Eleanor Rigby, The Passion of George W., Goonies... The Musical! Among FringeNYC 2004 Titles

By Ernio Hernandez
19 May 2004

The list of titles accepted into this year's New York International Fringe Festival has been announced for the annual summer fest set to run Aug. 13-29 in downtown Manhattan.

Over 200 submissions were invited to FringeNYC 2004 (200 of which are expected to participate). On par with previous years' entries (Elephant Titus, Moliere Than Thou, and Poop to name a few), applicants seem to be vying for attention with eccentric show titles for this, the eighth annual festival.

Among the eye-catching titles selected for this year's festival include:

  • A Chicken and Its Breast
  • A Transylvanian In Silicon Valley
  • Assyrian Monkey Fantasy (in two movements)
  • Bonding and Bondage
  • Bootleg Islam
  • Chekhov on the Wing
  • Citizen Pochsy (Head Movements of a Long-Haired Girl)
  • Conjoin Us!
  • Daddy Was The Biggest Stage Mother In Texas!
  • Dixie's Tupperware Party
  • Eleanor Rigby is Waiting
  • Flopsy Bleats Appreciatively
  • Hanging Chad
  • Harvey Finklestein's Sock Puppet Showgirls
  • I Was an Online Teenage Cockroach
  • Irish Authors Held Hostage
  • Le Fromage De Mon Oncle
  • Mimi Le Duck
  • No Such Roses: Sonnets that are Nothing Like the Sun
  • Ooops! I Killed My Mother
  • Oops! Wrong Barbarians
  • Show Ho
  • The Drunk Monologues
  • The Meal Ticket, or Beware The Man Eating Chickens
  • The Passion of George W. Bush
  • The Polish Play
  • The Wingding Doodle Club
  • Tomatoes on a Windowsill
  • Vampire Cowboy Trilogy
  • Who's The Boss, Now?
  • Young Zombies In Love

    Following in the Urinetown formula, a number of musicals are announcing their genre within their name, including:

  • Angry Young Teenage Girl Gang - The Musical
  • Die, Die, Diana: A Musical
  • Everything that Happens in the Woods Is Real (A Bigfoot Musical)
  • Granola! The Musical
  • Infertility, The Musical That's Hard to Conceive
  • John Walker: The Musical
  • Jonestown, The Musical
  • Lulu, a new musical
  • The Goonies…The Musical!
  • Toxic Avenger: The Musical

    Lastly, the standard long-named shows include:

  • Adams Conglomerate High School Drama Club Presents: 8th Grade Adventures
  • An Account at First Hand of the Battle Lately Waged in and around Gettysburg (Pa.)
  • An Evening of Semi Autobiographical, Highly Self-Indulgent Theater
  • Hot Pineapples Fermenting in the Sun -or- Maybe Pavlov's Dead Cuz He Cain't Find His Bell
  • The Knowledge & Conversation of My Guardian Angel or An Old Fashioned Love Story
  • The Tragedy (Spelled with an IE on the End) of Othello [Not the full Title][sic]

    The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), which boasts the title of "the largest multi-arts festival in North America," will also include outdoor performances (FringeAlFresco), panel discussions, workshops and conferences (FringeU), as well as family-oriented shows and activities for children (FringeJr).

    Among the more famous of Fringe alumni are the Off-Broadway stagings of Never Swim Alone, 21 Dog Years: Doing Time @ Amazon.com, Debbie Does Dallas, Matt & Ben and the current Off-Broadway show The Joys of Sex. The grande dame of all Fringe alum is the Tony Award-winning Urinetown which graduated to Off Broadway, then Broadway and has since toured across the country.

    Tickets to the Fringe Festival will be $15. For more information including volunteer details, call (212) 279-4488 or visit the website at www.FringeNYC.org.