New York Post
Fringe in low places
By BARBARA HOFFMAN
August 12, 2010

How does a drama about the massacre in Mumbai and “Hip Hop High: The Musical” sell out without ad campaigns or a single premiere?

When they play the Fringe, folks.

The 14th annual New York International Fringe Festival kicks off tomorrow with 197 shows — a few of which have already commanded enough word-of-mouth to make them instant hits.

“Itâ€s the only show from India this year, and they reached out to the Indian community, which really responded,” says Fringe artistic director Elana K. Holy of that hot ticket, “A Personal War: Stories of the Mumbai Terror Attacks.”

As far as “Hip Hop High” is concerned, she credits its cast of energetic teenagers, “tweeting and Facebooking,” with getting the word out.

With tweets or without, thereâ€s always the hope of another “Urinetown,” the only Fringe show so far to make it all the way to Broadway.

This yearâ€s fest, running through Aug. 29, offers the usual: a sprinkling of Shakespeare (a streamlined “As You Like It,” the teen-friendly “Hamlettes”); oodles of camp (“Friends of Dorothy: An Oz Cabaret”) and titles that might have come from Max Bialystock himself — take “Jew Wish” and “Invader? I Hardly Know Her!” Please.

New this year: posh digs for Fringe Central, where you can buy tix and see trailers (1 E. Eighth St., off Fifth Avenue, across the street from Otto), plus a show-finding app you can download for free from iTunes.

With $15 tickets and all the free A/C you can soak up, itâ€s worth a gamble. Here are a few of the more promising contenders:

* Bruce Vilanch, whoâ€s written for the Oscars, the Tonys and the Emmys, is no quitter. Heâ€s retooled his 1978 flop musical “Platinum,” about a comeback-hungry Hollywood climber named Lila Halliday, and cast it with Broadway stalwarts Liz Larsen (“Hairspray”) and Sarah Litzsinger (“Beauty and the Beast”).

* A real Hollywood cutieâ€s the centerpiece of “Just in Time: The Judy Holliday Story.” Billed as “a fast-paced romp through the life of the Original Dumb Blonde,” itâ€s full of songs and the starry crew Holliday hung with: Orson Welles, Katharine Hepburn and Jimmy Durante among them.

* Ah, Michelle Dessler: “24” diehards still mourn her passing. So itâ€s nice to discover the woman who played her, Reiko Aylesworth, in “Lost and Found,” one of the festâ€s few dramas, this one about a copâ€s dysfunctional family. Another familiar face: Geraldine Librandi, who played Patty Leotardo in “The Sopranos.”

* Cinephiles should turn out in force for “Burning in China,” directed as it is by Caleb Deschanel, the cinematographer better known these days as the dad of Zooey and Emily Deschanel. Gary Mooreâ€s show is about an American professor in China who follows his students into that pre-Twitter showdown at Tiananmen Square.

Can the Fringe be serious? This year, it just might.

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The post I Got ‘Fringe’ In Low Places first appeared on We Got Bruce!.

The 14th Annual New York International Fringe Festival has announced its 2010 season lineup, which will feature 197 international theatre companies in Lower Manhattan and nationally.

Many famous personalities will be skewered in several of the Festival plays. MacChin: The Lamentable Tragedy of Jay Leno, written and directed by Zachary Stewart, will cast the benighted late-night television host in a spin on Shakespeare’s infamous “Scottish play.” Eric Zambrano’s fantasy piece Marilyn Monroe: Wouldn’t It Be Tomorrow has the movie goddess and one-time husband Joe DiMaggio pursuing imagined lovers.

Just in Time: The Judy Holliday Story, written and directed by Bob Sloan, will feature “appearances” by Orson Welles, Katharine Hepburn, Gloria Swanson, and other theatre and film stars in the life of Holliday, the comic singing actress of Bells Are Ringing, Born Yesterday, and many films. Writer Patricia Loughrey and composer Thomas Hodges examine the late gay politician and activist Harvey Milk in Dear Harvey.

The widely diverse array of artistic offerings will include shows inspired by the Muslim experience, Shakespeare and LGBT issues, as well as plenty of musicals and other unique performance pieces. The festival will run August 13-29.

Emma Barash, Marshall Pailet, Bryce Norbitz and Steve Wargo will offer Jurassic Parq: The Broadway Musical, a re-envisioning of the popular film from the dinosaurs’ perspectives, directed by Pailet. Platinum, a revival of the 1978 Bruce Vilanch-William Holt-Gary William Friedman musical about a former screen star who makes a comeback with a rock band, will also appear in the festival, directed by Ben West and choreographed by Rommy Sandhu.

Divya Palat’s A Personal War: Stories of the Mumbai Terror Attacks (which Palat will also direct) will theatricalize the stories of survivors from the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India. Norwiegan-Muslim comedienne Shabana Rehman will talk about her immigration experiences in For Kingdom and Fatherland.

Matt Salderelli’s Getting Even with Shakespeare, directed by Laura Konsin, will pit five of Shakespeare’s great tragic heroes against each other in a bar. Julius Caesar: The Death of a Dictator, from the Gangbusters Theatre Company, will reimagine Orson Welles’ staging of Shakespeare’s political drama with Metallica music.

Singapore’s transsexual activist Leona Lo will tell her story in Ah Kua Show, directed by Richard Chua. Steven Fales (Confessions of a Mormon Boy) will discuss the gay Mormon experience again in Missionary Position, based on his work as a missionary in Portugal. Historic homophobic incidents will be explored in Stan Richardson’s Veritas (directed by Ryan J. Davis), about the Harvard “Secret Court” anti-gay witch hunt; and The Twentieth-Century Way (written by Tom Jacobson and directed by Michael Michetti).

For the complete list of productions, more information on them and to order tickets (beginning July 23), visit fringenyc.org. Tickets may also be ordered at (866) 468-7619.

The post FringeNYC 2010 Season Will Platinum, a revival of the 1978 Bruce Vilanch-William Holt-Gary William Friedman musical first appeared on We Got Bruce!.