Thinking Theater NYC

Persé Fanny. Photo by Jason Laboy.   Just in time for Valentine's Day, Hotsy Totsy Burlesque - in its 15th year of paying tribute to favorite movies and TV shows with rhinestones, glitter, and flying underpants, and winner of Broadway World's “Best Burlesque Show of 2023” - will present its fan-favorite annual tribute to the ladies of Disney. Prince Charming (Handsome Brad) and his wife, the Cherry Godmother, are throwing their annual Bride Finding Ball, this time for Tinkerbell, the original Manic Pixie Dream Girl. But is finding a handsome prince really her idea of happily ever after? The show will take place at The Slipper Room (167 Orchard Street, NYC), a 21+ venue, on Thursday, February 8, 2024. The performance will be hosted by Cherry Pitz & Handsome Brad, with special guest host Bimini Cricket; acts by Fortune Cookie, Persé Fanny, Betty Brash, and Rosie Cheeks; gogo by Bitsy Brûlée, and stage kitten duties handled by Dutch Baby. Admission is $25 pre-sold reserved s

Falling Sideways Off the Edge of the Earth Written by Pamela Enz Directed by C.C. Kellogg and Avery Wigglesworth Presented by Theater for the New City and Executive Director Crystal Field in co-production with Invulnerable Nothings at Theater for the New City 155 1st Ave., Manhattan, NYC January 13-28, 2024 Ginna Hoben and Marlon Xavier. Photo by Christian Frederick Stevenson Some plays are content to render the "big" metaphysical questions as subtext. Falling Sideways Off the Edge of the Earth is not one of those plays. From playwright Pamela Enz, who has described herself as a "hybrid theatrical collagist," Falling Sideways Off the Edge of the Earth comes at the big questions straight on and from multiple angles, foregrounding interrogations of sexuality, death, religion, the natures of humanity and the universe, and more in a poetic tissue of voices and viewpoints dense with both ontological inquiry and memorably crafted lines. This production demands the aud

Wounded Written by Jiggs Burgess Directed by Del Shores Presented by Beard Collins Shores Productions at SoHo Playhouse 15 Vandam St., Manhattan, NYC January 24-February 11, 2024 Shaw Jones and Craig Taggart in Wounded . Courtesy of Beard Collins Shores Productions. At one point in Wounded , a mesmerizing two-hander from playwright Jiggs Burgess, a man named Carrol (Craig Taggart) observes that one's roots can shift from providing a sense of protection to holding one back; and, indeed, in this play, the past, tied inseparably to the small hometown to which Carrol and his friend from youth, Robert (Shaw Jones) find themselves having returned to as middle-aged adults, inescapably ensnares the present. Carrol and Robert's reunion gradually and compellingly excavates the ways in which they have been shaped by their past environment as much as by their individual choices, personalities, addictions, and errors, and, in one significant instance, as much by intentional inaction as by

The Greatest Hits Down Route 66 Written by Michael Aguirre Musical arrangements by Grace Yukich and Jennifer C. Dauphinais Directed by Sarah Norris Presented by New Light Theater Project in association with Calliope Stage and NewYorkRep at 59E59 Theaters 59 E 59th St., Manhattan, NYC January 13-February 18, 2024 L to R front: Erika Rolfsrud, Kristoffer Cusick, Joél Acosta. L to R rear: Kleo Mitrokostas, Martin Ortiz, Andy Evan Cohen. Photo by Hunter Canning Late in The Greatest Hits Down Route 66 , a new play with music from playwright Michael Aguirre, one of the characters brings up the philosophical truism that a person can never step in the same river twice, an observation that applies not only to individual and collective histories but also to performing a song. Just as with live theater, each live performance of a song constitutes a discrete, transitory text (and historical moment); and in the case of folk music, the genre from which the play's titular hits are drawn, it is

The Fire This Time Festival : Season 15: Ten-Minute Plays Ethel & Ethel , by Joël René Scoville; Mamas & Papas , by Kamilah Bush; What's Love Got to Do With It? , by LeeLee Jackson; Why Jamira Gotta Do All Da Werk? , by Nia Akilah Robinson; It's Karen B****! , by Taylor A. Blackman; The Mural , by Monique Pappas-Williams Directed by Cezar Williams Presented in collaboration with FRIGID New York at the wild project 195 E. 3rd St., Manhattan, NYC January 15-28, 2024 Marinda Anderson and Danielle Covington in Ethel & Ethel . Photo by Garlia Jones 2024 marks not only the fifteenth year of The Fire This Time Festival, which showcases "early career playwrights of African and African-American descent," but also a move south and east from the festival's longtime home at the Kraine Theater to the wild project, where audiences can experience an exhibition of paintings by multidisciplinary artist Moses Harper in the lobby prior to the show (or the festival'

Canary Written by Donald Wollner Directed by Bree O'Connor Presented by Playful Substance at the Chain Theatre 312 W 36th St., 4th fl., Manhattan, NYC January 9-20, 2023 Dan Kellmer, Yessenia Rivas, & Jason Scott Quinn. "Staff Meeting": Photo Credit: Amanda Lacson For the bulk of the twentieth century, the canary was instrumentalized by the working class as a warning device, employed by coal miners because it would indicate dangerous levels of carbon monoxide or other toxic gasses by succumbing to them. Donald Wollner's Canary , set several decades ago in roughly the same period as canaries were replaced with electronic detectors, takes its title from and plays on this proverbial usage of the bird. Making its world premiere at the Chain Theatre as the first full production mounted by Playful Substance since its fall 2019 production of Raphael Perahia’s Shelter in Place , Canary playfully but bitingly imagines a New York advertising firm as the location of an inf

Maria DeCotis. Photo by Arin Sang-urai. Mike Lemme's Before the Drugs Kick In , performed by NYC comedian and actress Maria DeCotis , which concluded its December run at UNDER St. Marks, has added January dates at Court Square Theater in Long Island City, Queens. In our review of this excellent show , which takes the outward form of a stand-up set, we described it as inviting "us inside the mind of one woman for a riveting, empathetic, and darkly funny exploration of mental health and its (mis)treatments and stigmas, especially where women are concerned; the oppressiveness and isolation of the suburbs; and what Betty Friedan termed the feminine mystique." Before the Drugs Kick In runs from January 5th through 28th - see below for the complete list of performances - and Court Square Theater is located at 44-02 23rd Street, Long Island City, a 5-minute walk from the 7, M, and E trains. Tickets may be purchased at this link , and you can also support the show and its futu