True Stories - 2021 - Off-Broadway Articles Page 2

Home of boundary-pushing performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, arts charity and year-round cultural hub, Summerhall Arts has announced the first seven shows of its Edinburgh Fringe 2026 festival programme.

Following a successful London run, Bryony Kimmings will present her acclaimed show Bog Witch on a comprehensive tour across the UK and Ireland from March to October 2026.

PNC Broadway in Kansas City has announced the 2026–27 season for Music Hall and the Kauffman Center. The 2026–27 PNC BROADWAY IN KANSAS CITY season will include the following national touring Broadway productions at Music Hall.

Next month, 54 Below, Broadway’s Supper Club & Private Event Destination, will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond, including Vanessa Williams, Tony Danza and more. 

Klarna presents Latitude Festival has revealed Sir Lenny Henry for an exclusive UK music festival performance as part of its landmark 20th anniversary comedy lineup.

Milwaukee Repertory Theater will introduce a series of new commissions and premieres as part of its expanded John D. Lewis New Play Development Program, supported by a significant $1 million donation.

Wagner College Theatre has revealed that James Still is the winner of the 2026 Stanley Drama Award for, Haunt Me. As fiction and reality blur onstage, Haunt Me becomes a surreal, compassionate exploration of identity, memory, and creation.

FRIGID New York and The Apollo will present the 17th season of the Obie Award-winning The Fire This Time Festival, a platform for playwrights of African and African-American descent to write and produce evocative material for diverse audiences.

WinterWorks, Centaur Theatre's festival dedicated to adventurous, experimental, and cutting-edge performance, will return this winter. WinterWorks has evolved into a dynamic showcase of what's next in Canadian performance.

If “& Juliet” works at all, it’s because it commits to the premise without apology: a Shakespearean remix told through the lens of pop music, meta-theatre, and a general belief that stories never really die, they just get re-written. This touring production of the still-running Broadway musical leaned into this ethos with a cast that understood the assignment – treating the material with enough sincerity to make it land, but enough wryness to make it feel like commentary.

In January of 2026, 54 Below will present some of the brightest stars from Broadway, cabaret, jazz, and beyond, including Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp, Matthew Morrison and many more. 

Actor and beloved drag icon Charles Busch reflects on his long career in cabaret as he prepares for his upcoming New Year’s Eve cabaret on 12/31, 7 pm at 54 Below.

The Jewish Museum and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the full lineup for the 35th annual New York Jewish Film Festival, returning to the Walter Reade Theater in Manhattan.

This new approach to the storytelling of Hadestown helped make me appreciate some of the compromises on the tour. And to further appreciate what they still maintained from the first tour and Broadway production. The set’s slightly modified (Hades’ door is more centered, for one), but we get to keep the band onstage. We get that dingy café feeling through the layout. We hold on to the iconic props – the rose, the candle, the guitar, the lamps – as well as the steampunk design of the costumes. The Workers are still a core five that inhabit both worlds and create their own, unspoken storylines through their movement and couplings. And the characters themselves are still the same, timeless figures that make Hadestown always feel like a new experience every time.

Premiere Stages at Kean University has revealed that three playwrights will have new plays developed as part of the 2025 and 2026 seasons: Mala Aria by Gloria Majule, Lia Del Mar by Dacyl Acevedo, and Effa Loves Baseball by Pia Wilson.  

The days when old fashioned musical comedies were drawn  from classic  love stories, silly high school antics and farces will always be tried and true. But more heady topics like mental illness, Alzheimers, race relations, big business, and corrupt governments also have found a place into the uniquely American canon of musicals. A ridiculously named musical, URINETOWN, is now playing at Shea's Smith Theatre, and the fine production by Second Generation Theatre not only entertains but provides much food for thought in this time of government unrest.

Coming Out, the Musical will make its Off-Broadway debut at The Incubator Festival 2025! Join us at The Theater Center Off-Broadway for an evening filled with heartwarming ballads and queer joy!

As the fight for women to have equal rights and opportunities has evolved, so has the presence of plays telling these stories. When I wrote my book, Women Writing Musicals: The Legacy that the History Books Left Out, the first-ever book about female musical theatre writers, I researched many musicals that are in this genre as well.

Performances are now underway for Beetlejuice the Musical’s third Broadway engagement at the Palace Theatre for a limited 13-week run through January 3, 2026. Meet the new cast of Beetlejuice here!

Bated Breath Theatre Company will present the World Premiere of DIRTY BOOKS, an immersive look at censorship and book banning. Learn more about the production here.

David Archuleta brought his EARTHLY DELIGHTS TOUR to Vancouver’s Hollywood Theatre on Monday September 22, delivering a set that balanced new material with familiar favourites. Supported by opening act, Alexandra John, the performance marked his first time in Vancouver, BC and his return to touring across North America after more than five years away.

Are you trying to plan your entertainment for the week or looking for a fun show to see this weekend? We have you covered with jazz, cabaret, comedy, and more! NYC has so many incredible events, but here are a few top picks to consider this week

Nicolas King knows the American songbook inside and out. His love to these tunes is infectious. His easy singing style belies a prodigious technique and a large emotional range.

A robust talk back series will follow select performances of The Whole of Time by celebrated Argentinian playwright Romina Paula in a translation by Jean Graham-Jones.

The National Theatre will bring a new, free exhibition to the Wolfson Gallery, The Greeks: Radical Reinvention from 9 September, journeying through past reimaginings of Greek tragedies produced on its stages.