All articles from Broad Street Review
Darnelle dives into June 2026 theater with a pair of interviews featuring directors Ontaria Kim Wilson and Dan Rothenberg, and actor Jameka Monet Wilson.
Trans and gender-expansive singers often face a rigid classical music performance tradition that makes it difficult to participate, but the Transcendent Choir of Philadelphia is changing tha…
At Theatre Exile, The Great Privation (How to Flip Ten Cents into a Dollar) toggles between Philadelphia’s problematic past and imperfect present. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
A notable new exhibition at Delaware Art Museum explores two eras of major government investment in the arts: the New Deal and the lesser-known Nixon-era Comprehensive Employment and Trainin…
A new play by Philly artist Carlo Campbell at Theatre in the X helps to kick off the inaugural ArtPhilly What Now: 2026 festival, but it needs more work to create a dramatic whole from commu…
The Philadelphians closed their 2025-26 season with a stirring program of Gershwin and Bernstein, featuring superstar French pianist Hélène Grimaud and the Philadelphia Orchestra debut of …
James Ijames helms a new production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson at Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, and the show is worth the trip to Center Valley for anyone in the Philly area.…
Five local arts organizations join forces to launch PrideAF, the Pride Arts Festival; a Fringe-esque series of performances taking place all across the city in June. Mina Reinckens previews.
Gail Obenreder rounds up classical musical performances in and around the city, with a number of festivals decorating June.
BalletX returns to Fairmount Park with a new work inspired by Antonio Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons. Camille Bacon-Smith previews.
Camille Bacon-Smith previews June dance events and performances, from BalletX, PHILADANCO!, Chocolate Ballerina Company, and more.
The ODUNDE festival has become one of Philadelphia’s largest celebrations, and as it celebrates 51 years, what about its origins and its future are important now more than ever? Constance …
A pair of series return for the summer in Sistah Soul Series and the Philadelphia Chinese Lantern Festival, Two Outta Three rediscovers love, and the Naked Comedy Show. Kyle V. Hiller rounds…
We on the BSR team were devastated to hear about the passing this week of Dito van Reigersberg, an innovative, big-hearted, one-of-a-kind Philly artist. Editor Alaina Johns shares a memory a…
Each budget season, arts advocates rally to remind City Hall that Philly doesn’t run without funding for the creative sector. As the deadline for FY27 looms, we need to speak up for the Ph…
In honor of the 250th, the Barnes presents Freedom Dreams, showcasing intriguing and often-hopeful video installations that examine and celebrate Black American culture. An Nichols reviews.
As three Philly theaters programmed works by James Ijames in the 2025-26 season, they decided to join forces to attract new audiences. Did it work? Wendy Univer finds out.
The Arden’s regional premiere of Dear Evan Hansen flattens the musical’s complicated story. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
A musical adaptation of The Outsiders proves iconic as its source material, as the national tour lands in Philly through June 7, 2026. Cameron Kelsall reviews.
A documentary from Philly’s own Questlove, a rare screening of Wildwood, NJ, the science behind Memento, and more. Stephen Silver previews.
ArtPhilly's new festival arrives in time for America's 250th, and it asks a big question to the city and its artists. Kyle V. Hiller rounds up.
cinéSPEAK Under the Stars Film Festival returns for a sixth year, with four features and many shorts. Stephen Silver previews.
Philly playwright Chaz T. Martin sits down with Darnelle Radford to talk about their writing process, finally being the "bride" at the table, and what's next after the closing of Class C fro…
Martha Graham Dance Company and PHILADANCO! put Graham’s work in conversation with Philadelphia choreographer Tommie-Waheed Evans. Melissa Strong previews.
Lindsay Smiling marks the announcement of his role as the Wilma’s sole artistic director with a wonderfully realized production of The America Play, a rarely seen yet prescient 1994 work b…
A deeply researched program from Piffaro proves that the mixing of European and Indigenous cultures in 16th and 17th-century Mexico created works that rival their more famous European peers.…
The greater Philly area is packed
with exciting cultural events as we count down the final weeks til America’s
250th, including festivals, music, fireworks, storytelling, printmaking,
deco…
A new installation of Jesse Krimes quilts at the Fabric Workshop and Museum explores the humanity of incarcerated people and questions the American justice system. One of the quilts is now a…
Three of the staff here at Broad Street Review offer their book recommendations in the spirit of the fourth annual BSR Book Week 2026.
Sharon White’s debut novel is a mystery set to the backdrop of 1979 Norway during a time of environmental resistance that asks big questions around culture and tradition. Chhaya Nayyar rev…
Alex DiFrancesco’s forthcoming speculative short story collection offers a timely and cathartic escape. Cass Lewis reviews.
Emily Brontë’s 1847 novel ignites passionate discourse: misunderstood in its own time, and ours too, even with more elastic modern interpretations of novels. A new film by Emerald Fennel …
The Robin Hood Dell, opened in 1930, was the start of the institution we know today as the Highmark Mann Center for the Performing Arts. A new book by Jack McCarthy charts the notable Philly…
A new novel from Sara Lippman follows a young woman who grows up in the Philly burbs, and then faces the secrets of her teenage years 20 years later. Emma Riverso reviews.
Philly novelist A.E.S. O’Neill’s latest thriller dives into the world of Philly politics. A bitter New York PR executive with a loose relationship to the truth comes home to manage his n…
In her debut novel And the Ancestors Sing, Philly author Radha Lin Chaddah tackles a sweeping multigenerational tale set in China after the Cultural Revolution, including the plasma economy …
Philly-based sex educator Erica Smith brings her passion for shame-free knowledge to her new book, The Purity Culture Recovery Guide, building on her popular platform for those recovering fr…
Philly author Sara Nović, whose 2024 novel True Biz was a One Book, One Philadelphia pick, is back with a singular memoir exploring the world of deafness, parenting, adoption, disability, a…
Local author Stephen S. Francis Decky combines hallucinatory haunting with a fable about Philly-area musicians who meet a supernatural monster disguised as a smooth record-label exec. Kiran …
For nine years, writer Anndee Hochman told unexpected stories about how families came to be in her popular Inquirer column, The Parent Trip. Now many of those pieces are collected in a new b…
Revolutionary-era Quakers, spurned by both loyalists and patriots, had to find their own way in 18th-century Philadelphia. A new book dives into their legacy. Rob Laymon reviews.
As she explores three losses at different times in her life, memoirist Fredricka R. Maister reflects on the messy yet transformative power of facing grief in Three Times a Mourner: Personal …
The Lantern celebrates 250 with the Philly premiere of Lloyd Suh’s Franklinland, about the fraught relationship between the famous founding father and his son William. Josh Herren reviews.
A culture of distrust, fear, and dehumanization reaches a boiling point this timely world premiere production of Chaz T. Martin’s Class C. nat čermák reviews.
A highly anticipated short-story collection from bestselling Philly author Emma Copley Eisenberg makes a splash for anyone who knows the messy, exuberant challenges and joys of having a body…
Darnelle sits down with groundbreaking performer and creator Davóne Tines, pulling back the curtain on his career and his new production of The Black Clown at Opera Philadelphia.
A new music festival debuts, Laurie Halse Anderson pays a visit to Philly, a photography workshop in Germantown, and more this week. Kyle V. Hiller previews.
An incredibly resonant, and nearly 100-year-old, text is brought to life in this weekend-long production. An Nichols previews.
Planning Memorial Day Weekend outings? We’re rounding up festivals, parades, and notable public art with a 250th theme, from Germantown to North Philadelphia to Old City to the waterfront.…
Charles Askegard brings a life in dance to his choreographic residency at the Performance Garage. Camille Bacon-Smith profiles.