Review: JONAS GARDELL SHOW at Intiman

The show starts with Jonas coming in and being greeted by applause, but it's not really like it used to be in the old days, complains Jonas, back then it was applause, stomping feet and Vågen! Yes, that thing with Vågen, he has to explain to the younger audience, because you don't do that anymore. Then he goes out again and the audience has to redo and do it right. But it won't be quite right, because Jonas hears stiff legs and groans when the audience gets up and does the wave. He simply notes that the audience, like him, has aged. He himself turns 60 in November. Now he enters the bonus life, although it will not be the life he imagined, but it will be a life without Mark, a disappointment that needs to be reversed and which he partially processes through this show.

This is a show where you laugh with Gardell and not at him because most of the audience has aged with Gardell and there is a high recognition factor on many of the jokes. We have experienced the same things as him and the signature melody for Boktipset sits where it should and the sing-along is a fact. But even new behavior such as the question of "does the steps you take count if you haven't registered them in the mobile's pedometer" are so spot on.

True to his habit, he selects a few people in the audience to whom he returns, but the audience as a whole also receives both rice and praise. It is a constant interaction with the audience, it creates participation but sometimes it borders on repetitive, but usually it is saved with a laugh or a thoughtful grunt. A show with Gardell is equal parts laughs and seriousness. It is in the seriousness that the nerve is created and makes it a show that stands out. It burns in the sharp and pinpoint criticism of Jomshof as chairman of the justice committee: It becomes serious, important but also warm in the tribute to the twelve who participated in the first pride parade. It is there that we have the memorable and core of the show – the message that every step, second, laugh and life counts. You can't relive your life, that's the point!

The show is delivered in classic Gardell fashion. laughter and seriousness alternately - oscillating between nostalgia and current affairs - rapt, sharp and warm-hearted with a body language that gives an extra spice.

Få Broadway-nyheter på WhatsApp

Få de senaste uppdateringarna, nyheterna och exklusivt innehåll direkt i appen.

2026 Theater Fans' Choice Awards - Live Stats

Best Orchestrations - Top 3

1. Ethan Popp, The Rescues - The Lost Boys

24.9% of votes

2. Anders Eljas, Brian Usifer - Chess

13.1% of votes

3. William David Brohn - Ragtime

12.8% of votes

Vote Now! View Live Stats