The hit comedy musical revue Around the World in a Bad Mood returns to The Duplex (61 Christopher Street @ 7^th Avenue; www.theduplex.com). Friday nights – September 17, 24, October 1. All performances are at 7pm. The show was written by Rene Foss with original music by Michael McFrederick (who also musical directs). The cast includes Hector Coris, Rene Foss and Rachael Lee. Tickets are $15 plus a 2-drink minimum. For reservations, call (212) 712-8702 or online at www.theduplex.com.

One must not attend Eli Roth’s The Last Exorcism expecting anything like his deliciously decadent and torturous Hostel, or any of the other recent extreme horror films, such as my new fave, the utterly depraved The Human Centipede.  Roth serves as producer here, rather than director ( Daniel Stamm), and while those films freakishly explore what happens to foolish Americans in Europe, Exorcism plays more like a non-alien X-File entry.

The ballot is getting shorter and shorter at the MetroStar Talent Challenge.  We now have our Top 5 finalists: Alison Nusbaum, Amy Beth Williams, Cindy Marchionda, Janice Hall and T. Oliver Reid.  This week their test was to sing three songs, with patter, like a little piece of a show.  One of these songs was to be a selection they had performed in the contest before, one was to be a new song and the last was a common song.  The common song each performer was to arrange and make their own, was the Beatles’ tune "All You Need Is Love." 

Well friends, whether by design or by chance, four of the eight (yes, eight!) Fringe shows I have had the fortune (and misfortune) to witness over the last ten days have been either Gay themed or at least Gay friendly! So, I have decided that it is appropriate to review them all together, sort of like a mini Gay Fringe Festival, and has nothing at all to do with my trying to make this all a bit more manageable! (No comments from the peanut gallery, please.)

CLICK HERE TO READ THE NY POST ARTICLE

Although the regular new York International Fringe Festival closes its many doors of Sunday after a mere 197 shows being produced several times each (!), a select few will be chosen for extra performances.  You can see www.fringenyc.org breathlessly awaiting those announcements and for info on how, where and when you can see any of the shows, including those reviewed by my colleagues here at NiteLifeExchange and myself.  The reviews are all over the website and here are my latest viewings.

This latest in a series of review round-ups from deep into the NY International Fringe Festival covers three more visits.  First, the rare hit that is both sarcastic and sweet when our prayers for such a treat are answered with Pope! – yes, a comic musical about the Pope with a song called “Holy Crap!” but instead of crap, it’s the cream of the crop.   In the Schoolyard is a gentler, nostalgia-tugging tale about longtime male bonding through basketball, even decades after the high school buddies all marry and are scattered. A distinctly different kind of male bonding is at the heart of Open Heart. It is about open sexual relationships, the script taken verbatim from interviews with gay men who are very open about discussing the topic.  The Pope would not approve.  But the guy named Pope who becomes Pope in Pope! is not your run-of-the-mill Pope.

Hurry, hurry, hurry!  Sunday, August 29, is when The New York International Fringe Festival and most of its 197—count ’em—197!—shows pack up their props and scenery (if they had any) and dreams (they all have some big ones or they wouldn’t be here) and regroup and/or recoup.  A select few, well-received shows will be part of the Fringe Encore Series and get more performances. Others, I am semi-sure will return soon or someday, being picked up by producers as they are or re-cast or cast in a different light (I don’t mean spots and gels necessarily).