Interview: Nicole Travolta Is Doing Alright, And She'll Tell You All About It 

At SoHo Playhouse, Nicole Travolta is turning her own life into punchline and confession. Her solo show, Nicole Travolta Is Doing Alright, is exactly what its title promises, and what it exactly undercuts: a funny, bruisingly honest account of debt, divorce, side hustles, and the complicated weight of a famous last name. Blending stand-up, character work, and deeply personal storytelling, the piece traces Travolta’s path from financial freefall to hard-won stability, transforming missteps into comedy that feels both self-aware and disarmingly direct. We sat down with her to talk about all those things and more.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

How did you fall into confessional comedy and find the courage to get up on stage with material this personal?
Only an insane person would want to do this, right? I fell into this. I really sort of grew up more with a television and film background. And the business has been so up and down. When Covid happened, I started doing more characters online, doing impressions, leaning into that part of myself. From there I started doing UCB and the Groundlings, and that really pivoted things. I’d been so married to one idea about myself and where I thought my career would go. This opened up something that’s been so fulfilling. I had this story and I really wanted to tell it. And when I met my co-writer and director Lauren Burns at the Groundlings, she helped me develop the first leg of the show and it just sort of took off from there.  

 How do New York audiences compare to others, and how has it felt coming back to SoHo Playhouse?
I love it here. I’ve spent the majority of my life in LA and I’m very much ready for a switch. I really want to move here, that’s how much I love New York. New York people show up. SoHo Playhouse is amazing. Carter, Charlie, Ed, they become like your family.  

Has carrying the Travolta name been more of a blessing or a burden on this journey?
It’s both. It’s almost like living in an identity crisis, because this is my God-given name, but it comes with a very big attachment. The public will project their own feelings about how you should be. But on the flip side, I come from a family that has had much success in this industry, so when things feel unattainable, I can look at my own family and think:  just keep going. My dad, the brothers and sisters, the aunts and uncles, they’re all amazing. I don’t ever want to say it’s a curse. But it does facilitate some of the pressure. 

Your impressions are really funny, in the show and on Instagram. How do you decide who to take on, and do you ever get nervous about it?
Sometimes, yes. My favorite thing is if it strikes me as interesting, and that’s not always even in the voice. It’s a character quirk. Like, if you do an impression of Jennifer Aniston, she’s always doing this thing with her hair. You find those things, hone in on them, and let it expand and live. My goal is always to heighten it a bit so it feels more like a character. I used to love doing political impressions, but now I’m just like… does anyone really need to see more of that? I just try to have fun with them and let them be a work in progress. 

Were you always a performer? Were you the kid in the family making everyone laugh and dressing up all the time?
Yes! I used to perform for my parents all the time, whether they wanted to watch or not. It was very clear they had to. My mom used to hand me Post-it notes as Academy Awards. This has lived in me since I was a little, little girl. My parents didn’t really love the idea because they knew how tough the industry is. But I kept pushing. I got my first television job on One Tree Hill and that’s how I got my SAG card. Then I moved back to LA, and it grew from there. 

I had this very specific idea that I’d be on Gossip Girl or that Beverly Hills 90210 genre. But a casting director friend kept telling me, “You have really good comedic timing, you should lean into this.” I was like, I’m not doing comedy, I’m a Gossip Girl. Finally I listened. I started booking. I went on to play Charlie Sheen’s girlfriend on Anger Management, and they ended up writing my character into big episode arcs. Then Two and a Half Men, The Middle. But simultaneously I was going through a very difficult time, and when both things started coming to a head I had to reevaluate. I’ve never wanted to do anything else. And now I’m here doing this version — stand-up meets frank confessional meets storytelling — and I’m just really proud of it. 

Who are the women you look up to?
Molly Shannon is someone I’ve watched very closely. She started following me on Instagram and I was like, oh my God, it’s my idol. Ali Wong is brilliant. And Lucille Ball. I think she’s the most brilliant. I’ve watched all of them. They don’t know they’re my mentors, but they’ve really shaped how I think about this work. 

What should audiences expect when they walk into the theater?
We are going to laugh. We are going to cry. We are going to be a bit shocked. The most important thing to me is that when people are in the audience, I want it to feel like we are at dinner together — they’re my best friends, we are in this together, we’re on this journey together. I don’t care if I know the people in the audience or if they’re taking a chance on someone they’ve never heard of. I would want them to walk away feeling like we’ve got each other’s backs.