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Jonathan Mandell

Jonathan Mandell (he/him) has written about the theatre as a critic and journalist for a range of publications, including Playbill, American Theatre magazine, the New York Times, Newsday, Backstage, npr.com and cnn.com. He currently blogs at NewYorkTheater.me and posts on Blue Sky, ‪@newyorktheater.bsky.social 

Two people in clown costumes looking at each other.
Essay

Xhloe and Natasha on the Fringe

23 September 2025

Xhloe and Natasha made Edinburgh Festival Fringe history with three consecutive award-winning shows, but even the most successful Fringe acts struggle to break even. Jonathan Mandell sits down with the clown duo to discuss the energy, strategy, and effort required to take the world’s largest arts festival by storm.

An actor in a red robe and white mask in a stairway with another actor in a black backless dress.
Essay

Toward a New Understanding of Immersive Theatre After Three Days in Malta

21 July 2025

Teatru Malta’s 1881 infused immersive theatre with game design, all in a dark, castle-like setting. After witnessing 1881 and other Maltese performances, critic Jonathan Mandell is left questioning the evolving forms and definitions of immersive theatre.

A performer in front of a virtual background with trees and bright sunlight.
Essay

Digital Theatre Is Here To Stay: Paula Vogel’s Bard at the Gate

13 March 2023

Theatre critic Jonathan Mandell discusses virtual playwriting series Bard at the Gate and looks at the impact and future of digital theatre.

A large, titled puppet depiction of the American designer Robert Moses with two tiny brown-skinned puppets in front.
Essay

Puppets Are Immigrants Too

How New York City Turned Ancient Traditions into Cutting-Edge Art

24 August 2021

Jonathan Mandell shares his experience at New York City’s first-ever official Puppet Week.

Actors holding various bright-colored plants in the middle of a park with an audience circled around them.
Essay

Island Hopping in New York City for Theatre: How Live, In-Person Theatre Is Being Reimagined as it Reemerges

2 August 2021

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.

A blue thing surrounded by indoor palm trees.
Essay

Pandemic Dreams

8 June 2021

Jonathan Mandell reflects on his experience of A Dozen Dreams, an art installation that began when twelve New York City-based women playwrights were asked: “What are you dreaming about right now?”

two actors onstage
Essay

Pandemic Theatre Aesthetic

7 April 2020

Jonathan Mandell examines the new theatrical landscape brought on by COVID-19 and discusses the emerging aesthetic—one that is low-tech, low-key, one-on-one, close-up.

hyper-realistic human-like puppets
Essay

Ashes and the Serious, Eerie Art of Puppetry

3 April 2019

Jonathan Mandell discusses the Plexus Polaire puppetry show Ashes, recently on at HERE in New York City.

an actor onstage
Essay

The Boys in the Band and the Limitations of Gay History on Stage

7 June 2018

Jonathan Mandell writes about The Boys in the BandThe Gentleman Caller, and 217 Boxes of Dr. Henry Anonymous, and discusses their portrayal of gay male characters.

Essay

Broadway in a Year of Reckoning

3 May 2018

New York critic Jonathan Mandell gives us a glimpse at the recently ended Broadway season, and reflects on how these shows have handled the past as a way to adapt to our current sociopolitical moment.

Essay

Symphonie Fantastique and the Triumph and Trap of Puppetry

5 April 2018

Jonathan Mandell reflects on the twentieth anniversary production of Basil Twist's Symphonie Fastastique at HERE Arts Center in New York City.

Essay

Black Pain On Stage

1 March 2018

Jonathan Mandell looks at several current plays that depict violence by or against African Americans, including LeKethia Dalcoe's A Small Oak Tree Runs Red, Gabriel Jason Dean's Terminus, and Althea Harris's Is God Is.

Essay

Hastened by Technology, Hindered by Public Attitudes

7 February 2018

Jonathan Mandell reports on the accessibility panel at BroadwayCon, which explained the forthcoming changes aiming toward a future theatre seamlessly accessible for everyone, all the time.

Essay

Do Words Matter on Stage?

1 February 2018

Jonathan Mandell looks at six theatre pieces in January that used words in unorthodox ways—as gibberish, or out-of-sync with the action; some didn’t use words at all.

Essay

Theatre and Resistance

Ten Things You Can Do

25 January 2018

Jonathan Mandell reports on the Martin Segal Theatre Center's 2018 Theatre and Resistance Symposium, and lists ten things theatre community can do right now to make a change.

Essay

A Room in India

If All Theatres were Demolished, Would Anybody Care?

4 January 2018

This month Jonathan Mandell looks at A Room in India by French company Théâtre du Soleil, which considers the question ‘If all theatres were demolished tomorrow, would anybody miss them, and for how long?’

Essay

Tennessee Williams, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and Cockroaches Glass Guignol

The Brother and Sister Play

7 December 2017

Jonathan Mandell gets a grip on Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play, a mashup with Tennessee Williams, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, and cockroaches—the debut production at the Mabou Mines Theater.

Essay

Will Future Storytelling Include Live Theatre?

15 November 2017

Jonathan Mandell looks at the Future of Storytelling festival in Staten Island, New York, which featured exhibits, productions, and performances using virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality techniques and technology.

Essay

When the Playwright Has an Agenda

2 November 2017

Jonathan Mandell takes on two recent plays based on real events, considering productions of Ferguson and The Siege.

Essay

Caregivers on Stage

Mary Jane, The Treasurer, The Cost of Living

5 October 2017

Jonathan Mandell looks at three plays about caregiving on stage recently in New York.

Essay

Dramatizing Dystopia

7 September 2017

Jonathan Mandell runs down the recent past and present dramatization of dystopian novels on stage, including 1984, and asks whether what’s on stage is reflected in the political era that we are in now.

Essay

Antigone in Ferguson

Dramatizing the Divide Between Law Enforcement and Community

3 August 2017

Jonathan Mandell writes about Theater of War’s production of Antigone in Ferguson in Brownsville, Brooklyn.

Essay

Politics, Propaganda, and Aesthetics

Sorting through Building the Wall

4 June 2017

Jonathan Mandell compares the countrywide reaction to the anti-Trump play Building the Wall with its reception in New York, where it's closing a month early.

Essay

Power Struggle on Broadway

Escapist vs. Socially Conscious Shows in the 2016–17 Season

4 May 2017

Jonathan Mandell looks at the Broadway season that just ended, dividing it into escapist entertainment and socially engaged theatre, and wondering which is more needed in times like these.

Essay

Come From Away

Resenting the Decency in This 9/11 Musical

6 April 2017

 Jonathan Mandell considers his own and other reactions to the Broadway musical Come From Away, which have as much to do with what's happening in the world as on stage.

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