offoffBway.com

Two comments about this one:
– one way to make sure your show is in the top of an alphabetical listing of shows is to start it with an apostrophe.
– is this too soon to be doing a show about the tsunami?

Well, at least it’s not a musical. And the cast sounds good, and the director also did ‘The Fartiste’ at this year’s FringeNYC. We can’t make a joke there, because it’s just… well, it’s too soon. The Fringe only just ended. Perfs start September 6th at Theater Row Studios, click here and see below for more info.

Partial Comfort Productions (winner of Best Ensemble at FringeNYC 2006 for Open House) invites you to the World Premiere of ‘NAMI . The production reunites playwright Chad Beckim with director John Gould Rubin (director of the The Fartiste at FringeNYC), the duo behind the critically acclaimed 2005 hit …a matter of choice.
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It’s not quite as catchy a title as My Life as a Dog, but it is set in 1998, which is, like, almost ten years ago. Plus the press release promises that ‘Self-Discovery Is Only A Plane Ride Away’. As if you didn’t know that already. Read below for more info on this new romantic comedy which stars Jeff Branson of “All My Children” (you know whether or not that’s important to you).

MY LIFE AS YOU
by Laura Rohrman
directed by Fritz Brekeller
presented by the Waverly Writers Collection in Association with Frendz Productions
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This is the FringeNYC awards, and also the shows that will get a little more viewing time via the new FringeNYC Encores series.

A little bit of trivia: the first year of the festival, the awards were called BIFFs – Best In Fringe Festival. Overall Excellence sounds a little bit like something from a ‘Simpsons’ episode (specifically this one), but at least it isn’t named after a guy you didn’t want to talk to in high school.

FringeNYC 2006 Overall Excellence Award Winners
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We told you before, but now we’ll tell you again, okay? Karen Finley is not covered in chocolate (at least not as far as we know), but she is at the Cutting Room September 8-10. This show has a lotta Liza impersonations. You know whether or not that’s for you.

September 8-10 :
KAREN FINLEY: MAKE LOVE (The Cutting Room, 19 West 24th Street).
Performance artist KAREN FINLEY honors the 5th Anniversary of 9/11
with an encore engagement of her critically acclaimed piece MAKE LOVE.
This cabaret-driven, lounge-style act co-stars drag performer and
artist Chris Tanner, pianist Lance Cruce, and a rotating roster of
LIZA MINNELLI impersonators. This encore engagement has been updated
and slightly modified to reflect current events. Friday – Sunday at
8pm. $20. For tickets call 212-352-3101 or visit
www.TheaterMania.com.

Did s/he ever leave? The Village Voice thinks s/he’s “inappropriate”, which should at least be enough to make you curious. Cutting Room, September 1-3. Check it out:

September 1-3:
JACKIE BEAT: HOW TO ACHIEVE THAT NATURAL LOOK (The Cutting Room, 19
West 24th Street).
The Village Voice recently labeled drag star JACKIE BEAT,
“inappropriate, lewd and disgusting.” And that’s why we love her. In
her annual Labor Day Weekend visit, Beat brings us a new evening of
her classic twisted songs, rude stories and bad behavior. 3 shows only
— Friday, Saturday & Sunday at 8pm. $18. For tickets call
212-352-3101 or visit www.TheaterMania.com.

We don’t know if this is still technically off-off Broadway since there’s a big time movie star performing there. On the other hand, Clare Danes did a show there, so I guess it’s not so unusual. Regardless of how many off’s one wants to use when describing the theater, there’s no denying that having the star of a huge summer movie like Talladega Nights is a cool thing. Reilly’s done theater in NYC before, notably “True West” with Philip Seymour Hoffman. (And he was so freakin’ good in Boogie Nights.) Yeah, whatever, you say? Look, the more actors who come back and do theater after their fame and success level has surpassed most folks’ wildest dreams… well, in theory that means that other actors will follow suit. That brings more attention to smaller theaters (and PS122, excellent though they are, is still smaller than the big Broadway boys uptown).
Okay, now for the potentially scary news. It’s so long you need to eat during the show.
To be fair, that’s not exactly right. There are two parts, and on some nights you can see both of them. “Kentucky Cycle”, “Angels in America”, “Nicholas Nickleby” – all long. Of them, we’re pretty sure that only “Nicholas Nickleby” had a dinner break, but that one was REALLY long (almost a full day). All were fairly well received. There was the recent Synge festival, which was long enough to need a mid-show meal, but that was more than one play. So we’re admittedly wary, but hopeful that this Tale can hold its own with other lengthy theater experiences. Details about the show and its schedule (and the other people who are in it besides Mr. Big Time Movie Star) are below.

Bi-Coastal World Premiere of Heather Woodbury’s
Tale of 2Cities
Begins at Performance Space 122
October 12 THROUGH 29

Oscar®, Golden Globe and Tony Award® Nominee John C. Reilly
Joins Woodbury’s Ensemble Cast

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‘The Pool With Five Porches’
FringeNYC
Ticket and venue info
review by Naneh Israelyan

An ambitious play on the idea of miracles, The Pool With Five Porches is as delicate with significance as it is rough with its aggressive characters and fuming dialogue. Regardless, playwright Peter Zablotsky succeeds in maintaining a fantastic balance between the play’s hotheaded, stern personalities and their more or less softer demeanor learning to compromise in order to bring each other to their final destination: the miracle pool.
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MARCO MILLIONS (based on lies), is the latest from the theater ensemble Waterwell. It’s based on a Eugene O’Neill play, but not a well known one. Broadway.com put it well when they said “If asked to name a Eugene O’Neill play, Marco Millions would hardly be the first off anyone’s tongue.” No kidding.
On the other hand, that’s a smart thing to do. Does New York really need yet another production of Desire Under the Elms? Nothing against that one, or any other O’Neill, but if you’re going to do something, why do what everyone else is doing?
So Waterwell gets points for at least trying something different.
Aside: we freely admit that when reading the title of this show, we said “Huh?” and had to restrain ourselves from drooling like big dummies. Then we actually went and researched it a bit, and found that there have been a lot of nice notices for this piece (they seem to call their shows “drops” rather than, well, shows).
Decide for yourself, and as always, let us know if you see this puppy. Sorry, we mean “drop”. Press release and logo coming…. NOW!
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AGAIN with the bad puns. Well, that’s not really a pun, it’s more of a joke. But it’s still bad. (If you don’t get it, it’s a take off on the tag line for Trix cereal. Exciting we know.)
IS THERE A POINT HERE?
Yes, of course. This is a new production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The trick? It’s ALL WOMEN. Considering how many years Shakey’s plays were done with all dudes, this only seems fair.
Press release and the way cool postcard are below. If you see this show (or any other, frankly), contact us (info is here) and let us know.

Foolish Mortals Presents
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
Directed by Blake Bradford
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Okay, bad pun. But when you see the enormous outpouring of thee-tah stuff that the 2006 New York Musical Theatre Festival is bringing to the Big Apple, you’ll see it’s not misplaced (although it is still a bad pun).
So read on, and then visit NYMF.org to find out about tickets. Right now tix are only available to members, which you can find out more about here. It’s not a bad deal – even if you only plan on buying two tickets, that would run you $40, and there’s a membership that only costs $60. So you can get your tickets and do something good for the Festival.
Blah blah blah, right? Enough talk! More SINGING!
Full press release (it’s looong) after the jump.
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