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Hy on the Fringe: Your Personal Guide to the

2011 New York International Fringe Festival

This Page Was Most Recently Updated: Saturday August 27th 2011

Notable Musicals

Some of the biggest, splashiest, and most enjoyable shows at the festivals are musicals. A fatal mistake of many aspiring musical writers is focusing on the songs and neglecting the book (i.e., the story and dialogue). Most of the following top musicals at the festival are sharp enough to be strong on both.

 

  PigPen Presents The Mountain Song

To date, my two favorite shows of the festival: Yeast Nation and PigPen Presents: The Mountain Song

Yeast Nation: Like Broadway's Urinetown—which was the previous great triumph of Tony Award-winning writers Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis—Yeast Nation epitomizes what the Fringe is all about at its best. For my review, please click here.

 

PigPen Presents: The Mountain Song: PigPen Theatre combines songs, shadows, puppets, and the barest of props to create epic folk tales. Its darkly comic Nightmare Story at last year's festival, and this year's The Mountain Song, have the feel of living dreams, and are likely to stay with you a long time. The Mountain Song is close to selling out its entire run, so I highly recommend nabbing tickets ASAP. For my review, please click here.

 

The Bardy Bunch  The Legend of Julie-Taymor

Two of the most popular high-concept shows at the festival: The Bardy Bunch and The Legend of Julie-Taymor

The Bardy Bunch: The Partridge Family and The Brady Bunch feud following Shakespearian themes from Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and more. A smart, well-executed high concept show packed with laughs—and one of the very best productions of the festival.

 

The Legend of Julie-Taymor or The Musical That Killed Everybody: A musical about the most expensive musical in Broadway history, this has garnered tremendous interest from theatre insiders and fans; and as I write this on August 19th, it's very close to selling out its remaining tickets. The show is a mixed bag (good music, with a few show-stopper songs such as "Tweet Tweet Tweet," paired with shaky book and direction); but there's an innate pleasure in watching the progression of behind-the-scenes events in the Turn Off the Dark saga performed in song and dance.

 

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Introduction to FringeNYC 2011

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Notable Comedy Shows

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Key FringeNYC 2011 Info

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Hy's Previous FringeNYC Coverage:

FringeNYC 2010

FringeNYC 2009

FringeNYC 2008

FringeNYC 2007

FringeNYC 2006

FringeNYC 2005

 

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