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
Hurricane Irene
One show listed in the FringeNYC program guide canceled its entire run before the festival began: The Meanest Guy That Ever Lived, about legendary movie tough guy Jack Palance performed as a one-woman show by Lily Spottiswood, his granddaughter.
That was looking to be the only cancelation of the festival—but then Hurricane Irene started heading for New York. Mayor Bloomberg chose to close all mass transit starting noon on Saturday August 27th; and FringeNYC decided it had no choice but to end the festival two days early. All performances scheduled for August 27th and 28th have been canceled. So has the traditional closing night party & awards ceremony (the winners will be detailed on this site as soon as they're announced via emailed press release).
Ironically, the final FringeNYC show on Friday night—running from 10:45 to past midnight—was Brave Ducks, a play about a massive storm that turns lives upside down. I attended the performance, and the show's ushering audience members into a darkened theatre with flashlights, and periodically simulating lightning and thunder before the play even began, was an eerily relevant way to conclude what was otherwise a spectacularly successful festival.
If you purchased tickets for canceled shows online through TIcketWeb.com, you'll receive a refund via your credit card account automatically.
If you purchased tickets at FringeCentral, please mail your tickets, along with a self-addressed stamped envelope, to Refund Request, c/o The Present Company, 520 Eighth Avenue, Suite 311, New York, NY 10018. You'll be mailed back a refund.
This year's 15th Anniversary Festival enjoyed a historic level of sold out shows, despite beginning with a heat wave and then enduring a very rare NYC earthquake. It took an epic hurricane to shut it down, but it's still not out—around 20 FringeNYC shows will resume performances for the FringeNYC 2011 Encore Series, running September 9-26 at The Soho Playhouse and The Players Theatre. For more details, please visit this site's FringeNYC 2011 Encore Series page, which will be updated daily as more information becomes available.
Please also check the Show Reviews page towards the end of this weekend. Since I can't attend the Fringe, I'll be writing reviews of shows already seen instead (assuming the hurricane doesn't shut down power in my area).
Finally, please take care to be safe this weekend. With luck, things will be back to normal on Monday or Tuesday.
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Introduction to FringeNYC 2011
Best Video Promos & Sneak Peeks
Shows That Sold Out Performances
Shows That Received Added Performances
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Copyright © 2011 Hy Bender
Email: hy@hyreviews.com
