We'll fin…
Which of the ten movies nominated this year for the Best Picture Oscar would make the best play? The worst play? The best musical? I put this to a poll, below, now that I've seen all ten, an…
"Between Riverside and Crazy" is being "simulcast" for four more performances, starting tonight, the last chance to see this terrific production, which I loved both staged in person, a…
That Katie Holmes portrays a movie star in Anna Ziegler's play about two troubled Jewish marriages somewhat undercuts what's meant to be a significant moment near the end:Â Â Sophie (Sar…
There is a spectacular other-wordly train crash in "Avatar" that recalls the one in "The Fabelmans," which in turn explicitly mimics the one in Cecil B. DeMille's film "The Greatest Show on …
Shows currently on Broadway are full of romantic or at least sexy moments, as these scenes and shots from a dozen of them attest: click on any photograph to read the caption. From Funny Girl…
"Americans are tired of being played for suckers," President Joe Biden said at the State of the Union Address last week, asking Congress to "pass the Junk Fee Prevention Act so companies sto…