The Guide, Part Three: Recommendations

THE GUIDE, PART THREE – Package Deals

Now here is the part where I get truly opinionated and more than a little biased. Below I will recommend the shows which I think you should see in various “packages” based on the total number of shows (including packages for the four-, six-, and ten-ticket discount deals offered by Fringe) and some basic preferences (i.e., edgy Fringey shows vs. family-friendly quality productions). This is a lot like handicapping a horse race; I’m basing these recommendations on the shows’ track record and what I can gather from their self-appointed blurbs, but in the end this is all guesswork.



I have arranged my package recommendations to match Fringe's ticket deals, which save you money over individual $15 tickets, plus they come with the required Fringe button, $5 otherwise - the $50 four-ticket pass ($10 savings), the $75 six-ticket pass ($15 savings), the $110 ten-ticket pass ($40 savings) and the $300 all-access pass (which breaks even at 20 shows). At the end, I have compiled a sample opening weekend schedule in which you could see 21 shows (I myself am only seeing 15, so this is strictly theoretical). Note: the all-access pass becomes truly cheapest at 26 regular shows. Any fewer than that, and it's technically cheaper to combine smaller passes.)

Jump to:
Four-Ticket Deals
Six-Ticket Deals
Ten-Ticket Deals
Sample Opening Weekend Schedule

Before I progress to the specific-number "package deals," an unnumerated list of the hottest ticket items and most buzz-generating performances thus far:

4.48 Psychosis; Cabaret CooCoo*; Irish Authors Held Hostage; Magnum Opus; My Fabulous Sex Life; Please Listen A Musical Chaos*; Riding the Bull; A Tactile Dinner; Titus X*.

That said, onward!


If you only see one Fringe show
first of all, what is wrong with you, and second of all, make it Children of Medea if you prefer emotion and drama, Titus X* if you prefer blood and rock n’ roll, Cabaret CooCoo* if you prefer fun and silliness, and The Sin Show if you prefer a ripping good yarn.

4-Packs
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The Bare Minimum Four Pack:
If you see four Fringe shows, see Cabaret CooCoo*; Children of Medea; Titus X*; and The Sin Show. Then after you’re hooked, pick another package.

Family Friendly Four Pack:
The Bea & The Bug; The Girl Who Waters the Basil; The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe; The Pirates of Penzance.

The Educational Issues Four-Pack:
Catherine Gropper's Miss Crandall's Classes; Skywriter; The Teacher's Lounge or One Child Left Behind; They Call Me Mister Fry.

The "Workplace" Comedy Four-Pack:
Good Enough for Government Work; GS-14; Immoral Combat; Live! Girls! Organize!

The Naked People and Swords Not-Quite-a-Four Pack:
Bare Breasted Women Sword Fighting*; The Fifth Musketeer*; Uncorseted.

The Not-Quite-Shakespeare Shakespeare Four-Pack:
Bad Hamlet*; Herbie: Poet of the Wild West; The Tempest, the Musical; Titus X*.

The Not-Quite-Poe Poe Not-Quite-a-Four-Pack:
Annabel Lee*; The Fall of the House of Usher; Life in Death: An Opera Electronica.


6-Packs
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The That’s Better Than the Bare Minumum Four Pack, Six-Pack:
Cabaret CooCoo*; Children of Medea; either Dizzy Miss Lizzie; May 39th/40th*; Titus X*; The Sin Show.

The I Already Did the Bare Minimum Four Pack, What Now? Six-Pack:
Captain Squishy; Closet Land; Diamond Dead*; either Dizzy Miss Lizzie; Jamaica Farewell; May 39th/40th*.

The Lovely and Affecting Fringe Six-Pack:
Annabel Lee; Children of Medea; Freakshow*; I'm Not Oedipus; Jamaica Farewell; Journey #8.

The Autobiographical Love Life Monologues Six-Pack:
Beyond DarkCorners; Flag Boy; My Fabulous Sex Life; Self-Service; Sex, Dreams and Self-Control; So Do You Love Me Yet?

The Straight-up Comedy Six-Pack:
Captain Squishy; Dorks on the Loose*; Headscarf and the Angry Bitch; Hopelessly Devoted; Slow News Day*; Soup!


10-Packs
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The Bare Minimum Four- and Six-Packs Combined, Ten-Pack:
Cabaret CooCoo*; Captain Squishy; Children of Medea; Closet Land; Diamond Dead*; either Dizzy Miss Lizzie; Jamaica Farewell; May 39th/40th*; Titus X*; and The Sin Show.

The Ten Pack After Those Ten, Ten-Pack:
2 shows: Disorder / Plant Psychic*; 4:48 Psychosis; A.D.; Annabel Lee*; Bare Breasted Women Sword Fighting*; Journey #8; McSwiggins Pub; Not Your Granny’s Revolution; Riding the Bull; Sex, Dreams and Self-Control.

The Fringiest Ten-Pack:
Bare Breasted Women Sword Figthing*; Captain Squishy; Closet Land; either Dizzy Miss Lizzie; The Elephant Man the Musical; Fictitious the Musical*; Please Listen: A Musical Chaos*; Riding the Bull; Titus X*; Uncorseted.

The Gemlike Potential Ten-Pack:
Bad Hamlet*; Dust of Babylon; Freakshow*; Hopelessly Devoted; I'm Not Oedipus; Late Bloomers and Glory Days; Life in Death: An Opera Electronica; South-Asian American Dance; A Tactile Dinner; Thou Shalt Not Kill: A Collection of One Acts.

The Promising Young Artists Ten-Pack:
The A Capella Party*; Fall of the House of Usher; home free; The Girls Inside*; Not Your Granny's Revolution; Please Listen: A Musical Chaos*; Pirates of Penzance; So Do You Love Me Yet?; This Is NOT My Life; Youth Fringe Showcase.

The Multi-Cultural Showcase Ten Pack:
Cirque Du' SAPAN: A Showcase of South Asian Arts; Dancing to Ancient Rhythms; Headscarf and the Angry Bitch; Jamaica Farewell; Lila: The Love Story of Radha and Krishna; Sari to Skin; She Moved Through the Fair; South-Asian American Dance; Two Girls; Youth Fringe Showcase.

The Beyond Thunderdome Out-There Ten+One Pack:
4:48 Psychosis; Bargain Basement Game Show; The Escapades of Farty Johnson; Herbie: Poet of the Wild West*; The Honest-to-God True Story of the Atheist; Leave A Tone After The Message!!!; Let's Sing Gospel 101!; Lipstick Handgun; Murth; Riding the Bull; Waiting for the Trigger.

and finally...

The Musicals Ten+Four Pack: (opera, song stylings and cabaret excluded)
Captain Squishy's Yeehaw Jamboree; Diamond Dead - Continued*; The Devil's Christmas Carol*; Dizzy Miss Lizzie's Roadside Review The Saints; Dizzy Miss Lizzie's Roadside Review The Oresteia; The Elephant Man the Musical; Fictitious the Musical*; The Girl Who Waters the Basil; Pepe! The Mail Order Monkey Musical; Pirates of Penzance; Please Listen A Musical Chaos*; The Tempest the Musical; This Is NOT My Life; Titus X*.


A Fringealicious Opening Weekend, for the Insane
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Here is a recommended example of a show schedule you could put together in order to see as much as possible, and as much of a breadth of what’s out there, in Fringe’s opening weekend July 9-July 12. (Note that I myself am not crazy enough to be attempting anything close to this.) Take it as an example of just how wildly immersed you could get into Fringe.
For those looking to duplicate this effort (but on a smaller scale?), my method was thus: I went to the Fringe website and organized by day. I looked for the earliest and latest shows in the time period I wanted, and picked the one early-or-late show that I most wanted. I then worked forwards or backwards from that point, selecting my most preferred show in the next reasonable time slot (leaving at least 15 minutes for travel, and occasional breaks of up to an hour for digesting the performances just seen as well as some food). Occasionally, I would go back and move something around when I saw an opportunity to catch something on a different day at a better time slot.

Please note again that I myself will not actually be attempting this schedule:

Total shows: 21 plus 3 FAST musical performances
Total hours: approximately 40.
Total cost: a $300 all-access pass would do it and cover you for the rest of Fringe, although technically two ten-ticket passes plus one regular ticket and three FAST tickets would cost less, at $265. But who would see all this and then not catch at least three more shows? (Someone crazy enough to do this in the first place, perhaps?)
Note: if you skipped the FAST performances, the 21 shows would cost $235. The all-access pass becomes completely cost-effective at 26 shows.


THURSDAY, JULY 9

Uncorseted - 5:30-6
Closet Land - 7-8:30
Catherine Gropper's Miss Crandall's Classes - 10-11:15

FRIDAY, JULY 10

Flag Boy - 5-6:10
Annabel Lee* - 6:45-7:30
All That Was Left of Them - 8-8:55
Captain Squishy - 9:30-10
Cabaret CooCoo* - 11-midnight

and end the day at the bar with a FAST musical performance by Totally Psyched.

SATURDAY, JULY 11

Fictitious* - noon-2
Dizzy Miss Lizzie's The Saints - 2:30-3:40
4:48 Psychosis - 4:15-5:15
Journey #8 - 6-7
Is There Anybody Out There - 8-9:30
Escapades of Farty Johnson - 9:45-10:30
Titus X* - 10:45-12:15am

and end the day at the bar with a FAST musical performance by Dynamite/Lazerbeam.

SUNDAY, JULY 12

Cover Me in Humanness* - noon-1
Leave a Tone After the Message!! - 2-3
Skywriter - 3:15-4:15
Irish Authors Held Hostage - 5-6:25
McSwiggin's Pub - 7-7:45
A Tactile Dinner - 8:15-9:35

and end the day at the bar with a FAST musical performance by Radar Jamming.

* - read the introduction to find out what the asterisk means.

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Well, that's it for the Guide.

Don’t forget to watch for my reviews and those of some dozen other Fringe-seeking reviewers at the Fringe & Purge blog!

Questions? Recommendations? Looking for recommendations? Complaints (remember this is one man’s only slightly biased opinion)? I’d love to discuss. Comments are unscreened for speed of conversation; please don't be abusive or I'll have to take action. I recommend saving your more detailed thoughts on the shows themselves for Fringe & Purge and dctheatrescene.com. Comment here if your comment is directly related to this Guide.


Thank you for reading, and happy Fringing!