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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 

Photo from Bum Phillips All American.
Essay

Sex, Death, Marriage, Greed and Football

Texas Playwright Kirk Lynn in New York

22 April 2014

Jonathan Mandell overviews five eclectic works by Texas playwright Kirk Lynn.

Two actors fight on stage in a boxing ring in Rocky.
Essay

The Broadway Effect in Rocky, Aladdin, Les Miz

3 April 2014

Jonathan Mandell looks at reocurring devices and techniques of spectacle in Broadway productions.

Photo from The Death of Bessie Smith.
Essay

How a Non-Political Play Can Create Political Theater

6 March 2014

Jonathan Mandell looks at New Brooklyn Theatre's production of The Death of Bessie Smith, and the ways theatre sparks political change.

Essay

10 Lessons for Theater, from TEDxBroadway 2014

26 February 2014

The question from TEDxBroadway 2014: How do you make the magic of theatre?

Photo from The House of Connelly.
Essay

The Group Theatre, Revisited

6 February 2014

Jonathan Mandell writes about the NYC-based ReGroup Theater, and their exploration of the Group Theatre, founded by Harold Clurman, Cheryl Crawford and Lee Strasberg

Still from The Sound of Music Live.
Essay

9 Questions that August

Osage County and The Sound Of Music Provoke About Theater

6 January 2014

Regular contributor Jonathan Mandell delves into the worlds of August Osage County and The Sound of Music Live to discuss theater's relevancy – and whether we can count televised adaptions as theater.

Essay

Why Are So Many Stage Accents So Terrible?

20 December 2013

Jonathan Mandell sets out to figure out just why so many stage accents fall flat for him. What is it about the theater that breeds these mistakes? And what can we learn from the film industry?

Essay

8 Ways Television Is Influencing Theater

16 October 2013

Jonathan Mandell shares insight on how television is influencing theatre.

Essay

Too Much Theater? The New Marathons

4 September 2013

In this essay, Jonathon Mandell invesitgates theatre marathon and interviews Mike Daisy.

Skyline of New York City.
Essay

Is New York City part of America? Off-Broadway and the Regional Theater Tony Award

26 July 2013

Jonathan Mandell writes about the inclusion of off-Broadway theaters in the Regional Theater Tony Award, and why we should end the rhetoric of us vs. New York.

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