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Exciting & Inexpensive Theatre: 16 Shows to See Off-Off Broadway This May

By: Andrew Block
Date: May 10, 2024

Catch an accessible revival of 'Spring Awakening,' a high-tech interactive show, new history-inspired plays and more

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Adventurous audiences know that some of the biggest theatrical thrills are found on NYC's smallest stages. These shows are also great for theatregoers on a budget. In fact, TDF members can see dozens of Off-Off Broadway productions 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 indie theatre, music and dance performances 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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HERE: Mason Holdings: Small Acts of Daring Invention - May 1

HERE, 145 Sixth Avenue at Dominick Street in Soho

Previews begin May 1. Opens May 8. Closes June 1. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.

The late Dare Wright is best remembered for her 1957 children's book The Lonely Doll, featuring evocative black-and-white photographs of her own childhood toy, who is adopted by a family of teddy bears. While she published follow-ups and also worked as a model and actor, Wright's life was a challenging one—she resided with her mother and struggled with her mental health. This new show from experimental theatre company Mason Holdings explores her work and sensibility through music, puppetry and her haunting pictures.

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David and Katie Get Re-Married - May 2

Asylum NYC, 123 East 24th Street between Park Avenue South and Lexington Avenues in Gramercy

Begins May 2. Closes August 22. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.

Indie theatre cutups David Carl (Gary Busey's One-Man Hamlet, Trump Lear) and Katie Hartman (High Maintenance) play on-again, off-again, codependent spouses looking to share their misguided romantic advice in this musical comedy of remarriage. Learn what not to do the next time you fall in love from these toxic renewlyweds!

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The Tank: Ghetto Alchemy: A Lunchroom Survival Guide - begins May 2

The Tank, 312 West 36th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West

Begins May 2. Closes May 19. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.

Maleek Rae's hip-hop solo show uses rap, poetry and movement to tell this queer coming-of-age tale, which toggles between the outer reaches of space and an oppressive middle school lunchroom as the narrator looks to his past to navigate his future.

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Tortas Y Tacones: In Crocodile's Lair - begins May 2

Theater for the New City, 155 First Avenue between 9th and 10th Streets in the East Village

Begins May 2. Closes May 19. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $11 tickets.

Rat revolutionaries, a singing skunk and an ancient crocodile king are just some of the kooky creatures that populate JC Augustin's urban sci-fi comedy. When a genetically enhanced health drink being hawked by 50 Cent threatens to upend the natural order, NYC's wild residents decide to show the humans who actually rules the Big Apple.

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Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre: The Desire of the Astronaut - begins May 2

Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre, 304 West 47th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West

Begins May 2. Closes June 2. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.

Acclaimed Latine company Pregones / Puerto Rican Traveling Theater revives the sci-fi musical The Desire of the Astronaut, cowritten by the troupe's associate artistic director, Alvan Colón Lespier. An allegory about colonialism, it centers on Esteban Only, dubbed the last Boricua in space. Adrift on a broken spacecraft with no contact with Earth, he is desperate to get back home... but where is that exactly?

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Bettye and the Jockettes Spinning Records at the Holiday Inn - begins May 3

Gene Frankel Theatre, 24 Bond Street between Lafayette Street and Bowery in Noho

Begins May 3. Closes May 18. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.

Loosely inspired by real-life disc jockey Bettye Berger, who worked for America's first all-women radio station WHER, Christie Perfetti Williams' new play chronicles a particularly zany day on the job. It’s July 3, 1956 and the copywriter is MIA and Elvis Presley is dropping by to be interviewed live on air. Bettye knows she's up to the task... then her ex walks in with The King of Rock 'n' Roll and she's all shook up. Retro Productions is behind this history-based, feminist comedy.

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Open Arts Alliance: KC@Bat - begins May 4

Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street between Ninth and Dyer Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin May 4. Closes May 18. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.

Ernest Thayer’s classic sports poem is reinvented as a musical for young audiences courtesy of Open Arts Alliance. KC is a baseball-loving New York City kid who moves to Mudville and struggles to make friends. Her outlook improves when she becomes the star of the local Little League team, but at the championship game she learns that winning isn't everything.

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The Associates Theater Ensemble: Redemption Story - begins May 4

A.R.T./New York Theatres, 502 West 53rd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin May 4. Opens May 6. Closes May 19. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $12 tickets.

Broadway vet Christine Toy Johnson (The Music Man, Grease) stars in Peregrine Teng Heard's new play about a talented, fiftysomething Asian actress who was held back by racism during the Golden Age of Hollywood. It's 1971 and she's done with her career. But when she meets a young white man hoping to become a movie star, she can't help but impart her hard-won wisdom.

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The Brick: Geraldine Realigned Drives from Gay Place to Gay Place and You're in the Car Too - begins May 8

The Brick, 579 Metropolitan Avenue near Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Begins May 8. Closes May 18.

This road trip is a real drag... queen that is! Join Geraldine as she has a gay old time in this solo comedy that's equal parts communion, adventure and identity quest. Back for an encore run after last year's sold-out engagement, this hour-long show was cocreated by performer Cam Cronin and writer Billy McEntee, a TDF Stages contributor.

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Brick Aux: Not Calm - begins May 9

Brick Aux, 628 Metropolitan Avenue between Lorimar and Leonard Streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn

Begins May 9. Closes May 19. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $11 tickets.

Playwright William Sydney is concerned that theatre is in crisis. What better response than to write and perform a play? Though he admits he won't reinvent the form with Not Calm, he certainly will interrogate it in this new work which explores happiness and fear.

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EPIC Players: Spring Awakening - May 9

A.R.T./New York Theatres, 502 West 53rd Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues in Midtown West

Begins May 9. Closes May 19. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $18 tickets.

Since its founding in 2016, the neuro-inclusive theatre company EPIC Players has cast artists with developmental disabilities such as autism and Down syndrome alongside their neurotypical peers. For its mainstage spring production, the troupe presents a revival of Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik's beloved musical Spring Awakening about adolescents grappling with sex, insecurity, stress and uncaring adults. In order to make the show accessible to all audiences, there will be American Sign Language-interpreted performances on May 9 and 16, a closed captioned performance on May 15 and an audio described performance on May 18.

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Culture Lab LIC: Third Law - begins May 9

Culture Lab LIC, 5-25 46th Avenue near 5th Street in Long Island City, Queens

Begins May 9. Closes May 26. Closes September 24. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $12 tickets.

Arguably all shows are different every night, but Third Law is literally a fresh play at each performance. This interactive theatrical experience invites audiences to guide the story through a digital game board, so you help shape the narrative and characters. Anything can happen—it's all up to you!

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Outta Bounds Productions: A Groundbreaking Achievement of Outrageous Importance That People Scroll By, Barely Impacted - May 10

Theaterlab, 357 West 36th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West

Previews begin May 10. Opens May 18. Closes June 2. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $15 tickets.

The impact of artificial intelligence is profound, but it's particularly apparent in academia. Jake Shore's new play explores how the fictional Brooklyn University deals with this ever-advancing technology that has changed the higher education game.

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Ricky Sim: Coming Out to Dead People - begins May 23

Soho Playhouse, 15 Vandam Street between Sixth Avenue and Varick Street in Soho

Previews begin May 23. Closes June 2. If you're a TDF member, log in to your account to purchase $12 tickets.

Self-declared "Gaysian" comedian Ricky Sim brings his Edinburgh Festival Fringe solo hit to Soho Playhouse. With wit and heart, Sim explores coming of age as a queer kid in the 1990s and grappling with coming out to his conservative Chinese-Malaysian immigrant mother as she battles cancer. Bring tissues as you're going to cry... often from laughter.

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La MaMa: How to Eat an Orange - begins May 30

La MaMa's The Downstairs, 66 East 4th Street between the Bowery and Second Avenue in the East Village

Begins May 30. Closes June 16.

Catherine Filloux is known for writing plays that explore urgent human rights issues. With the one-person show How to Eat an Orange, she celebrates the visual artist and activist Claudia Bernardi, who grew up in Argentina under the military junta and has spent her career excavating the horrors of her past. Argentinian actor Paula Pizzi stars in this harrowing, time-hopping work.

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The Tank: Midnight Coleslaw’s Tales from Beyond the Closet!!! - begins May 31

The Tank, 312 West 36th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues in Midtown West

Begins May 31. Closes June 23.

Joey Merlo, who wrote the recent hit On Set with Theda Bara, is behind this evening of campy queer horror playlets, hosted by drag vampire Midnight Coleslaw. Think Tales from the Crypt, only way more fierce-some.

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Andrew Block is an Ovation Award-winning director who hails from New Orleans and now works primarily with the vibrant NYC independent theatre community. He also serves as TDF's Manager of Off & Off-Off Broadway Services.