10 Great Shows to See for $40 or Less This March
Catch an Oh, Mary! star in a reimagining of Antigone, a raucous new play inspired by Jean Genet, a celebration of the hot dog and other Off-Off Broadway picks
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Adventurous audiences know that some of New York City’s biggest theatrical thrills—and lowest tickets prices—are found on the smallest stages. But with dozens of shows running Off-Off Broadway every day, it’s tough to figure out what’s worth your time and money. That’s why we’ve rounded up 10 promising indie theatre productions opening in March, all offering tickets starting at $40 or less. Even better, TDF Members can see some of these shows for as little as $11! Not a TDF Member? Consider joining our Go Off-Off and Beyond program, which gives you access to discount tickets to Off-Off Broadway shows for a one-time fee of five bucks.
If you’re a TDF Member, log in to your account daily to see what we’re selling as ticket inventory changes frequently.
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Target Margin Theater: This Is Real – begins March 1
Target Margin Theater, 232 52nd Street between the Belt Parkway and Second Avenue in Sunset Park, Brooklyn
Previews begin March 1. Opens March 11. Closes April 4. Tickets start at $33.50.
The words experimental, radical and transgressive come to mind when assessing the works of writer Jean Genet. Those same adjectives can be used for the Brooklyn-based Target Margin Theater, which is presenting the premiere of This Is Real, a theatrical collage evoking Genet’s worldview. Starring a cast of downtown divas, including multidisciplinary performers and genderqueer burlesque stars, this play consists of text pulled from Genet’s memoirs, novels and plays, and celebrates outsiders, underdogs and the urgency of fighting against corrupt systems. Target Margin Theater’s founding artistic director David Herskovits helms the production.
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Dear John – begins March 3
HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue at Dominick Street in Soho
Begins March 3. Closes March 19. Tickets start at $29.40.
Rachel Lin wrote and performs this deeply personally solo show sparked by an unexpected Facebook message she received from her long-lost father just after she graduated college in 2011. A mix of direct messages, recorded interviews and recollections about growing up undocumented in NYC’s Chinatown, Dear John explores the challenges of reconnection and coming of age.
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Liberty Scrap – begins March 5
Culture Lab LIC, 5-25 46th Avenue near 5th Street in Long Island City, Queens
Previews begin March 5. Opens March 8. Closes March 29. Tickets start at $42.42 but if you’re a TDF Member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.
Culture Lab LIC and The Chocolate Factory Theater present the world premiere of Christina Masciotti’s timely play about the personal impact of our immigration crisis. A young woman has been scraping by as an artist and scrap metal worker in the US. But when her father falls ill, she realizes returning to her home country may upend her life forever… if she can even get there. Broadway vet T. Ryder Smith directs and designs this drama about the precarious existence of stateless individuals.
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SOCIETY: Entangled: 12 Scenes in a Circle K Off the I-40 in New Mexico – begins March 11
HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue at Dominick Street in Soho
Previews begin March 11. Opens March 12. Closes March 28. Tickets start at $36.75.
The cutting-edge theatre collective SOCIETY presents this world premiere about a tiny bathroom at a New Mexico gas station that inspires some pretty weird phenomena. Situated near the birthplace of the atom bomb, this pit stop off the I-40 seems capable of bending time and space and even leads to a few unexplained disappearances. Co-written by Mona Mansour (The Vagrant Trilogy at The Public Theater) and Emily Zemba, Entangled: 12 Scenes in a Circle K off the I-40 in New Mexico is a loopy look at free will and quantum science.
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ACTUA 1 – begins March 12
Collapsable Hole, 155 Bank Street between West and Washington Streets in the West Village
Begins February March 12. Closes March 22. Tickets are $17.85.
The Brooklyn-based company Object Collection is behind this politically charged stage-cinema hybrid, a live recreation of an alleged lost film documenting the May 1968 Paris uprisings when labor strikes and protests against government repression threatened to spark yet another French revolution. Performers aren’t contained to the stage. Instead, they use all areas of the theatre as they run around calling for change while speeches and songs are live-streamed on a giant screen. The work of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, performance artist Allan Kaprow and public access TV are all cited as influences.
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The Tank: Plan C – begins March 12
The Tank, 312 West 36th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Begins March 12. Closes April 12. Tickets start at $28 but if you’re a TDF Member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.
Devised and performed by the Hook & Eye theatre collective, Plan C fuses two tales of rebellious women: Alexandrine Von Taxis, who served as the Imperial General Postmaster for a large swath of Europe in the 17th century, and Charley, a modern-day proprietor of a West Virginia hardware store. Toggling between timelines, this multidisciplinary play draws connections between the past and the present as these two women defy expectations and embrace resistance.
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Feltman: World’s First Hot Dog – begins March 18
Chain Theatre, 312 West 36th between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West
Begins March 18. Closes June 14. Tickets are $40.51 but if you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.
Michael Quinn wrote and stars in this one-man play, which chronicles the history of the hot dog in his native Coney Island. German immigrant Charles Feltman introduced New Yorkers to the frankfurter on the Brooklyn boardwalk in 1867. At its height, his business had 2,000 employees and could seat five times as many customers. Eventually eclipsed by Nathan’s (opened by a former Feltman’s staffer!), the brand was revived by Quinn, an actor turned English teacher, in 2017. But hot dogging is hard. After a well-received run at last year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Feltman: World’s First Hot Dog comes to Quinn’s hometown, directed by solo show master Peter Michael Marino.
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La MaMa: Antigone in Analysis – begins March 20
La MaMa’s The Downstairs, 66 East 4th Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue in the East Village
Previews begin March 20. Opens March 23. Closes April 5. Tickets start at $30 but if you’re a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $11 tickets.
Antigone seems to be all the rage these days—this is the third modern-day reimagining of Sophocles’ tragedy this year after The Other Place and Antigone (This Play I Read in High School). Adapted by Barbara Barclay and presented by La MaMa and Peculiar Works Project, Antigone in Analysis features a chorus of intellectuals across time reimagining her tale, with her mother Jocasta ascending to power instead of her uncle Creon, and the two women engaging in battle of feminist wills. A poignant mother-daughter spin on a classic patriarchal play, this production features Bianca Leigh from Oh, Mary!
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La MaMa: Spider Rabbit – begins March 26
La MaMa’s The Club, 74A East 4th Street between Bowery and Second Avenue in the East Village
Begins March 26. Closes April 12. Tickets are $30.
Experimental theatre legend Tony Torn stars in a rare revival of Spider Rabbit, an absurdist, anti-war and darkly comic 1971 play by the late Obie-winning poet and playwright Michael McClure. McClure collaborated with Torn’s father, the late Rip Torn, so this is a labor of love that reunites the actor with director Dan Safer (Ubu Sings Ubu) and costars Torn’s wife, Lee Ann Brown.
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The Pelicot Trial – on March 29
Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South at Thompson Street in the West Village
March 29. Tickets are $20.
NYU Skirball presents this four-hour deep dive into the trial of Gisèle Pelicot’s heinous ex-husband, who drugged her then arranged for her to be raped countless times by dozens of strangers. By making her identity and testimony public, Pelicot has become a hero and an outspoken advocate in the movement to end violence against women. Created by Servane Dècle and Milo Rau in collaboration with Pelicot’s lawyers, witnesses, feminists and legal experts, this one-day event spotlights powerful moments from the trial that reverberated throughout the world.
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