1. 24 is 10: The Best of The 24 Hour Plays
The company that writes, rehearses, and performs six plays in 24 hours toasts its own 10th anniversary with 25 of their most popular plays, including David Lindsay-Abaire’s The Other Person, featuring Elizabeth Berkley, Rachel Dratch, Cheyenne Jackson, and Andrew McCarthy.
2. Band Geeks
A tuneful satire set in the 1980s about about an Ohio marching band’s dream of playing at a Cleveland Brown’s game.
3. Danny Boy
A seriocomic romantic tale by Marc Goldsmith, about a thirtysomething dwarf looking for love while dealing with his body-image insecurities.
4. The Fartiste
LAByrinth Theater Company’s John Gould Rubin directs this musical comedy inspired by the life of 19th-century professional farter Joseph Pujol, who had his own top-selling show at the Moulin Rouge in the 1890s.
5. Girl Scouts of America
A coming-of-age comedy by Mona Mansour and Andrea Berloff (World Trade Center) about a foursome of feisty Girl Scouts stumbling through adolescence and adulthood.
6. I Was Tom Cruise
Redux Productions presents Alexander Poe’s satire about a young couple whose lives change when Mr. Katie Holmes offers them a Faustian deal they can’t refuse.
7. It’s A Hit
From the creators of the 2002 Fringe-to-Off Broadway hit The Joys of Sex, a tuneful murder mystery about the dark side of show business with music by David Weinstein.
9. Neon Mirage
A series of short pieces exploring the grit behind the glamour and what it’s really like to live and work in Las Vegas.
8. Open House
Ross Maxwell’s comic play about Alistair and Beverly, a liberal suburban couple offended by their neighbor’s patriotic yard display.
10. The Penguin Tango
Stephen Svoboda’s comedy inspired by actual Central Park events, about a community of penguins whose lives are disrupted by sex and soggy sardines.
11. Puppet Government
A political send-up in which the world’s leaders (Dubya and company) are played by various singing and dancing household appliances.
12. Reservoir Bitches
Laura McGhee’s all-female, gender-bending parody of Tarantino’s machismo cult classic.
13. A Small Hole
Julia Jarcho’s take on Mansfield Park balances the sexually-charged language of the Marquis de Sade with Jane Austen’s propriety.
14. The Unlucky Man in the Yellow Cap
A drama with music, set in a World War II-era Czechoslovakian ghetto, about a cabaret singer who falls in love with a young policeman.
15. Walmartopia
A musical comedy set in 2036, about a single mom who faces (and fights) a world entirely taken over by Wal-Mart, written by Catherine Capellaro and Andrew Rohn.
Noteworthy Alumni Shows
This year’s festival revives hits from the past. Here are which ones we recommend.
Americana Absurdum (1997)
Brian Parks’s two satirical one-acts about funeral parlors and airplane accidents.
The Bicycle Men (2004)
A wacky one-act musical about an American tourist held hostage by eccentric French townspeople.
Never Swim Alone (1999)
Daniel McIvor’s surreal comedy about the consequences of male rivalry between two childhood friends.