The NY International Fringe Festival is in full swing in New York. The festival runs now through August 30th. What is the Fringe Festival? Well, their web page helpfully describes themselves this way:

…the largest multi-arts festival in North America, with more than 200 companies from all over the world performing for 16 days in more than 20 venues – that’s a total of more than 1300 performances! FringeNYC generates an atmosphere of extreme excitement, and our energy is contagious!

That explains things, right?

Here is Stage Right’s description:

The Fringe Festival is a collection of mediocre plays, musicals and performance art that otherwise probably would never be produced in any form of any kind except under the umbrella of a festival that celebrates the quirky, strange, off-beat and sometimes down-right offensive. (and their energy is contagious!)

Over at the NY Times ArtBeat blog, playwright Neil Genzlinger has exposed the depth of the Fringe Festival in a recent post where he describes his first encounter there:

I had submitted a mini-musical I’d written called “Not Herself Lately,” and, to my naïve surprise, it had been accepted. Only later did I realize that, at least back then, you could submit the instruction manual for a washing machine and it would be accepted, as long as you had the required “participation fee” (this year, $550).

He goes on to give helpful advice to playwrights looking for an audience at the vastly overbooked festival (1,300 performances over 16 days of plays that don’t have mass appeal means a lot of shows where the cast out-numbers the audience):

Since no ticket buyer can possibly plow through the more than 200 offerings and make a reasoned, nuanced selection, the best way to get people into your show is to put the word “Naked” in your title, whether or not anyone is naked, or at least to strongly imply in your show description that nakedness is available. This year there will almost surely be good crowds for the likes of “Dream Lovers” (“Are they having dream sex in their fantasy or fantasy sex in their dreams?”), “Porn Rock: The Musical” (“This provocative, sexy, multimedia rock ‘n’ roll extravaganza invites you to join the party”) and “Sex and the Holy Land” (“a stereotype-shattering sexploration of Israel”). Also,”Spermalot: The Musical” and “State of Undress”(www.theimpulseinitiative.com).

No one wants to think too hard in 90-degree weather, so titles with pop-culture references that promise easy laughs are always good. Most likely to deliver mindless entertainment this year: “Pie-Face: The Adventures of Anita Bryant,” “George and Laura Bush Perform Our Favorite Sitcom Episodes”(www.georgeandlaurabushperform.com) and “Clemenza and Tessio Are Dead.”

I think Genzlinger unwittingly shines a light on the shallow nature of the festival, its participants and its audience. Be crude, sexual and left-wing and the people will come!

The Fringe’s biggest success story was “Urinetown, the Musical” which got an off-Broadway booking out of the festival and, eventually transferred to Broadway winning three Tony Awards (trust me, 1999 was a WEAK year at the Tony’s… “Fosse” won Best Musical, ok?).

So, if you’re in New York over the next couple of weeks, maybe you can head over to the festival and catch what looks to be a real winner: “The Green Manifesto, A Really Green New Musical.”

The Green Manifesto is a fresh, new musical comedy about the green movement, but at it’s heart and in it’s soul, it’s a love story. Set amidst the backdrop of Earth Day, The Green Manifesto explores the differences between conservationists and environmentalists, a runaway movement that has grown from a cause into a business. It tells the story of Adam Greene, an environmental lawyer, and his girlfriend, PhD candidate Madison Lowey. Through Madison’s research she comes to realize she is a closet conservationist.

The narrator of The Green Manifesto is a Noel Coward-esque talking puffin named Pete. Adam is set to make partner at an environmental law firm. He’s preparing for the greatest speech of his life–his Earth Day speech–but he has lost sight of everything that had ever mattered to him because he is so obsessed with making partner and making money. Madison has lost sight of her way as well, but she bonds with Pete and he teaches her an important life-lesson which she is able to impart to Adam. Then there is the foil, Patrick Brown. Patrick is a conservationist who loves Madison and makes her question Adam’s love and her own path.

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