5,851 stories by "Jonathan Mandell"
This solo play co-written and starring "Severance" actress Jen Tullock is on one level the story of lesbian author Frances Reinhardt, who has written a new book about her abusive childhood i…
Playwright Bess Wohl wants us to know about the time before she was born when "women's lib" was neither pejorative nor ironic. In "Liberation," her warm, funny play opening tonight on Broadw…
"Jewish Plot" starts as an entertaining resurrection of a (fictitious) 19th century play about antisemitism written by an obscure British playwright, and descends into a kind of mad poetr…
Americans like to be scared even during scary times; how else to explain Halloween, a deliberately scary theater festival, and "The Phantom of the Opera," which persists beyond Broadway, wit…
The best thing to say about Bedlam's irreverent, sister-centered  riff on "Pride and Prejudice" is that it demonstrates once again the enduring appeal of Jane Austen's centuries-old ch…
Election Day in New York is Tuesday, November 4, 2025, for mayor of New York and other city-wide and local offices, as well as six ballot proposals. Below is what you need to know in order t…
A French novel, several silent horror films, a Broadway musical, a site-specific work of immersive theater: It all has led to….Joshua William Gelb's closet. "Many people have asked why we …
Saul Rubinek long has wanted to play Shylock, a role that his father, a Yiddish actor and Holocaust survivor, never got a chance to play. But now that he has finally gotten to star in "The M…
 The best scene in "Dimension Zero" features icons of New York City: individual slices of pepperoni pizza who dance back into a whole pie, a Greek coffee cup, a yellow cab, a row of skysc…
"Moonstruck," John Patrick Shanley's movie comedy about a fiery Italian American romance, won him (and Cher) an Oscar in 1988, the same year that Shanley's play "Italian-American Reconciliat…
Jordan E. Cooper's face might not look so happy in "Oh Happy Day!" " or, clockwise, Hugh Panaro's in "Masquerade," Nichelle Lewis's in "Ragtime,"Â Â Ari'el Stacher's in "Other." But most…
After Ari'el Stachel won a Tony Award for his charming and hilarious Broadway debut in the role of a sexy Egyptian trumpet player in "The Band's Visit," he was made so anxious by all the con…
There will be more than 2,500 peaceful protests throughout the United States " including in each of the five boroughs of New York City " to say in one voice: "The president thinks his rule i…
Below is a video of the full two hours of the first of two televised general election debates between three candidates for New York City mayor: State Assemblyman and Democratic Party nominee…
The revival of "Ragtime" has taken on more of the epic feel to which it aspires, thanks to its move from an Encores series concert to a full Broadway production on the Vivian Beaumont's gran…
 "Oh Happy Day!" may sound like church: The plot retells the Biblical story of Noah's Ark;  a divinely-dressed trio called the Divines belt out original gospel songs; we hear theolo…
Midway through "Masquerade," the Phantom of the Opera himself suddenly grabbed hold of me, his touch light and electric, and pushed me aside. The masked musician and magician had crept up be…
How do you respond to a creeping authoritarian takeover? Resistance takes many forms. This coming Saturday, people will take to the streets throughout the country for "No Kings" protests. Th…
What's surprising about the fight over Christopher Columbus is not that this year's official White House proclamation about Columbus Day crudely attacks "left-wing arsonists" for tryin…
Election Day in New York is Tuesday, November 4, 2025, for mayor of New York and other city-wide and local offices, as well as six ballot proposals. Here is what you need to know in order to…
Diane Keaton, who died today at the age of 79, made her Broadway debut in the original company of "Hair" (above is a publicity photograph of her for the musical.) But the actress who went on…
What goes into the making of a musical theater production? The process, from audition to curtain call, is presented in verse and illustrations about the people involved, from director to …
After an alarming vacation in Germany, British writer Sally Carson wrote "Crooked Cross" about the rise of Nazism as told through its effect on one ordinary German family.  It was publ…
"Art" is not about art, and it's not really about friendship. If it's about anything at all, the Broadway revival of Yasmina Reza's 30-year-old play is about the celebrity of Bobby Cannavale…
Dylan Mulvaney has chosen an obviously ironic title for her extravagantly staged solo show about her viral life story as a targeted trans social media celebrity. But she also exudes an innat…
