Guide to NYC July Theater Festivals
There are no fewer than nine theater festivals in New York City in July, that’s 153 new shows (we counted), meaning you have 153 opportunities to experience illuminating, transcendent theater and 153 opportunities to be held hostage by banal banter, poor acting, and one-man shows on the meaning of life by recent MFA grads.
Don’t approach this universe without a guide. Here’s Maxamoo’s trusty summary of the nine festivals. For reviews and info on individual shows go HERE.
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| The New York Musical Theatre Festival has been called the “Sundance of Musical Theatre.” It is the largest annual musical theater event in the U.S. and has served as a springboard for many new musicals, notably Next to Normal and [title of show]. This is the festival’s 10th year and the selection looks as promising as ever.
We’re particularly eager for Life Could Be A Dream, a show with lots of early buzz out of Los Angeles, and Dizzy Miss Lizzie’s Roadside Revenue Presents ‘The Brontes’, which killed at the DC Fringe last year. July 8th – 28th
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If you can’t travel to Edinburgh, Scotland in August for the annual Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the largest arts festival in the world, you can check out a few of the shows that will appear there. For three weeks in July East to Edinburgh at the 59E59 Theaters hosts sixteen shows that are heading over from the U.S. Tickets range from $10 – $20 ($7 – $14 for 59E59 members). July 9th – 28th
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Arts juggernaut Lincoln Center hosts its own theater festival every July that prides itself on selecting performances from “outside the Western European canon.” So, amongst other things, expect a lot of subtitles. Unlike most other summer theater festivals the admission to this festival can get very pricey, tickets to this year’s centerpiece Monkey: Journey to the West range from $25 to $250. July 6th – 28th
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Ice Factory is an OBIE* award-winning festival in its 20th year of presenting new, often experimental, work by independent theater companies. The festival is curated by Robert Lyons, the artistic director at the New Ohio Theater. June 26th – August 3rd * OBIEs are like the Oscars for off broadway and off off broadway theater in New York City. They are administered by the Village Voice.
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The Fresh Fruit Festival is a celebration of LGBTQ arts and culture, including film, theater, dance, cabaret, spoken word, and the exhibit Queers in Exile: the Unforgotten Legacies of LGBT Homeless Youth at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. July 8th – 29th
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Are you seeing double? No, you read that Hot logo correctly. This July NYC is host to not one, but two queer culture festivals. Dixon Place’s Hot festival includes not only theater, but also burlesque, dance, literature, music, and circus arts. July 1st – August 3rd
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The Performing Arts Marathon prides itself on presenting work that is adventurous, risky and fearless, work that might make the audience uncomfortable and that is the point. This year’s marathon includes theater, dance, music, poetry, multi-media and multi-disciplinary performances from Europe, Asia, and the Americas. It is hosted by the International Theater Arts Institute. July 19th – August 4th
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The summer performance series, ENCORES! Off Center, revives Off Broadway musicals with leading, contemporary performers and directors. The performance schedules are short, as brief as one performance. Tickets range from $25 to $110. July 10th – 27th
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The Midtown International Theater Festival celebrates New York City theater with an emphasis on imaginative, low-tech staging. With few restrictions on submissions, the performances are manifold and span from mainstream to experimental and everything in between. We count more than 60 productions. July 15th – August 4th
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