Presented by The Present Company, more than 180 shows are lined up for the 11th annual festival that will take place at downtown Manhattan venues Aug. 10-26 (from 2 PM-midnight on weekdays, and noon-midnight on weekends).
As has become tradition, productions try to grab potential audiences with attention-pleading names — some opt for humor, some go naughty, some simply long and others just beg to be noticed with titles in all capital letters.
Some eye-catching shows are:
36:24:36
516 (five sixteen)
Action Jesus
And Somewhere Men Are Laughing
BAAAHHH!!!
bombs in your mouth
Bucharest Calling
BUKOWSICAL!
CHEKHOV JAZZ
Ching Chong Chinaman
Days and Nights: page 121, lines 11 and 12
Does the Body Good
Elephant in the Room! (penned/directed by Dan Fogler)
ENOUGH ABOUT ME... LET'S TALK ABOUT JEW!
FARMTRUCKS: A Corporate Coffee Adventure
FREEDOM! and the sticky end of make-believe
Give and Go: Learning from Losing to the Harlem Globetrotters
I DIG DOUG
it ain't no fairy tale
Jazz Hand: Tales of a One Armed Woman
Kelly Kinsella Live! Under Broadway
Lost! How A Certain TV Mega-Hunk Stole My Identity
Mary Brigit Poppleton is Writing a Memoir
Mother Hubbard's Cupboard
PB&J
Pigeon Man Apocalypse
Princess Mimi, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Frog
Princess Sunshine's Bitter Pill of Truth Funhouse
Rise like a Penis from the Flames - a Phallic Phoenix Story
SLUT à la carte
Sodomy & Pedicures
Stock Home
THE END
The Life and Times of Martin Luther (Reformed)
The Unusual Suspects
Two-mur Humor: He's Malignant; She's Benign
Up The Gary
Up, Down, Strange, Charmed, Beauty, and Truth
Victor Woo - The Average Asian American
Whence Came Ye Scarlett O'Hara O'Hanrahan?
Woof, Daddy
It worked for Fringe's most successful alumni Urinetown (originally titled Urinetown! The Musical), so many shows announce their genre within their title:
Angst: The New Teen Musical
BASH'd! - A Gay Rap Opera
Cancer! the musical
Champ: A Space Opera
ELEKTRAFIRE - a modern rock opera
FARMER SONG the Musical
Hamlet - a stand up
Life/Play: An Experiment in Theatrical Autobiography
PN 1923.45 LS01 Volume 2 (The Book Play)
Pogo & Evie: A Zydeco Musical
Show Choir! The Musical
THE MEDICINE SHOW (A Play With Music)
The Rat King Rock Opera
Thunder! A Musical Memoir
TRAGEDY! (A Musical Comedy)
Vampingo...a comedy with bite
Williamsburg! The Musical
And, a trend that has waned in recent years but still has some proponents — the long-named works:
BAUM FOR PEACE or The True Adventures of the Slightly World-Renowned Lesbian Playwright Who Ran for Congress
THE BOY ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE WORLD: an absurd fairy tale love quadrangle
The Consuming Passions of Lydia Pinkham and Rev. Sylvester Graham
On the opposite end of the spectrum, a bunch of shows seem to be going for simplicity:
Burn
Chaser
DIRT
Fish
Gamers
HELMET
HORATIO
Juliet
Leni
Lucid
MIRIAM
NIGHT
unrest
For a complete list of shows, further information and details, call (212) 279-4488 or visit the website at FringeNYC.org.
