‘Why do I know more about Rosa Parks than our history?”: the musical bringing Britain’s Black history to the stage by JN Benjamin

The story of the state’s targeting of 70s activists has been turned into a musical exploring a fascinating and relatively unknown period. It is a love letter to our elders, says its writer…

Juniper Blood at the Donmar Warehouse | Cast Interview by Official London Theatre

Lip and Ruth have left the city behind for a new life on a farm; trying to live differently, live better. But when Ruth’s stepdaughter and her provocative best friend arrive, this quiet ru…

A Proper Post on Ogden Nash by Trav S.D.

The title of the present post is because my previous one on Ogden Nash (1902-1971) focused on but a single poem. Was Ogden Nash the greatest writer of light verse who ever lived? That’s a …

“Athens Of The North” at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe by Margaret Rose

The expression ‘Athens of the North’, the title of the play in the present review, conjures up an Edinburgh in the Enlightenment period, a time when classical culture was much valued, 18…

A Parade for Parley Baer by Trav S.D.

Those who think Travalanche is a blog about obscure character actors have not been paying very close attention to what’s written here. There are scores of content areas here, and if there …

Maia Chao and Lena Engelstein in conversation with Nora Raine Thompson by Nora Thompson

Presenting the surreal is a way to get closer to the absurdity of reality. We are rehearsing the present, we are rewriting fictions as we go. And it makes me wonder about how we can rehearse…

Bess Wohl’s ‘Liberation’ Is Heading to Broadway This Fall by Alexis Soloski

The play, which explores the women’s movement of the 1970s and its reverberations in the present, was first staged last winter by Roundabout Theater Company.

Lee Lash: Vaudeville Scenic Painter by Trav S.D.

We have Kevin Fitzpatrick, Shepherd of The Lambs to thank for the present post, for he pointed me in the direction of painter Lee Lash (1864-1935). Lash had studied in Paris to be a proper f…

What I Saw at the Bicentennial by Trav S.D.

This is taken from a book project I’ve been working on for a number of years. I’ve tailored this section for the present moment and the 50th anniversary of the events described. Be warne…

Theater Books for Summer Reading 2025 by Jan Simpson

We’ve already had our first heat waves of the season—the temperature hit 101° in Central Park this past week!—which is a sure sign that summer is here. But for almost 20 years now, th…

Odds & Ends: Michelle Williams and Thomas Kail Team Up for Anna Christie, The Great Gatsby to Host Black Theatre Night and More by Broadway.com

Here's a quick roundup of stories you might have missed. Michelle Williams to Star in Eugene O'Neill's Anna Christie at St. Ann's Warehouse Tony and five-time Oscar nominee Michelle Will…

The 2025 JKTS Awards: Editors' Choice, Part One by JK

Editors' Choice, Part One Last week, you had your say with The 2025 JKTS Readers' Choice Awards (HERE). Now it is our turn! Today, we offer up our more serious awards, honoring those theate…

Miss Myrtle’s Garden review – immersion into a mindscape of sharp quips and memory slips by Anya Ryan

Bush theatre, LondonArtistic director Taio Lawson’s Bush debut shows the heartbreaking fallout of a 82-year-old mother whose acid tongue belies her faltering memory In Danny James King’s…

The Griffin Sisters’ Greatest Hits, by Jennifer Weiner by Emily Savidge

Jennifer Weiner’s latest novel follows two sisters from Philly who achieve pop-music stardom in the early 2000s that leads to an estrangement in the present day. It’s a relatable story o…

Trans History: From Ancient Times to the Present Day, By Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett by Rachel Bellwoar

A new graphic novel from Alex L. Combs and Andrew Eakett tackles the vast, varied, and longstanding history of trans folks around the world, combatting the ongoing erasure of trans lives. Ra…

Milk مِلْك review – there are no words for mourning Palestinian mothers by Arifa Akbar

Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre, LondonThe cast of six women and one man give extraordinary physical performances – but most devastating is the stillness that reflects their paralys…

The Crucible review – Miller’s resonant tale of terror given radical sense of humour by Arifa Akbar

Shakespeare’s Globe, LondonDirector Ola Ince brings absurdist comedy to Arthur Miller’s classic drama of Salem witch-hunting, now told partly through song There is never a time when Arth…

Back to the Future | July 7-19, 2025 by The Kennedy Center

Great Scott! Back to the Future, the acclaimed Broadway musical based on the classic movie of the same name, comes speeding back to the Kennedy Center. When Marty McFly finds himself transp…

Varied ‘Truths’ Clash in Zoetic Stage’s The Comeuppance by Bill Hirschman

Time, carrying the inevitability of mortality and exposing complex truths about our past, is the central vendor of the title in Zoetic Stage’s overwhelming drama The Comeuppance about a hi…

February-March 2025: Comic Book Violence, Inner Children, and Bad Princes by Nicole Serratore

All these princes need therapy.  Life got away from me with concerts, surgery, and a busy work project. Saw J-Hope's solo show, Hwasa's world tour, and got very buried in my job.  But the…

Broads on Broadway: Smash, Boop, Old Friends. Leslie Odom Jr Back in Hamilton. Stageworthy News of the Week by Jonathan Mandell

Female characters and performers dominated the shows that opened  this past week on Broadway, which the previous week had been dominated by shows featuring male characters and performers. …

In NYTW’s BECOMING EVE Being Jewish is Living in Paradox by Jeff Careyva

TRADITION: it’s what survives into the next generation, what parents and teachers pass along to their children, and what we find ourselves replicating for better or worse. If the present i…

Glengarry Glen Ross by Elyse Trevers

If you’ve seen the original David Mamet play or the movie version of “GlenGarry Glen Ross,” forget it and approach this revival with a fresh mind. Don’t compare the present cast to A…

Off-Broadway Review: “Ghosts” at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater (Extended through Saturday, April 26, 2025) by David Roberts

There are skeletons in Helena Alving’s (a tortured yet stalwart Lily Rabe) closet whose secrets she would rather not be revealed. More devastating to Helena than these skeletons is the bev…

AFTER 77 YEARS: “LOVE LIFE” RETURNS TO THE NY STAGE by Ron Fassler

Brian Stokes Mitchell and Kate Baldwin in 2025’s “Love Life” (photo by Joan Marcus).March 28, 2025: Theatre Yesterday and Today, by Ron Fassler You would think that the only musical …

Maybe Tomorrow by Scotty Bennett

"Maybe Tomorrow," written by Max Mondi and directed by Chad Austin, is a play about such a place and the person who created it. Inspired by a true story, Austin directs a cast of two in an e…

The Great Privation (How to flip ten cents into a dollar) by Tulis McCall

... two women are connected to a graveyard in Philadelphia.  Their presence spans centuries, beginning with 1832 and ending with the present.  This is an intriguing premise that, if nothin…

The week in theatre: The Seagull; Punch – review by Susannah Clapp

Barbican theatre; Young Vic, LondonCate Blanchett is magnetic – and maddening – as faded actor Arkadina in Chekhov’s supreme play about writers. Plus, James Graham’s bracing real-lif…

Interview: Abingdon Theatre Company’s Chad Austin & Max Mondi on What We Can Learn from MAYBE TOMORROW — “What Do We Owe to Each Other?” by Matt Smith

“It’s really hard to do anything when you don’t have much to look forward to. Because then you’re just stuck in the present. There’s nothing to do in the present. It’s here and t…

Review: The Past Haunts the Present in The Great Privation

A Tryal of Witches review – an enthralling memorial to Suffolk’s persecuted women by Chris Wiegand

Theatre Royal, Bury St EdmundsAn all-female cast deliver Tallulah Brown’s play about 17th-century East Anglians under threat of the self-styled Witchfinder General The past sings to the pr…