It’s already the last call for Orlando’s ‘Fringe Today’ fest
Well, here we are already — at the closing weekend of “Fringe Today,” the 2020 online alternative to the annual Orlando Fringe Festival in Loch Haven Park. For a relatively last-minute idea, “Fringe Today” turned into a full-blown affair with more than 100 shows and other events. I’ve caught several old favorites — and checked out some new faces, as well.
Everything is free, though tipping the performers is the cool thing to do. The festival is broadcast over the Internet; find livestream links at Facebook.com/OrlandoFringe and complete daily schedules at OrlandoFringe.org/FringeToday.
I’m really looking forward to “Booth’s
Ghost” at 9 p.m. today. Andrew Erskine Wheeler wrote and performs this awardwinning one-man show for those who love theater, history and ghost stories. Wheeler tells of the mercurial 19th-century Booth family — Junius Brutus, Edwin and the infamous John Wilkes. This production was recorded before an audience at the 2019 Minnesota Fringe Festival.
Things take a decidedly adult turn at 11 p.m. when you can see recorded burlesque performances by Corsets and Cuties in their show, called “Quarantease!”
All-around funny guy Rauce Padgett returns with his late-night talk show at midnight.
On Saturday, catch a sneak peek at new work as Paris Crayton III shares a snippet from his latest show, “Bloodline.” Fringe audiences know Crayton, winner of the 2019 Critics’ Choice Award for best performer, from his show “Spare the
Rod.” In “Bloodline,” Crayton tells the story of three generations of men with the same name as they navigate life and love.
Things get a little Fringey after that. And by Fringey, I mean weird.
At 9 p.m., screens will light up with
“It’s Closing Time with DK Reinemer.”
The Orlando Fringe veteran (“The DK Effect”) is funny and charismatic — but can he pull this off? The description says
Reinemer will “perform the song ‘Closing Time’ for an entire hour while drinking White Claw,” the fruit-flavored alcoholic seltzer.
Festival producer Lindsay Taylor will interview Theatre Group Gumbo at 10 p.m. The Japanese comic troupe was the talk of the 2019 festival with its fullthrottle attack on consumerism, politics and corporate American in “Are You Lovin’ It?”
Here’s part of my review, in which I called the show “the most in-your-face, outrageous, political and subversive show at the Fringe”: “Before long, the actors are wearing bedazzled piles-of-poop hats, throwing the baby in the blender and depicting Jesus writing a love letter to the world. … How skillful is this troupe? They basically tell their American audience that they are fat and stupid — and the audience applauds.”
It should be one heck of an interview. On Sunday, let your artistry flow with “Mandala Madness! Learn Henna Style Designs” at 7 p.m. You don’t need actual henna, a marker will do, says the Fringe.
“Joe’s NYC Bar” opens one last time at 8 p.m. for its topical conversations among colorful characters. At 9, a theater legend is saluted in “Sondheim Abridged… Abridged,” in which performers give their own takes on classic Stephen Sondheim songs — hopefully with fewer technical difficulties than in the recent online 90th-birthday tribute concert for the man behind “Sweeney Todd,” “Into the Woods” and so many others.
Monday, May 25, is Memorial Day but after honoring those who gave their lives so we could live in freedom, stop by the Fringe one last time for the closing ceremony at 7 p.m. And that will do it: “The Festival That Almost Was” will be in the books.