The Fringe Festival
Various Venues; 8/10 through 8/26
You know the drill: More than 200 companies from around the world perform at more than twenty venues for sixteen days. Now in its sixteenth year, the festival features an unrivaled variety of theatrical offerings, some of which will be silly and some of which will be praiseworthy and move to Off Broadway next year.
You Probably Think This Show Is About You
Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre; 8/10 at 7:30 p.m.; 307 W. 26th St., nr. Eighth Ave.; 212-366-9176
An interactive, live sketch comedy show appealing to our vanity, because that’s the way we like it. Each week, the UCB’s Stone Cold Fox sketch team picks two audience members to use as inspiration for a story line. It could be your life! So make sure you do some interesting stuff before you check out the show.
Richard III
The Public Theater; Through 8/25; 425 Lafayette St., nr. 4th St.; 212-539-8500
After roaming the city playing free shows in prisons, homeless shelters, at-risk-youth centers, senior centers, and other community venues with the Public Theater’s Mobile Shakespeare Unit, the charismatic villain lands at the Public Theater for three weeks. Tickets are $25, with twenty free tickets per show available to community organizations who were unable to host the tour.
Into the Woods
Delacorte Theater at Central Park; Through 8/25; Central Park West at 81st St., 212-539-8750
The 50th-anniversary season of Shakespeare in the Park concludes with Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s 1987 fairy-tale musical, starring Amy Adams, Donna Murphy, and Denis O’Hare.
Potted Potter
Little Shubert Theatre; Through 9/2.; 422 W. 42nd St., nr. Ninth Ave.; 212-239-6200
A two-man, 70-minute reduction of all the Harry Potter books into a low-tech, interactive clown act suitable for both happily ignorant Muggles and obsessively in-the-know wizard types. Matriculating wizards will thrill to every reference — and may even win the chance to stomp on a grown man dressed as a Golden Snitch.