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The thermometer hit 100 degrees last week, which can only mean one thing . . . it's Fringe time, baby!
This post is a revival of a post I did last year about the 10 shows that grabbed my attention as I flipped through the Fringe Festival catalog of shows.
With over 200 shows in each year's festival, the challenge facing all the writers and producers out there is getting their shows to stand out in a catalog that looks more cluttered than a NYC diner menu (does anyone ever order the Broiled Boston Scrod Filet at these places?). So how do you get a Producer's and a Ticket Buyer's attention with just a 100-word blurb?
Rather than just babble on about what I think makes a good blurb, I thought I would 'show not tell' by showing you which 10 shows stood out to me as I flipped through the catalog.
Here we go, in alpha order.
1. 23 Feet in 12 Minutes: The Death and Rebirth of New Orleans
Katrina is still on so many of our minds, especially in light of what that area of the country is now facing. This docu-drama based on "interviews with over 60 Katrina survivors" sounds like it has the potential to educate and thrill, simultaneously. Most audiences only witnessed Katrina on TV. This show could get them closer. And that's intriguing.
The beginning of the Bunked blurb starts like this . . . "Sponsored by LogoTV, Bunked . . . " They had me at Logo. I'm not sure of the depth of this "sponsorship," but a Fringe level show garnering any kind of attention from a cable network will certainly get attention from an audience. Plus it takes place at a camp. I mean, come on, camps are just funny. Meatballs, Wet Hot American Summer, Friday the 13th. Oh. Wait a minute. www.bunkedthemusical.com
Got Milk? Then you'll probably get tickets to Dear Harvey. There's nothing wrong with allowing the popularity of another form of entertainment to help you find your audience, as long as what you're doing is unique and presents the material in a new and interesting way. After Guitar Hero, there was Rock Band. After Coke, there was Pepsi. And after Academy Award-winning Milk, comes Dear Harvey, which promises to tell you some stories that the movie couldn't. www.diversionary.org
4. Faye Lane's Beauty Shop Stories
Christopher Durang may have started the "put the title character in the title" trend with Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All To You, but this show sounds like a fun addition to the canon (along with another show heading to NYC this fall). In addition to the 'teasing' title (get it - beauty shop - tease), the blurb offers a great quote from NY Magazine and screams out IN CAPS, "BEDAZZLING TRUE STORIES! HILARIOUS SONGS! FREE PRIZES!" The free prize line is what got me. People love free, but what people love even more is unique, and free prizes definitely make this show sound different from all the rest.
The best marketers on the planet will tell you to lead with your strongest asset, or, in cliche-speak, always put your best foot forward. Have A Nice Life certainly took that advice when composing their blurb. Rather than start with what their show is about (a musical group therapy session), the first sentence starts with, "Direct from a sold-out run at the Edinburgh Fringe . . . " It continues with quotes, but the words 'sold-out' combined with the reputable EF made me sit up in my chair and circle this show. www.nicepeopletheatre.org.
Do you know who Terryl Daluz and Mann Alfonso are? Me neither. But they were given an NAACP Theatre Award for Best Playwright. And that makes them important. Awards, even if they're not from organizations as esteemed as the NAACP, always attract audiences. And where there is an audience, a Producer will soon follow. If you're a writer, try to win something while you wait for a production. Enter the many playwrighting competitions online. Doors will open faster for you with somebody's, anybody's, seal of approval. www.masksproductions.com
"WARNING: This play contains nudity." Need I say more? Yes, lines like this will turn off a few folks (although probably not many Fringe festival attendees), but a Warning, or a Not For All Viewers disclaimer has a way of getting people . . . er . . . titillated . . . into buying a ticket. www.mobiustheplay.com
Chicago was a much maligned musical before it was revived on Broadway in 1996. Since then, every Producer I know has combed through the catalogs of old shows, looking for the next musical that could be rediscovered and prove to be more valuable now than it was when it originally opened. Platinum is a musical with a book co-written by Hollywood Squares and Academy Awards writer, Bruce Vilanch, and UnsungMusicalsCo., Inc. has revised it for this year's Fringe. www.platinumthemusical.com
People like what they know, and most people know A Separate Peace. It has been screaming for a stage adaptation (I hear there's a musical in the works). Add in a quote from the LA Times, and this show says, "Come down and say hello," just like an old friend you haven't seen in awhile. www.aseparatepeace.info
Did you ever have a swearing jar? I bet someone around you did. There's something about this title that we can all understand, and that is inherently funny. And once again, a title does half the show's marketing for them. That makes me F***ing interested. Ahh, darn it. Here's a quarter. www.thebridgetheatrecompany.com.
So there you have it. This year's 10 stand-out shows (with honorable mentions to My Broken Brain, The Morning After/The Night Before and Veritas).
For tickets and info on all the shows in the Fringe, visit www.fringenyc.org today.
Now, it's important to note, that these are the shows that stand out to me from a marketing perspective. I have no idea whether they'll be any good. These are just the shows that have great potential to get butts in seats.
Then we'll see what they can do with those butts.
(Hmmmm, this blog could be retitled, "The strangest sign off line in the history of blogs.")
