Traffic Light Party (KXT on Broadway) ★★★½

Written by Izzy Azzopardi. Jezebel Productions in association with Bakehouse Theatre. KXT on Broadway. 28 Jan – 7 Feb, 2026.

You simply could not pay me to be a twenty-something again. The drama. The confusion. The messy emotions and mistakes of youth. Hard pass. And they’re all captured perfectly in Izzy Azzopardi’s Traffic Light Party.

A group of uni students are throwing a “traffic light party” where, to make things clear, you dress in the colour of your relationship status. Green means you’re looking. Yellow means it’s complicated and you want to go a bit slow. Red means you’re taken. But for some of them, making hard and fast definitions of their status is confronting — what’s meant to make things clear ends up making things worse.

Azzopardi attacks the scenario with an abundance of style, using the “traffic” theme to set things up and play with the audience. It instantly elevates the writing, and even if it’s overused, it shows a clear voice that’s exciting to see. Similarly, director/designer Brea Macey delivers visuals with music breaks and clever staging that makes the KXT thrust infinitely rearrangeable. This is a great looking show that maximises the space and budget.

Yes, I would say there is potentially more style than substance at times. The multiple music breaks lose their impact and the traffic metaphor wears a bit thin. Some of the scenes in the latter half become didactic, with sophomoric messages. But hey — they are literally uni students, so sophomoric is probably perfectly pitched.

Traffic Light Party really shines when the characters stop preaching and get to honestly react to one another. It’s there that the natural drama and comedy come to the fore, and these actors show their skill. This cast (all excellent) has the mixed energies of a real group of friends, each bringing different flavours to the relationships.

Not all of the storylines in this ensemble piece reach the same heights. With nine characters, there is a lot of ground to cover.

The scene between Amber (Caitlin Green) and Samson (Isaac Harley), who have been seeing each other for five months but where she’s been left uncertain of their status, has a natural ebb and flow — a push and pull that was gripping. So too is the confrontation between best friends Ivy (Izzy Azzopardi) and Scarlett (Meg Denman), navigating their friendship now that Scarlett is in a committed relationship. Similarly Sunny’s (Renée Billing) relationship (told through one-sided phone calls) hits the mark perfectly. It’s these very twenty-something mini dramas that give the show life.

In contrast, a storyline between gay student Phoenix (Travis Howard) and rugby player Reid (Jordy Stewart) felt more contrived.

When the play hits its mark, it’s really damn great. There are definitely more hits than misses in this production. Having had a successful, award-winning run at the Sydney Fringe last year, it’s great to see Traffic Light Party continuing to grow. There is a lot of exciting talent in this production, and I can’t wait to see where they all go next.