5,870 stories by "Jonathan Mandell"
The last of the 19 shows that made up Broadway Fall 2012  opened this past week, and the assessments of the season have begun. So far: meh. Critical consensus: We are not living in Br…
I once asked Luciano Pavarotti what opera meant; the great tenor gave me a baffled look, but he answered that opera was not difficult to comprehend. Farmers played opera in barns to increase…
It is easy to see 45th Street this week as the Tale of Two Mamets. David Mamet's new play, "The Anarchist" is a verified flop, set to close two weeks after it opened. Meanwhile, "Glengarry G…
Here are the ten best plays or musicals that opened (mostly in New York) in 2012, according to 10 critics, including me. That is what this post will wind up being, anyway. I don't have 10 ye…
Clifford Odets' Golden Boy, first presented on Broadway at the Belasco Theater 75 years ago, is back at the Belasco, for the second-ever Broadway revival about a man who defies his family an…
Can theater teach us anything about love? Three very different shows I reviewed this week all believe so " the Flux Theatre Ensemble’s production of "Hearts Like Fist,” "The Drun…
When I first heard about "The Anarchist," David Mamet's play pitting Patti LuPone as an incarcerated violent radical against Debra Winger as her jailer, I immediately pictured the townhouse …
T'was not a great week to be jolly for many in New York theater, with stars leaving shows, closing announcements, and Broadway openings marred by pans. On the other hand, there was some good…
just a wearying lecture~Hollywood Reporter strangely gassy~New York Magazine heavily embroidered slip of a play….where ideas on eschatology, etymology, phenomenology and, yes, criminology …
James Cagney’s tip for actors:Â ”Never relax, and mean what you say.” Sir Ralph Richardson: Before you leave the dressing room, look in the mirror and ask yourself: ̶…
Broadway 2012 was not the worst year ever, but there were so many shows that flopped, critically and/or commercially, that the competition for worst of the year is fierce! You decide: Take t…
How well were you paying attention to New York theater news this month? The answers to the 10 questions below were in my New York Theater blog or in my Twitter feed,@NewYorkTheater
After departing "Smash," the television series she created that looks with fluttering heart at the making of a Broadway musical, Theresa Rebeck apparently has changed her mind about New York…
"As working, and sometimes non-working, actors, we’re focused on paying the bills. It’s only in the rehearsal room and on the stage that we can remember why we do all this. Becau…
Of the ThaBroadway shows still to open this season, four will do so by the end of next week: Dead Accounts, this Thursday, November 29 The Anarchist, December 2 Golden Boy, December 6 Glenga…
The worst, and most common, insult a critic typically levels at a play is that it resembles a TV series. But at its best, television gives us the time to understand a character more deeply t…
About half an hour into the play "Sorry" at the Public Theater yesterday afternoon, the actor Jay O. Sanders suddenly announced: "Somebody is ill. Is there a doctor in the house?" A woman in…
Call them theater lovers or theatre lovers or drama queens or Broadway Babies: If you have somebody in your life who goes to shows, you can choose among many gifts to make them happy " from …
Nov 29, 2012: Dead Accounts - MUSIC BOX THEATRE Dec 02: The Anarchist - JOHN GOLDEN THEATRE Dec 06: Golden Boy - BELASCO THEATRE Dec 08: Glengarry Glen Ross …
Turkey Lurkey Time comes closest to the official Broadway anthem for Thanksgiving. It is a song with music by Burt Bacharach and lyrics by Hal David from Act 1 of Promises, Promises, that is…
"A Christmas Story," a musical based on the beloved holiday movie about a Midwestern family during the Depression, does "Annie" one better: It features TWO actual dogs rather than one, and m…
It was a giant week in New York theater, or at least a “Giant” week — one of the shows that opened in this busy week. Three shows opened on Broadway " and one has already c…
The audience applauded David Hyde Pierce and Sigourney Weaver but not the other four cast members when they first entered the stage at the performance I saw of Christopher Durang's new play,…
Robert Falls, the artistic director of  the Goodman Theater in Chicago, recalls the way he was able to get good seats with his subscription to the Lyric Opera. One day Danny Newman, who h…
