XOXO: Love Letters from NYC
Written by Melissa Buriak, Jackson Sturkey, Andrea Palesh, Will Studabaker, Anna Bradley.
Music and Lyrics by Jackson Sturkey and Will Studabaker.
Directed by Andrea Palesh, Jackson Sturkey, Melissa Bruriak, Will Studabaker.
Presented by GPC Enterainment, Presented by the New York City Fringe Festival
Fri April 3 at 9:20pm, Mon April 6 at 9:20pm, Fri April 10 at 9:20pm & Sat April 11 at 8:40pm, 2026
What’s it like backstage? The audience found out on Friday night. XOXO: Love Letters from NYC centers on Val (played by Melissa Buriak), a performer and show creator of XOXO, who has a major life decision to make. Does she take over her parents’ business & leave the show she created in the big apple or stay?
The show is not short of musical numbers, often being the driving force of the plot. For audience members, this could be confusing if they didn’t keep their eye on Val and her business partner/best friend.
For an hour show in the Fringe Festival, the cast was big, complete with show girls often narrating emotional dilemmas through song, dancers, feathers, costume changes, dinosaur suits, ribbons, and L.E.D light props.
The color palette of costumes started off with red and black. Silver and white mixed in, then brightened up to a rainbow as soon as a 60’s-style drug infused musical number opened up.
It was amazingly aesthetically pleasing, and the choreography was superb and energized thanks to a team of choreographers, creating a magical theatrical experience. The music was entertaining, with original catchy songs.
A highlight musical number is one set as a boxing match between Val and her business partner/friend, which is performed as a tap number. As a choreographer and dancer myself, I got very excited about this one.
This show has great potential. I wish there was more. More dialogue, more character development, more personalization.
The show ends without us knowing Val’s decision. A choice was made to mute the decision itself. The actors went quiet, mimed their excitement, leaving the audience out-of-the-know. Then a reprise of the opening number started, ending the show with a spectacle and seemingly no resolution.
Letters happen to be the way Val processes her emotions, her thoughts (something we all should definitely do more of), and correspondingly, we don’t see her thoughts come to life. Instead, we see other characters influence her, taking us on a ride of a constant push and pull of “what will she do?” So, it makes sense that the audience never hears her decision or gets the satisfaction of a resolution.
That’s a bit of the point, right? We have decisions to make but it’s not always a “this or that” conundrum. There’s always another option. There’s endless choices if we look hard enough. The show ends without a finite this or that, but we have the opportunity to interpret the ending for ourselves. We can decide (?).
XOXO: Love Letters from NYC is definitely a piece that has the potential to grow to soaring heights. I am curious and excited to see where it flies.
Click HERE for tickets.
Review by Amanda Montoni.
Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on April 6, 2026. All rights reserved.
