Revivals are out, cutting-edge in at midtown stage festival
New York Daily News
July 18 2005
Theatergoers don’t have to wait until next month’s Fringe Festival to
see new shows on the fringe – such as a play in which a coat-check
girl has clairvoyant powers and a musical where a guardian angel
brings Princess Diana back to life.
Today the curtain raises on the Midtown International Theatre Festival,
which features an eclectic assortment of more than 50 original plays,
musicals and solo performances at five W. 36th St. spaces through
Aug. 7.
For Midtown producer John Chatterton, presenting more offbeat and
out-there fare has been a gradual process since the festival was
founded six years ago with only 19 shows.
“Where we used to do more Shaw and Shakespeare and other revivals,
there’s less and less of that now,” says Chatterton, publisher and
editor of online theater magazine OOBR (Off-Off Broadway Review).
“Our shows have become increasingly cutting-edge over the years,
and this year we only have one revival out of the 50 [works] we’re
presenting.”
The lone production with a pedigree is “It’s Only a Play,” a revival
of Terrence McNally’s biting satire of Broadway during the 1980s.
Other MITF shows generating a bit of buzz this year include “Charles
and Diana: The Musical,” a fantasy that has Princess Di getting a
second chance at life and love; “The Girls Who Wore Black,” based on
the poetry of such female Beat Generation writers as Diane di Prima,
Hettie Jones and Joyce Johnson; “21 Stories: A Broadway Tale,” a love
story about an English youth and a Texas woman who dream of being
Broadway stars, and “Good Opinions,” which deals with a coat-check
girl in a Manhattan restaurant who can foretell the reviews of a
powerful theater critic.
Among the standout solo shows are “on the Couch With Nora Armami.”
Armami, an Egyptian-Armenian-American actress who also starred in a
popular one-woman show at last year’s festival, returns with a humorous
take on her struggles to identify with her multicultural heritage.
In addition to these full productions, MITF is also presenting a
series of staged readings of nearly a dozen plays. MITF runs today
through Aug. 7 at Workshop Theaters, Where Eagles Dare Theaters and
Smash studios on W. 36th St. Tickets to all shows are $15 and $20.
For more info: or (212) 868-4444.