5,771 stories by "JONATHAN MANDELL"
"Here is Future" presents terrific actors in a half dozen thought-provoking new plays by acclaimed American playwrights, most of them women, all of them BIPOC.*Â Â There are also practic…
Baba Israel asked us to light up an imaginary joint, before he and his band rapped about the history and heroes of marijuana.  Ali Stroker marveled at how we were all creating communit…
New York City's first-ever official Puppet Week features, besides a fringe festival, exhibitions both downtown and (way) uptown, honoring the art of celebrated theater artists who work with …
What's an opening night without a red carpet? The second biannual International Puppet Fringe Festival of New York began with a parade of inanimate objects brought to life " a giant skeleton…
"Merry Wives," Jocelyn Bioh's adaptation of one of Shakespeare's least performed comedies, which officially opened Monday night, is supposedly set among African immigrants during present-day…
Live, in-person theater this summer in New York has been vigorous, innovative and outdoors, as I recount first-hand in an article for HowlRound. But theatergoers seem to be focusing their en…
While watching "Together Apart," the latest online anthology about life during the pandemic, I wondered: Will COVID-19 inspire great theater? Has a pandemic ever done so? Yes, Shakespeare…
Some of the legendary stories that make up Broadway lore are told by the theater stars who lived them in this PBS documentary that looks at Broadway from 1959 to the early 1980s, a sequel to…
The first thing anybody does in Dominique Morisseau's drama "Detroit '67," which Signature Theatre of Arlington is streaming online on Marquee TV through September 16, is put the Temptation'…
"Marie Antoinette,"Â Â David Adjmi's contemporary take on the "Let them eat cake" beheaded French queen, seems a baffling choice for the latest Zoom reading on Play-PerView. When Marin I…
The pandemic has given theater artists an opportunity to innovate like never before, their innovations (like digital theater) are here to stay " and these are good things, because the entire…
In the middle of "Critical Care,"Â Â Theater for a New City's original hour-long musical touring New York City streets and parks through September 12, a dancing chorus of nursing home re…
August, usually a downtime in the theater, is this year a month of excitement, anticipation…and uncertainty. Excitement: August theater events include not just play openings Off-Broadway, …
Below is a selective list of theater that is opening in August*, usually one of the relatively fallow months for theater, but now full of excitement…and anticipation. Although no shows are…
Humanitarians, honorees, money and masks made the theater news in July. How well were you paying attention? Take these 10 questions (plus a bonus question) to find out. Â Â Loading…
At a time when playwrights and actors are demanding to be treated as "arts workers" crucial to the economy, along comes this new book by Christin Essin, a former professional stagehand turne…
By Jonathan Mandell. Jonathan Mandell reflects on a number of live, in-person productions that have taken place in New York City over the course of summer 2021.
I did not react well to the news that the musical "Come from Away" would commemorate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by giving a free concert of the musical at the Lincoln Memorial in Washin…
Last week, the Public Theater canceled three performances of its production of "Merry Wives" in Central Park after learning a production member had tested positive for the coronavirus. The p…
It's just 35 minutes long, and available only until Sunday, but the free online excerpt from Signature's forthcoming new production of "Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992" is startling, in several …
The following five works " three festivals, one play, and one virtual preview of a future in-person production " are all ending Sunday, July 25, 2021. Those I've seen and especially recommen…
Marylouise Burke is one of the secret weapons of this collection of five original short plays. The familiar 80-year-old character actress appears in four of them, albeit just a brief cameo i…
How can you go wrong with Jason Alexander as a sleazy lawyer, Patti LuPone  as an avenging angel, and Santino Fontana as a conscience-stricken priest? The stellar cast of "Judgment Day…
The art of theater poster design is inextricably linked to its commercial appeal:"I must distill a two-and-a-half hour stage production into an image that is memorable and eye-catching, but …
Off Broadway, like Broadway, is in transition. It's also returning with a flourish. It also (unlike Broadway) has already opened! The Lucille Lortel Foundation announced today it has purchas…
