John Travolta - why not back to Broadway?

[mitchern]

Posted: 6/28/25 at 2:16pm

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/john-travolta-grease-danny-zuko-hollywood-bowl-song-a-long-1236443419/

I feel like audiences would eat it up to see him in a play or musical, no? 

[EDSOSLO858]

Posted: 6/28/25 at 2:51pm

Where has Gazingo been these days?

[pmensky]

Posted: 6/28/25 at 10:50pm

These threads always crack me up. “Why doesn’t [insert celebrity with a private jet and a vineyard] come back to Broadway?” Maybe because doing eight shows a week for audiences who are scrolling Instagram mid-monologue isn’t quite the dream gig for someone who’s already ticked the Broadway box and has $200 million in the bank. Travolta has done Broadway. He did it decades ago. He’s not itching to prove himself to people rattling Junior Mints and whispering through Act II. He’s living his life, enjoying his money, and probably sleeping in. 

[ErmengardeStopSniveling]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 12:13am

He has had no shortage of offers over the past 45 years.

I would be shocked if we see him make a great movie again, let alone actually stretch himself by doing a play or musical 6-8x a week. The man hsn't made a good or relevant movie in almost 20 years, and his last successful acting role was as Robert Shapiro on TV in 2016. He specializes in D-tier "guy with a gun" action movies that get released straight to on-demand.

[KevinKlawitter]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 9:23am

ErmengardeStopSniveling said: "He has had no shortage of offers over the past 45 years.

I would be shocked if we see him make a great movie again, let alone actually stretch himself by doing a play or musical 6-8x a week. The man hsn't made agood or relevant movie in almost 20 years, and his last successful acting role was as Robert Shapiro on TV in 2016. He specializes in D-tier "guy with a gun" action movies that get released straight to on-demand."

While Travolta has never been a stranger to bad material, we should be fair here - the man's had a pretty rough run of it lately. He lost both his wife and his best friend recently and probably had to look for quick paychecks to keep the lights on while he was taking care of Kelly Preston during her cancer treatment. On top of that he's now in his 70s and probably not getting the same offers he had even a decade ago.

[BrodyFosse123]

Posted: 6/29/25 at 10:29am

Travolta has stated in the past that he did 13 years of stage work, including summer theatre, national tour, Off-Broadway, and Broadway, and feels that "that's enough." He views Broadway as a "tough rite of passage" and a lot of work with eight shows a week. Many others share this view and why they’ve never returned to the Broadway stage ever again, like Barbra Streisand. That weekly performance schedule is something they want no part of, even if it’s only 5 performances a week. Streisand was insanely bored doing FUNNY GIRL within the first few months into its Broadway run.  She loved the out-of-town tryout as they kept adding and changing things around so it was challenging. Once the show was frozen and she had to do the exact same thing each performance, she hated her life.