From the ridiculous to the sublime, from the sublime to the subversive, from the maddening to the the madcap, from the madcap to the captivating, the annual summer New York International Fringe Festival has a bit of everything. It's a gigantic salad bar of theatre offerings, usually without a lot of dressing, if that optional dressing is costumes and scenery. Sometimes it's not about the visual, but the visceral, and expect edgy with rough edges, though there have been exceptions with polished productions shining and more traditional --- some say "old-fashioned" --- theatre styles.

This critic has been reviewing Tommy Femia even since before he made his worldwide name as the best Judy Garland impersonator on the globe, two decades ago. In those days, he was doing impressions of Garland at parties and events and such, but the bulk of his act (as directed by the stellar Anthony Santelmo, Jr.) at the old Judy's on 44th Street, went in an entirely different direction. By the time yours truly was able to catch him as Garland, in his second week at Rose's Turn

With the most unfortunate and unexpected loss of the legendary Claiborne Cary earlier this season, it was a natural speculation as to who might be the proper candidate to fill her ornate and undoubtedly-expensive shoes. That torch has most certainly been passed to 2010 MAC Award nominee Joan Jaffe, who while putting a slightly Yiddishkeit spin on a music-comedy act of the same type, performs an evening no less than howlingly funny and uncannily impressive.

Acclaimed as "the revelation" of Brazilian Jazz, performed with Michel Legrand (3 Time Oscar Winner ) last year: Fancy, charming, unique ...those are some important skills that made Michel Legrand admire Patty Ascher's talent. Her first album, with Burt Bacharach, Greatest Hits in Bossa Nova Rythym - produced by Roberto Menescal, one of Bossa Nova's fathers - was "best selling" in Brazil (2007).

Questions regarding Abraham Lincoln’s sexual preferences have been the topic of numerous writings, most notably C.A. Tripp, a sex researcher and protégé of Alfred Kinsey, whose book The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln was posthumously published in 2005. The speculation stems from Carl Sandburg’s biography of Lincoln in 1926, and an early relationship of Lincoln and his friend Joshua Fry Speed as having "a streak of lavender, and spots soft as May violets."

Show Choir! - The Musical is an original musical comedy that takes place in a not too distant future, when international pop phenomenon The Symphonic Sensations rise from a small town high school show choir, to big time show biz success, with an explosion of tight harmonies & jazz hands. As the music bio TV documentary “Beyond the Facade”

This year's annual Fresh Fruit Festival, which delivers a cornucopia of theatrical offerings at the Cherry Lane Theatre, was regrettably plagued at the outset with bad news, namely the untimely death of festival founder Harry Weider. A "little person" (aka dwarf) who also happened to be a lifelong champion of causes for both the LGBT and Jewish communities, besides a thespian known far and wide for his tremendous command of the stage and screen, as well as unending charisma. Weider met his premature end in mid-spring at he age of fifty-nine, when he was struck by a moving taxi on a street in the East Village.

Memo to: “One Life to Live,” how could you have made Eli into a psycho? The TVJ loved this guy (and the sexy Matt Walton, whose evil side is wonderful!) and now he’s just another creep who Blair’s planning to marry. Poor Blair (the fabulously spectacular and underappreciated, not to mention stunning, Kassie DePaiva) marrying yet another loser. Hey Blair’s not THAT dumb! Give her a break. In fact, give all those Cramer women a break.