Diep Tran

Pedro Pascal Reveals 2025 Finalists of Susan Smith Blackburn Prize The honor is the largest and oldest award recognizing women+ playwrights.

Pedro Pascal announcing the finalist of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize is even more delightful when you realized he did the Materialists, written by playwright Celine Song. We love an ally playbill.com/article/pedr...

There's a dystopian and unexplored aspect to Wicked where the entire reason the citizens of Oz started subjugating intelligent animals is because they wanted to eat them. Very Soylant green

I wonder what Chess would be like if a female playwright tried her hand at writing the book and made it about Florence, and her discovering her own brilliance after hiding behind two dysfunctional men. And maybe working with the CIA to help free her father

All the Changes Wicked: For Good Made to Act 2 of Wicked New songs, expanded scenes, more animals—oh my!

I think the least surprising thing about WICKED: FOR GOOD is it has the flaws and strength of the second act of Wicked. The most surprising thing: Wonderful is now a good number that actually furthers the plot. I break the film down here playbill.com/article/all-...

Life observation: if you think of exercise and eating well as something you’ll need to do your whole life, and not just a short term thing until you hit your goals—you’ll have long term results and you forgive yourself when your skip a workout or overeat. I tell myself as I skip running today

Speaks of how beloved Zohran is by New York that we're proud he made it through, and happy he didn't get arrested by ICE.

Anecdotally, now that I’m not posting on social as much as I used to, I am calmer and more patient. I’m so tired of looking at a screen that I’ve taken up sewing, running, listening to audio books, other IRL hobbies. Social media, the algorithm/incendiary kind, is a failed experiment

A Theory of Dumb What if the cause of Americans’ collective cognitive decline is, simply, each other?

“If we are getting dumber, there’s a good chance we made each other that way.” Really interesting article about how social media has exposed us to more noise than ever before, which has crippled our brains. There’s even data!

AI is going to use up all of our power and water, and all because tech bros are upset that no matter how much money they have, they will never have artistic talent. Why couldn’t they just invest in a Broadway show like normal rich people

After 83 Years and 2 Abandoned Attempts, Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth Is Finally a Musical Ethan Lipton's The Seat of Our Pants has arrived with a stellar cast, and the approval—and love—of Thornton Wilder's family.

I asked Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder's nephew, what he thought of SEAT OF OUR PANTS, the SKIN OF OUR TEETH musical. Surprisingly, he loved it, which is notable because there's been two previous failed attempts.

In all seriousness, one day I look forward to seeing the true version of Lempicka.

Crazy move still to not put it in the Wilson. But I also feel like putting in a runway platform on top of existing orchestra seats wouldn't be crazy? They did something similar to Rocky years ago.

At today's matinee of This World of Tomorrow, Tom Hanks' sci-fi romance play, a loveseat got stuck, instead of disappearing via lift. But instead of stopping the show, Tom Hanks just pushed the loveseat off the lift, gestured to stage management, and then continued with the seat. The real deal

Tell me more?

Between RAGTIME, CATS, and CHESS, the musical revival category at the Tonys is going to be a nail biter

Between CHESS, MERRILY WE ROLL ALONG, THE BAKER’S WIFE, the past few years have shown that with time and smart revisions, what was once a flop can become a hit. Really a good reminder that nothing is set in stone, especially not art

What I appreciate about Celine Song was her commitment in Past Lives and Materialists to having one of her main characters work in the New York theater scene, and showing how it’s a creative, humble life style. It also made me wish I’d seen her play Endlings, which gets reference in Past Lives

With Twelfth Night, Great Performances Is Showing That It Is Defunded But Not Defeated PBS is remaining steadfast in its mission to provide free access to the arts.

The starry Twelfth Night from Shakespeare in the Park airs tonight on PBS. I talked to Great Performances producer David Horn about his goal to create a library of American Shakespeare performances, Suffs coming to PBS next May, and surviving despite the Trump administration. Anyway, donate to PBS

'Wonderful and Harrowing': Tom Hanks on What It's Like to Be a Playwright The Oscar winner's This World of Tomorrow is playing the Shed. Hanks is not sure about Broadway just yet.

"Now bear with me here. Okay, this is the kind of stuff I talk about at dinner. So I'm going to drive you nuts." One of the most surreal conversations I've ever had, with Tom Hanks, where he told me about how the Atlantic Ocean was discovered and how he feels being a playwright

The Siegel crowd didn’t laugh at the jokes about the oligarchy owning politicians and cheered at the end when Jackie (played by Kristin Chenoweth) decides to keep building her gigantic house even after her daughter dies. Contrast that with the reviews. The two halves of America in a nutshell

Had the most surreal time at QUEEN OF VERSAILLES Saturday night. The real Jackie Siegel was in the room, along with her kids and friends, all dressed in pink. Jeanine Pirro was there too. And Jackie had her Pomeranian on her lap the whole time

At the airport and I am very impressed with professionalism of the TSA agents. Because if I was being forced to work even though I am not getting paid, especially at the crack of dawn, I would hate everybody

Let this sink in. The President of the United States is now appealing a court order forcing him to feed starving children.

😎😎😎😎 GOOD THINGS CAN STILL HAPPEN 😎😎😎😎

Martyna Majok Didn't Think She Could Write Another Play Until She Got Queens Right The Tony nominee premiered Queens in 2018. Now it's back, with a rewrite, fewer characters, and an enduring message.

Second: Martyna Majok's QUEENS, which is getting a very deserved remount, with a rewrite. She tells me how working on THE GREAT GATSBY helped her realize what QUEENS was trying to say: "the American Dream is a fallacy." Epic, long, time-spanning plays about women. That's what we need right now

Bess Wohl Was Once Told Liberation Was Unproduceable. Now It's on Broadway Directed by Whitney White, Liberation is a 2.5-hour epic about women doing something radical: talking about their lives.

I'm covering all the good plays this week about women. First: Liberation, where playwright Bess Wohl was told it would never see the light of day because there were too many women in it and it was too long. What a fool, the person who said that

Yesterday Dick Cheney died, I saw WICKED: FOR GOOD. Zohran won. All is as it should be. New York, there’s no place like home

Freedom is being able to get Long Island tomatoes and organic berries at 2 AM

Astoria, Queens is really proving why it’s the best neighborhood in NYC. We put out AOC and Zohran, plus Chip Cookies, Brooklyn Bagel, and King of Falafel. Feel free to sample our food and politics, then spread the message to your own neighborhoods

So proud of my fellow New Yorkers who rejected fascism, and reaffirmed our values as a city where we take care of each other and embrace joy instead of hate and division. Cheers to my fellow comrades!