Theatre Events and Member Highlights

A HANUKKAH CAROL, or GELT TRIP! THE MUSICAL

With a book and original concept by AJT Member Harrison Bryan, along with Rob Berliner, and music by Aaron Kenney

November 20th-December 22nd, 2024 

Misanthropic millennial influencer Chava Kanipshin’s internet followers are turning into haters. Desperate to regain her popularity, Chava shuns anything and anyone she sees as an obstacle, including her family, friends, and holiday traditions. But on the first night of Hanukkah, Chava is visited by the ghost of deceased social media star Mimi Marley and other spirits who warn her to change her ways—or be cursed forever. The spirits lead Chava on a madcap journey through Hanukkahs past, present, and future to help her reconnect with her spirit of generosity, her Jewish identity, and an appreciation of her real-life supporters. Winner of the Audience Favorite Award at the Broadway Shark Tank, A Hanukkah Carol is a heartfelt, family-friendly riff on a holiday classic that celebrates making the world a kinder place.

Theatre Ariel Presents: Amsterdam 

Christ Church Neighborhood House Theatre, Old City, Philadelphia

November 14th-24th, 2024

For the first time in 15 years, Theatre Ariel returns to mainstage productions with this complex, highly theatrical story of identity and history. 
Four performer-storytellers introduce us to an ex-pat Israeli musician whose dreams of assimilation into the European arts world are upended by the mysterious delivery of an unpaid gas bill… from 1944. The implications of the bill send her spiraling through issues of identity and alienness, legacy and peoplehood. Amsterdam is a thrilling and imaginatively-told exploration of the bills that always come due, centered around the possible, devastating origins of the bill.

AJT Member Shira Nayman's book in Awake in The Dark musical

NYC Performances at The Flea Theatre, 20 Thomas St, New York, NY 10007

December 5th-7th, 2024

Awake in the Dark follows a young woman’s return to her childhood home where she discovers a startling family secret. 

Based on Nayman’s widely praised book: “A haunting excursion into the past…a literary page-turner with a classic O. Henry twist." Atlantic Magazine. "The essential subject of ‘Awake in the Dark’ is memory...revealed like Chinese boxes: boxes within boxes within boxes." New York Times. "Plotted in that perfect way that stops our breath even as our brain hums with pleasure at the inevitable, internal logic.” Cleveland Plain Dealer. 

With music by acclaimed composer Ben Moore. Opera News has praised Ben Moore for "the easy tunefulness" and "romantic sweep" of his work, which The New York Times has called “brilliant” and “gorgeously lyrical.”