5,808 stories by "Jonathan Mandell"
Nikki James, currently Eponine on Broadway in Les Miserables, made her debut on Broadway at the age of 19, and won a Tony for originating the role of Nabulungi in The Book of Mormon. "I'm a …
“Elaine Stritch, the brassy, tart-tongued Broadway actress and singer who became a living emblem of show business durability and perhaps the leading interpreter of Stephen Sondheim's w…
In The Long Shrift, a play that marks James Franco's debut as a New York stage director, a high school student is sentenced to ten years in prison for raping his date. But five years into hi…
CD Giveaway: Win the Broadway cast recording — released today both digitally and in stores – of “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar Grill,” starring Audra McDonald, who …
Near the end of Atomic, a musical about the making of the atom bomb, there is an arresting piece of stagecraft when the bomb at Hiroshima goes off: A Japanese couple were quietly speaking at…
Is there a live theater equivalent of the summer movie blockbuster? Yes! But instead of sequels, they are original cutting edge work " or lovely, familiar classics. Instead of blasts of hot …
During the summer, New York theater changes radically " thanks to the summer theater festivals. Some are outdoors (the others are air-conditioned.) Even New Yorkers who abandon the city for …
Before a showing of “West Side Story” at the United Palace Theater in February, Lin-Manuel Miranda (In the Heights), interviewed one of its stars, Tony and Academy Award winner R…
The casts of Wicked (ie. Christine Dwyer and Justin Guarini), Rocky (Andy Karl and Margo Seibert)  If/Then (LaChanze and James Snyder) sang and danced, and Stomp hit the stage once …
The cast of the forthcoming Broadway revival of “On The Town” joined with the top 20 in season 11 of So You Think You Can Dance for this thrilling opening number, choreographed b…
Who is an artist – and who gets to decide? Â Is it the IRS? Do you have to make a living at it? Do you have to have a degree in it? Do you have to be better than average at it? Do yo…
Musical theater that takes American history as its subject has been called a “vastly underexplored genre.” Here are some of the best known. Which is your favorite?
How well were you paying attention to the New York theater news in June — a lot of it oddness coming out of the Tony Awards? Answer these ten questions and see.
Forty-five years after the Stonewall Riots launched the modern gay rights movement, the annual LGBTQ Pride Parade has grown into a celebration with some 300 different “marching conting…
Worrying enhances creativity, some new studies suggest, which is surely a cause for celebration in the back stages, posh offices, warren holes, wait stations and (at least in one case) polic…
Shia LaBeouf was handcuffed and removed by police during intermission of a performance of Cabaret,and charged with one count of criminal trespassing and two counts of disorderly conduct. He …
This American Life’s “The Radio Drama Episode” a the Brooklyn Academy of Music in June, 2014 included a performance from “21 Chump Street: The Musical,” perform…
“The theater is the only institution in the world which has been dying for 4,000 years and has never succumbed. It requires tough and devoted people to keep it alive.”-John Stein…
Eighteen years after his murder at the age of 25, Tupac Shakur has made it to Broadway, in a show that has taken on the awesome challenge of weaving 21 songs and poems by the charismatic rap…
In a Master Class at Sardi's with a group of drama teachers, Stephen Sondheim revealed some of the changes that Disney is making to its film adaptation of the stage musical "Into The Woods."…
This is the “Kilroy” list: “Each play is either unproduced or has had one professional production.” Authors include Theresa Rebeck, Pulitzer Prize winner Paula Vog…
1st half – Act 1 2nd half – Act 2 Offside – Upstaging Extra time – mega mix Penalties – curtain call Half time – intermission Coach – dance captain …
Neil Patrick Harris and the rest of the cast from the Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch perform the song “Sugar Daddy.” Hedwig won four Tonys in 2014: Best Revival of a …
Old soldiers never die and neither do old Tony winners " at least judging from the omission of the In Memoriam video from the Tony broadcast last week. Complaints against this snub were drow…
"The sometimes ugly rhetoric that people use about older audience members is in part fueled by resentment over their dominance and power. It is also, let us be frank, because there is a high…