The Downtown Loop – Reviews, Location, Tickets
Upon entering the performance space for The Downtown Loop at the 3-Legged Dog Art + Technology Center, you’re offered a hot dog (a vegetarian option is available) and beverage. That’s your first hint that this is not going to be a typical night at the theater.
Then you climb a flight of stairs and select a seat on what looks like the upper deck of a double decker New York City tour bus. State of the art technology projects New York City street scenes, ceiling to floor, on three sides of the theater. The performance begins and the bus starts to move, or at least it feels that way as the projections whiz by you.
The Downtown Loop is a virtual tour of New York City, South of 59th Street, interspersed with personal story lines about the tour guide. Action takes place on the bus and under the bus, which you can see through a transparent floor and projected onto the front wall. In the process, the tour broaches social and economic issues that affect the lives of ordinary New Yorkers who subsist between the shiny poles of Times Square and Wall Street.
Recommended if:
You’re looking for an experience that’s more than an ordinary theater performance;
You enjoy learning about life in New York City, past and contemporary, good and bad; or
You enjoy theater with the option of having a beer during the show.
LOCATION
3-Legged Dog Art + Technology Center
80 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10006
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RUNNING TIME
1 hour and 30 minutes, no intermission
TICKETS
$25 (click here to purchase tickets from OvationTix, the official online ticket seller for The Downtown Loop)
DATES
Performances through November 16, 2013
REVIEWS
NYtheater Now
Ultimately, this show prompted the highest praise that a work of art can elicit: it made me feel something. Now, those feelings were rooted in shared hostility, self-loathing, and personal doubt, but those feelings were very real and that was certainly invigorating. I definitely enjoyed this show, in part because it perfectly summarized my opinion of New York as a “Demon God”, but mostly for its blunt assessment of existence and impressive technical features. Also, there are free hotdogs. That definitely helped.
Theatre Is Easy
A unique theatrical experience with far more to offer than meets the eye.
Time Out New York
[E]ven though it takes a series of wrong turns, Ben Gassman’s play boasts a clever concept: A guide on an open-top double-decker finds himself giving us a simultaneous tour of the city and his own psyche.
New York Times
Double-Decker Vertigo Is Coming to Take You Away
Theater Pizzazz
Tour Manhattan without ever leaving your seat
CAST & CREW
(partial list)
Written by Ben Gassman
Directed by Meghan Finn
Video design by Jared Mezzocchi
Featuring Greg Carere, Keelie Sheridan, Sarah Mollo-Christensen, Mia Jessup, Robert Metz, Sam Soghor and Anthony Polat.