Time Out New York’s Fringe Binge

Each August, the New York International Fringe Festival unfurls its nearly 200 offerings, and we in the media throw our arms up in dismay. Who can cover so many shows? Which are the good ones? Can just anyone put on a Fringe play? (Sometimes it seems like it.) In the democratic spirit of this annual behemoth, TONY’s theater department has gone wide: Thanks to a frenzy of in-house conscription, over 100 different TONY staffers—writers, editors, designers, photographers, marketers, even interns—have now chosen at least one show apiece, at random, from a thick stack of Fringe postcards and press releases. Over the next few weeks, our ragtag army will fan out below 14th Street to sample this year’s festival fare and report on their findings. Some of our guinea-pig scriveners are seasoned reviewers; others will be taking their first shot at drama criticism. The wideness of this range strikes us a true to the nature of the Fringe Festival itself: an unpredictable mix of well-seasoned expertise and uncooked enthusiasm.

Check back regularly to see new reviews as we post them. And for full details on the festival, visit fringenyc.org.

Search by:

Alphabetical order:

Alphabetical listing

# 
516 (reviewed: 4 stars)
7 Stories High (reviewed: 3 stars)

A 
Action Jesus (reviewed: 2 stars)
An Air Balloon Across Antarctica (reviewed: 3 stars)
Analog Friend (reviewed: 3 stars)
Angela's Flying Bed (reviewed: 3 stars)
Another Day on Willow Street (reviewed: 3 stars)
Arthur & Esther (reviewed: 2 stars)
As Far As We Know (reviewed: 5 stars)
Asking for It (reviewed: 4 stars)

B 
Baum for Peace, or The True Adventures of the Slightly World-Renowned Lesbian Playwright Who Ran for Congress (reviewed: 2 stars)
A Beautiful Child (reviewed: 3 stars)
Bent to the Flame- A Night with Tennessee Williams (reviewed: 4 stars)
Better This Way (reviewed: 3 stars)
Boiling Pot (reviewed: 3 stars)
Bombs in Your Mouth (reviewed: 4 stars)
The Box (reviewed: 2 stars)
Bukowsical! (reviewed: 2 stars)
Burn (reviewed: 3 stars)
Bye Bye Big Guy (reviewed: 3 stars)

C 
Cancer! The Musical (reviewed: 4 stars)
Catch the Fish (reviewed: 4 stars)
Champ: A Space Opera (reviewed: 4 stars)
Chaser (reviewed: 4 stars)
The Consuming Passions of Lydia Pinkham and Rev. Sylvester Graham (reviewed: 3 stars)

D 
Days & Nights: Page 121, Lines 11 and 12 (reviewed: 1 star)
Dirt (reviewed: 4 stars)
Does the Body Good (reviewed: 4 stars)
The Double Murder Plays (reviewed: 2 stars)
… Double Vision (reviewed: 4 stars)

E 
The Education of Rebecca (reviewed: 2 stars)
Elektrafire (reviewed: 4 stars)
The End (reviewed: 3 stars)
End’s Eve: The Feast of 2012 (reviewed: 3 stars)
Enough About Me… Let’s Talk About Jew! (reviewed: 4 stars)

F 
Farmer Song (reviewed: 3 stars)
Farmtrucks: A Corporate Coffee Adventure (reviewed: 4 stars)
Fish (reviewed: 2 stars)

G 
The Game (reviewed: 2 stars)
Get Out of Jail Free: A Play About Love (reviewed: 1 star)
Give and Go: Learning from Losing to the Harlem Globetrotters (reviewed: 1 star)
The Gospel According to Matthew (reviewed: 4 stars)

H 
Hail Satan (reviewed: 3 stars)
Hamlet: A Stand-Up (reviewed: 3 stars)
Helmet (reviewed: 4 stars)
Her Kind: The Life & Poetry of Anne Sexton (reviewed: 2 stars)
Hillary Agonistes (reviewed: 3 stars)
Horatio (reviewed: 3 stars)
Hot Flashes (reviewed: 3 stars)

I 
I Dig Doug (reviewed: 4 stars)
In the Shadow of My Son (reviewed: 2 stars)

J 
Jamaica Farewell (reviewed: 4 stars)
Jazz Hand: Tales of a One Armed Woman (reviewed: 3 stars)
Jesus Rant (reviewed: 2 stars)
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! (reviewed: 4 stars)

K 
Kiss and Make Up (reviewed: 2 stars)

L 
Ladies of Eola Heights (reviewed: 3 stars)
Leni (reviewed: 3 stars)
Lights Rise on Grace (reviewed: 4 stars)
Lost!: How a Certain TV Mega-Hunk Stole My Identity (reviewed: 4 stars)
Lost in Hollywoodland or the Slugwoman from Uranus (reviewed: 4 stars)
Lucid (reviewed: 4 stars)

M 
Madonna and Child and Other Divas (reviewed: 2 stars)
Marvelous Shrine (reviewed: 2 stars)
Mary Brigit Poppleton is Writing a Memoir (reviewed: 3 stars)
The Mercy Swing (reviewed: 2 stars)
A Mikvah (reviewed: 3 stars)
The Miracle on Monroe Street (reviewed: 4 stars)
Miriam (reviewed: 4 stars)
Mister Lucky (reviewed: 4 stars)
Myles the Hypoallergenic Superhero and His Superhero Friends (reviewed: 4 stars)

N 
Naked in a Fishbowl (reviewed: 4 stars)
Night (reviewed: 4 stars)
Not from Canada (reviewed: 4 stars)
Notes to the Motherland (reviewed: 4 stars)

O 
The Other Side of Darkness (reviewed: 4 stars)
Out of My Mind (reviewed: 3 stars)
The Outside Man (reviewed: 4 stars)

P 
Paper Son (reviewed: 3 stars)
PB&J (reviewed: 3 stars)
Pedagogy (reviewed: 2 stars)
Piaf: Love Conquers All (reviewed: 4 stars)
Pogo & Evie (reviewed: 4 stars)
Poppies (reviewed: 2 stars)
Princess Sunshine’s Bitter Pill of Truth Funhouse (reviewed: 4 stars)

Q 

R 
The Rat King Rock Opera (reviewed: 1 star)
The Revolutionaries (reviewed: 3 stars)
Riding the Bull (reviewed: 2 stars)
Rise Like a Penis from the Flames: A Phallic Phoenix Story (reviewed: 4 stars)
The Rise & Fall of Miles & Milo (reviewed: 4 stars)
Roxy Font (reviewed: 4 stars)

S 
Scout’s Honor! (reviewed: 3 stars)
Semi-Permanent (reviewed: 4 stars)
She Wolves: Women in Sex, Death and Rebirth (reviewed: 2 stars)
She’s Not Well (reviewed: 3 stars)
Show Choir! The Musical (reviewed: 4 stars)
Slammer! (reviewed: 3 stars)
Slut à la Carte (reviewed: 4 stars)
Sodomy & Pedicures (reviewed: 3 stars)
Stand-Up Black Britain (reviewed: 3 stars)
Stock Home (reviewed: 3 stars)
Sustained Winds (reviewed: 1 star)

T 
The Terrible Girls (reviewed: 3 stars)
Third Child: Orestes Revisited (reviewed: 3 stars)
To Be Loved (reviewed: 2 stars)
Top and Bottom (reviewed: 3 stars)
Tragedy! (A Musical Comedy) (reviewed: 3 stars)
Two-mur Humor: He’s Malignant; She’s Benign (reviewed: 1 star)

U 
Unrest (reviewed: 4 stars)
Up, Down, Strange, Charmed, Beauty, and Truth (reviewed: 4 stars)

V 
Vampingo (reviewed: 2 stars)

W 
Walking in His Footsteps (reviewed: 4 stars)
Williamsburg! The Musical (reviewed: 3 stars)
The Wisdom that Men Seek (reviewed: 4 stars)
Woof, Daddy (reviewed: 4 stars)

X 

Y 

Z