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Entries tagged with 'Theater'
Posted Jan. 7, 2010,
Stage Notes: Lear
By Tom Murrin
Playwright/director Young Jean Lee is fearless. She has taken on, as themes for her shows, her Korean heritage (Songs of the Dragon Flying to Heaven), born-again Christians (Church), and African-American stereotypes (The Shipment). Here she takes on Shakespeare. Well, not exactly; it isn't really centered on the fears and feelings of an early British king as he nears death. Lee focuses on the adult children of Lear, and what they owe their father. I spoke with Lee. Posted Jan. 4, 2010,
This Month in Theater: January 2010
By Tom Murrin
AGES OF THE MOONPosted Dec. 11, 2009,
Stage Notes: Fight Fest
By Tom Murrin
There are more photos in this gallery. View them all
Hi Michael. How did this latest Brick festival come about?
It was an inevitable sequence of events. A lot of the artists at the Brick were friends and colleagues of the prominent fight directors and fight companies in town. It seemed like fight theater is becoming a genre in New York, and we felt it needed a festival, a voice.
Tell me about the show you wrote and directed, The Ninja Cherry Orchard.
It's a sequel to The King Fu Importance of Being Earnest.
And that would be the Oscar Wilde drawing room comedy with fights?
It informed the characters in it, so that you saw the subtle hostility between them. Here we have Chekov's Cherry Orchard occurring, and a Ninja warrior coming to slaughter everybody.
I'll bet Chekov didn't see that coming.
I will defend it as a Chekovian conceit, it's suppressed. The Ninja warrior in the room is the unspoken danger. The characters in our Cherry Orchard are pretending that there is no Ninja, just as the characters in Chekov's Cherry Orchard are pretending that their problems don't exist.
Posted Dec. 8, 2009,
Stage Notes: The Great Recession
By Tom Murrin
There are more photos in this gallery. View them all
Hi Carol. How did this idea come about?
While Jim (Simpson) and I were experiencing the great recession last spring, we were talking about next season (now) and wondering whether there would be another season. Also, with full knowledge that Jim and I feel it is a part or our duty as a part of downtown theater, and the mission of the Flea, to produce plays that speak to the times we are living in, and Jim said, "We should write about the great recession," and we both said, "Yeah," and "Let's commission playwrights to write about the current economic situation and the changing tides." And life has changed.
OK, that's good.
We didn't want the plays to be about what our generation (Jim's and mine) was thinking about; that is, the generation that had lost money in the stock market, or knew someone who had been bilked by Bernie Madoff or worked at Goldman Sachs. That was not interesting to us. What was interesting to us was how the next generation was going to live their lives.
All six of the playwrights have been produced at The Flea before.
We commissioned six playwrights, and we didn't know if all six would be interested, but within 48 hours we got six yeses. All six said, "What a great idea," and "You bet, I'm in." All of the playwrights felt they had something to say.
Tell me about the plays.
They couldn't be more different in terms of subject matter, the perspective, and the way they went about exploring what "the great recession" means. We have despair, high comedy, and one is so full of hope, a youthful belief that it's going to be OK, that love will see us through.
Posted Dec. 1, 2009,
Stage Notes: Crime or Emergency
By Tom Murrin
Playwright/performer/director Sibyl Kempson and performer/composer Mike Iveson are two of Downtown's ever-shining lights. Sibyl has written, staged and acted in some brilliant plays; Potatoes of August being her most recent. Mike has composed music for Sarah Michelson's dances, acted in three Elevator Repair Service plays, and partners Lucy Sexton in the humorous Factress shows. I saw Crime or Emergency in an earlier version at Dixon Place and loved it, but in that production there were six or eight other actors; in this, it's only the two of them. I spoke with Kempson and Iveson both before an early morning rehearsal.
Tom Murrin: Hi Sibyl, hi Mike. So how is this going to work?
Sibyl Kempson: I'm playing eight characters and Mike is playing four. And Mike plays the piano throughout the whole thing, the entire play. It's like the old melodrama, with piano music underscoring the action.
TM: What kind of music?
SK: Mike has made beautiful arrangements of early Bruce Springsteen songs from his first four albums, before "Born in the U.S.A."
TM: And you will sing them?
SK: We both sing them. We wanted to use his earlier work because it is less known.
TM: Tell me about the play.
Posted Nov. 30, 2009,
This Month in Theater: December 2009
By Tom Murrin
RACERace is a new play, written and directed by David Mamet, which announces its theme in the title; with the playwright further describing it as being about "Race and the lies we tell each other on the subject." There are four actors: Three men, James Spader, David Alan Grier and Richard Thomas, and one woman, Kerry Washington. The story is set in law firm, and the drama ensues when the firm is offered the opportunity to defend a white man accused of a crime against a young black woman.
The Ethel Barrymore Theatre, 243 W. 47th St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Nov. 16, opens Dec. 6.
A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE
A Streetcar Named Desire is one of Tennessee Williams's most memorable plays, set in steamy New Orleans (where there really was a trolley with that name). Here it will get both a Down-Under and Scandinavian slant from The Sydney Theatre Company, with Liv Ullmann (known primarily as an Ingmar Bergman actor) directing. Cate Blanchett plays the troubled, needy Blanche Du Bois, with Joel Edgerton as Stanley, her hunky brother-in-law (this is the stage role that catapulted Marlon Brando to Hollywood), and Robin McLeavy as Stella, her sister.
Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave., Brooklyn, (718) 636-4100. Previews Nov. 27 & 28, opens Dec. 1-20.
SO HELP ME GOD
Back in the '90s, Kristen Johnson's force of being and sexy sense of humor took over every scene she was in during Jeff Weiss's Hot Keys, a late-night weekend serial that ran for months at Naked Angels Theater. That same presence and talent won her two Emmys on 3rd Rock from the Sun. Here she plays a demanding diva, doing battle with her understudy, Anna Chlumsky, à la All About Eve. Along with 13 other actors, the pair battle back and forth in Maurine Dallas Watkins's 1929 backstage comedy. Jonathan Bank directs.
Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher St., (212) 315-0231. Previews Nov. 18, opens Dec. 7-20.
Posted Nov. 16, 2009,
Stage Notes: Manson: The Musical!
By Tom Murrin
Yes, there was another musical along these same lines (Willy Nilly) in the recent Fringe Festival, but, well, it is the 40th anniversary of the Manson Family massacres, and there are some stories that will never die. Manson: The Musical! arrives in New York via Chicago, where it was developed by the Annoyance Theater (how can you not like a group with a name like that?), and ran for months as a cult hit in the 1990s. Queens-native Russell Dobular directs, with Serena Miller handling the musical direction and Tiffany Herriott choreographing. By now, we all know the basic plot outline: aspiring musician, hallucinogenic drugs, group sex, random violence, tabloid trial. I spoke with the director.Hi Russell. How did you get involved with this show?
I've wanted to do it since the mid-'90s, because I saw the show in Chicago. The Annoyance Theater developed it through improv, which is how they do all their shows. For me, as a director, that was a big part of the challenge. They had a set script, but when they were on stage there was room for improv, a certain leeway.
What makes it different from any other Manson-based musical?
I think this is Annoyance Theater taking a very brave approach here. They don't shy away from satirizing everyone in the story: the Manson family, the victims, the Tates, the Lo Biancas, Vincent Bugliosi (the prosecutor), the society that produced the Manson family.
So everybody takes a hit.
It's not pro-Manson Family. They're portrayed as being crazy and deranged in a satanic way. That's part of my reason for doing this show.
Posted Nov. 3, 2009,
This Month in Theater: November 2009
By Tom Murrin
THE LILY'S REVENGETaylor Mac has proven himself to be one of New York's more adventurous playwright/performers. This could be his masterstroke. In a five-part, five-hour spectacular, with more than 40 performers and musicians, and six collaborating directors, Mac theatrically unfolds the fantasy tale of a flower on a quest to become a man, only to find himself at the center of a revolution of flowers, intent on destroying their oppressor -- the God of Nostalgia. Almost every type of theater, from Noh to puppetry, from vaudeville to dance, will be represented.
HERE Arts Center, 145 Sixth Ave., (212) 352-3101. Oct. 29-Nov. 22.
IDIOT SAVANT
The prolific writer/director Richard Foreman, maker of 50 plays since 1968, moves to the Public Theater for his latest philosophical comedy. Playing the title role is Wooster Group co-founder and two time Academy Award nominee, Willem Dafoe, who leads five other actors (two women and three men; all the men play slaves) in this avant-merriment, which includes a game of interspecies golf with a Giant Duck. Fore!
Public Theater, 425 Lafayette St., (212) 967-7555. Previews Oct. 27, opens Nov. 4-Dec. 13.
THE UNDERSTUDY
Julie White's wisecracking was so well-timed and pure in The Little Dog Laughed that it won her a well-deserved Tony. Here she plays a put-upon stage manager in a new backstage comedy by Theresa Rebeck, directed by Scott Ellis, in which she has to deal with two male actors, Mark-Paul Gosselaar and Justin Kirk (both with regular TV series roles), one of whom plays the titular character, a theater person that the audience rarely sees. Put your money on White's character to be the one still standing when the smoke clears.
Laura Pels Theater, Harold and Miriam Steinberg Center for Theater, 111 W. 46th St., (212) 719-3100. Previews Oct. 9, opens Nov. 5-Jan. 3, 2010.
Posted Nov. 2, 2009,
Brighton Beach Bummer
By Whitney Spaner
I was very upset to hear that the new Broadway revival of Brighton Beach Memoirs abruptly closed last night, a week after it opened to mostly very positive reviews. I saw the play last week and really enjoyed it. Sure, Neil Simon can be a little cheesy in that old-fashioned blood-is-thicker-than-water kind of way, but even though the play is 26 years old, and I'm only 27, I laughed audibly on several occasions and told anyone who asked what was good on Broadway this season to see it -- but unfortunately they won't be able to. I especially felt sad for the cast of Brighton as well as the overlapping cast of Broadway Bound, the third play in the Simon series about the Jerome family that was to open next month in repertory with Brighton. Santino Fontana, who played the older brother Stanley Jerome, really stuck out to me when I saw the show. He actually seemed to be laughing during conversations about sex and life with his brother Eugene (played by Noah Robbins) and I looked forward to his scenes. I interviewed Fontana last week in his dressing room (this was the first time he'd had his own dressing room), before anything had been decided and if he knew the productions were in trouble he didn't let on. He seemed so happy and passionate about the show, and excited to start Broadway Bound.
Posted Oct. 14, 2009,
Stage Notes: Liz One (Her Secret Diaries in the Land of 1000 Dances)
By Tom Murrin
For almost 30 years, writer/director John Jesurun has been surprising and delighting audiences with his unique eye, ear and mind for a sophisticated, mysterious and repeatedly brilliant kind of theater. All his shows are different, and he has often been years ahead, utilizing the media technology other directors now routinely incorporate into their pieces. This past spring he staged a show called Firefall at Dance Theater Workshop, with a dozen young actors with laptops and a huge backdrop screen that had a constant video feed from the Internet, which the onstage actors were able to interact with, even to the point of purchasing items from eBay while the show was going on. With Liz One (Her Secret Diaries in the Land of 1000 Dances), John focuses on Queen Elizabeth I of England, who is played by Black-Eyed Susan, an original member of Charles Ludlam’s Ridiculous Theatrical Company. Ben Forster co-stars. I spoke with John, an old friend.
I’ve wanted to do it for a long time. I’ve been writing bits and pieces over the years. It’s Black-Eyed Susan as Queen Elizabeth the 1st and her secret diaries (an unwritten history that I’ve made up) which no one has heard before. Ben Forster plays a variety of people, but mostly he is her son that nobody knows about, a son that she’s hidden away in the palace.
Yes, the Virgin Queen is not exactly known for having a son.
Well, she and he decide to re-write her history. She’s writing her diary from the end of her life, and going backwards. It goes all over her life, going over some of the familiar issues that we know about, and some other things as well. For example, that she never had any children and was a virgin to the end of her life. That never happened, according to the play. That’s one of the main ideas that explains why Ben is there.
Posted Oct. 7, 2009,
Stage Notes: Peg-Ass-Us
By Tom Murrin
A couple years ago, Dan Savage, the snappy and smart sex advice columnist, ran a contest to come up with the best word to describe “woman with dildo practicing butt sex on her male partner," and the winning entry was “pegging." Sophie Nimmannit and John Leo, a young, cute, sexy, straightforward and charming heterosexual couple, have made a very entertaining and informative show out of their enthusiasm for pegging. The piece, directed by Dixon Place’s excellent program director, Leslie Strongwater, is a real audience pleaser; it’s frank, illuminating and theatrical, no matter how you like your bacon. I interviewed the couple over the phone.
Hi Sophie and John. Whoever wants to go first, tell me about how you see your show.
John Leo: For me, the show is a wholesome way to talk about something uncomfortable, to de-mystify something; namely butt-sex in a heterosexual relationship, specifically the penetration of the man by the woman.
I remember reading the Dan Savage column; I’m sure you did too.
JL: That was very inspiring to me. For me, it’s always been a mysterious thing. I thought, “Are there other people who do this?” Then, when there was actually a word describing it, I thought, “So there are other people who do this.” Then I thought, “I can do a show about this,” for people who might be like I was, and inspire them to do this, because I think it’s a fun thing.
You get into other things in the show too.
JL: The show is also about relationships. There is all that about pegging, but it’s more about intimate relationship, and commitment with one another.
Posted Oct. 6, 2009,
Stage Notes: The Diary of Anne Frankenstein
By Tom Murrin
The 32-year old native Azerbaijan playwright Ilya Sapiroe has a wicked sense of humor. For his first production in New York he has put together a plot that interweaves The Diary of Anne Frank with Dr. Frankenstein, and tosses in a sexy female Hollywood film star and Adolph Hitler to boot. Starring as the hermaphroditic Anne in this silly and smart mash up is Mimi Imfirst (three-time Glam and HX Drag Queen of the year nominee) and the legendary Lavinia Co-Op, who plays Anne’s diary; yes, she plays a book. Elizabeth Ekins, who must have a pretty good sense of humor herself, directs. I spoke with the likable playwright.
Hi Ilya. I started laughing when I read the title; how did you come up with that?
I’ve always enjoyed juxtaposing things, and changing around words and concepts; and when I came up with the name, I wondered what would be the play that would go along with that title.
So how would you describe it?
It’s an absurdist fairly tale; it’s also an epic, but not in length. It’s an ensemble piece, with a lot of stories that intertwine with a bigger story.
OK, tell me...
It’s the story of a naïve, young Franken-girl –-
Posted Oct. 1, 2009,
This Month in Theater: October 2009
By Tom Murrin
THE ROYAL FAMILY
This is a welcome revival of a 1927 comedy, co-written by Marx Brothers’ scripter, George S. Kaufman, and then-popular novelist Edna Ferber, about the day-to-day, off- stage dramas of a famous acting family, very much like the Barrymores. Here, the cast of 16, including many familiar to Tony award voters, like Rosemary Harris, Tony Roberts, Jan Maxwell and John Glover, along with SNL alumnus Ana Gasteyer, carry on like roarin’ '20s pop stars, under the direction of the redoubtable Doug Hughes. (Ana Gasteyer and Tony Roberts pictured above.)
Samuel J. Friedman Theater, 261 W. 47th St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Sept. 15, opens Oct. 8–Nov. 22.
WISHFUL DRINKING
If you read Carrie Fisher’s Postcards From the Edge, you know she has a rewarding sense of humor about life’s ups and downs. Here the blessed and/or cursed daughter of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, one time wife of Paul Simon, and most memorably, Star Wars’ Princess Leia, gives us a solo show based on her most recent memoir, directed by Tony Taccone.
Studio 54, 254 W. 54th St., (212) 719-1300. Opens Oct. 4–Jan. 3, 2010.
NIGHTMARES: VAMPIRES
Leave it to director/showman Tim Haskell to ratchet up his annual Halloween season walk-through haunted house with a focus on the current vampire craze. For the past six years, taking frights to new heights, Haskell and a group of devilishly inspired artists, Psycho Clan, have designed increasingly clever, and scary, environments. This year’s mecca for thrill seekers is set in a vampire museum; so expect some of the exhibits to do more than just lie there.
The Noho Event Center, 623 Broadway, (212) 352-3101. Sept. 25–Nov. 7. $30.
Posted Sep. 24, 2009,
Stage Notes: The Garden of Forked Tongues
By Tom Murrin
Jason Schuler’s Operating Theater is one of the most consistently imaginative and audience-rewarding troupes around. Their shows are always “out there”; fun, original and well-done. In this new one, The Garden of Forked Tongues, a mixed-media science comedy adventure, the audience is asked to observe a tour group from another dimension. And just to make sure the audience will be able to follow what’s happening, a certified hypno-therapist will put the audience in the right frame of mind as the show starts. I spoke with the always charming writer/performer/director, who is sometimes referred to as “Doctor Schuler."
Hi Jason. How did the idea for this come about?
I was interested in the idea of tourism in the future, because there is a physicist now who is building a time machine, and a large part of the scientific community believes that his theories about time travel are possible. So this is a comedy, supposing what might happen if someone were to accidentally join a tour group in the future. And since we can’t actually travel through time, we’ve invited a certified hypno-therapist to assist the audience into a heightened state of reality.
So what’s going to happen with the hypnotist?
At the beginning of the show, she will guide people through a visualization, and when the play begins, the audience will be able to focus on subtle messages within the performance.
Posted Sep. 18, 2009,
Stage Notes: Killers and Other Family
By Tom Murrin
Playwright Lucy Thurber scored a sensation in June with her Monstrosity, a three-act futuristic epic about a training school for teenage fascists that had a cast of 40. Here, with Killers and Other Family, she scales things back a bit with a four-character drama, but the title lets you know she’s still pulling no punches. Directed by Caitriona McLaughlin, the 80-minute intense ride centers on Elizabeth, happily living with her girlfriend in Manhattan, only to be surprised by her brother and his best friend, who arrive on the run and ask her to hide them. I spoke with Lucy.
I understand that this play was done at the Rattlestick Theater in 2001, and now they’re bringing it back to kick off their 15th anniversary season.
Yes, it was my first professional production. I was super excited and I made a lot of young playwright mistakes. So I have to give a shout out to David van Asselt, the artistic director of Rattlestick; he said to me, “I didn’t think we got it right the first time, let’s do it again.”
Wow, that’s pretty great. Tell me, what’s the nature of the play?
The play is made to function as a waking nightmare. It masquerades as realism, or naturalism, but it’s not really. But it’s supposed to be that way; that you can’t tell if it’s really happening or if it’s all happening in the main character’s head.
Posted Sep. 2, 2009,
This Month in Theater: September 2009
By Tom Murrin
BYE BYE BIRDIE
This is the revival of a very popular, fun musical set in the ‘60s, inspired by Elvis Presley being drafted into the U.S. Army a decade before. Here, it’s Conrad Birdie as the singing superstar; his manager cooks up a going-away publicity stunt that will involve Conrad kissing a teen-age girl on the Ed Sullivan Show, and the lucky fan and her family get thrown into the spotlight. John Stamos, Gina Gershon, Bill Irwin and Jayne Houdyshell lead the cast, with Robert Longbottom directing the original creators’ work: book by Michael Stewart, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics be Lee Adams.
Henry Miller Theatre, 124 W. 43rd St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Sept. 10, opens Oct. 15–Jan 10.
A STEADY RAIN
Hunk alert! This two-character play stars Daniel Craig and Hugh Jackman as a pair of Chicago cops, lifelong friends, who make a serious error in judgment when they return a Vietnamese boy to a cannibalistic serial killer, and then differ in their stories as to what really happened. Keith Huff wrote the 90-minute drama, and John Crowley will direct it.
Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre, 236 W. 45th St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Sept. 10, opens Sept. 29–Dec. 6.
SUPERIOR DONUTS
A new play by Pulitzer winner Tracy Letts (August: Osage County) from Chicago’s Steppenwolf Theater Company. Michael McKean (Spinal Tap) stars, and Tina Landau directs a cast of nine. McKean plays a change-resistant owner of a Chicago donut shop who becomes friends with a bright-eyed youngster (Jon Michael Hill) looking for a job. For years now, the working team of Letts and Steppenwolf have come up with some very exciting theater; this might be an occasion to beat the rush and catch a preview.
Music Box Theatre, 239 W. 45th St., (212) 239-6200. Previews Sept. 16, opens Oct. 1.
Posted Aug. 20, 2009,
Stage Notes: Willy Nilly
By Tom Murrin
Forty years ago this month the psychedelic ‘60s came to a screeching finale with the Manson Family massacre of Sharon Tate and friends. Isn’t it time for a tasteless musical exploitation of that love decade-shattering event? Playwright/songwriter Travis Stewart (a.k.a. Trav S D) and the Piper McKenzie Theater Company thought so. Their 13-cast member satirical spoof, abetted by an onstage band, The Electric Mess, promises “acid freak-outs, gratuitous nudity and excessive gore." You might call it the anti-Hair musical. I interviewed Stewart, the well-known downtown author (he wrote a scholarly, informative book about vaudeville called “No Applause, Just Throw Money”) and all-around entertainer/producer/raconteur.
Hi Travis. What zaniness are you up to now?
It’s kind of like a Mad Magazine version of Helter Skelter. It goes through the well-known Manson story that you’d find in a trashy true-crime book or a TV movie.
By "Helter Skelter", you’re referring to the title of the book about the case, written by the prosecuting District Attorney, Vincent Bugliosi; which shared its name with the Beatle’s song that was Manson’s code name for the murders, right?
Musically, we’re working with the Beatles’ White Album.
Posted Aug. 14, 2009,
Stage Notes: A Lifetime Burning
By Tom Murrin
With all the memoirs being written today, who’s to say what’s true and what’s false? What really happened in your life? If you were to write a memoir, could you claim it was 100% accurate? Cusi Cram has written a play that addresses that riddle, and the very capable Pam MacKinnon directs. A Lifetime Burning is about Emma, a trust fund darling (played by Jennifer Westfeldt), who imagines her life as if she came from a less privileged background. The only problem is: she calls it a memoir, gets a nice advance and then has to deal with her sister, who is outraged. I spoke with the convivial playwright.
Hi Cusi. How would you describe your play?
t’s a dark comedy that takes a look at the modern obsession with true stories, and the “true-life” memoir. It poses the question: “If you were given the opportunity to re-write your life, would you?”
What’s the framework?
It takes a look at the question through the lenses of two sisters; one has written a pretty fictional memoir. What does that do to a nuclear family, what are the familial fireworks that ensue?
Posted Aug. 11, 2009,
Stage Notes: The Columbine Project
By Tom Murrin
The Columbine Project, written and directed by Paul Anthony Storiale, had its first run this past April in North Hollywood, and was extended twice due to favorable reviews. The entire ensemble cast of 18 has come east for this production. Ten years ago the nation was shocked when two boys, labeled “outcasts," walked into their high school in Colorado and began shooting their classmates. They intended to kill all 250, but did kill 12, one teacher, and themselves. Storiale’s extensively researched material for the play came from journals, diaries, and interviews with kids who survived. I spoke with him.
Hi Paul. I saw the Gus Van Sant movie, Elephant, and, of course, read about the incident in the press for weeks.
The difference between some stories that have been told and my play is that I get into the minds of the killers, and show you who they were before the press titled them “monsters." They were real people. I put you in the minds of every character, victims and friends, and then you decide, basically, who is at fault? Who has minimal fault? Who has the most fault? Was it the two boys? Their parents? The police? The school? The community? Who’s to blame for this?
OK.
At the same time, we’re getting to know these characters quite well. And during the course of the play, they come to be your friends; the two guys, also the several victims, and the victims' parents, and the victims who were not even touched.
Posted Jul. 30, 2009,
This Month in Theater: August 2009
By Tom Murrin
THE BACCHAE
The Public Theater’s Shakespeare in the Park is presenting a modern version of the classical Euripides tragedy, as interpreted and directed by JoAnne Akalaitis, with original music by Philip Glass, and a new translation by Nicholas Rudall. Jonathan Groff, the breakout star of Spring Awakening, plays Dionysius, who represents the many life-giving forces of nature, alongside two great New York veterans, Andre De Shields as the prophet Tiresias, and George Bartenieff, as the grandfather of the King of Thebes, Cadmus. The plot revolves around the king trying to crush the worship of Dionysius, whose female followers, though normally peaceful, become orgiastic madwomen when opposed. Somebody should have warned the King; even his mother, Agave, (played by Joan MacIntosh) gets caught up in the madness.
Delacorte Theater in Central Park, (212) 539-8750, www.publictheater.org. August 11-30. Free.
NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL FRINGE FESTIVAL
If it’s mid-August, it’s time for the 13th annual, two-week marathon of theater and dance, that offers performances by over 200 companies, from seven countries and 20 U.S. states, in 20 downtown venues. The shows run from 4 p.m. to midnight, and noon to midnight on weekends, and feature comedy, drama, monologues, children’s theater and puppetry. For the alternative theater buff, this is as alternative as it gets. A trio of examples: “Porn Rock – The Musical," “Don’t Be Scared! It’s Only A Play" and “Abraham Lincoln’s Big Gay Dance Party." Nothing’s sacred at the Fringe.
Fringe Central, 54 Crosby St., between Spring & Broome, open 12-8 P.M. daily, (212) 279-4488, www.fringenyc.org. $15 per show, with discount tickets for multiple shows.