Opening Night of the 18th Annual Philadelphia Fringe Festival (Sept 5, 2014), will launch three weeks of free late-night comedy, theater and music at FringeArts' permanent home at 140 N. Columbus Blvd. (at Race Street). The late-night lineup will feature local favorites and international performers each night of the 2014 Fringe Festival (Sept. 5-21).
Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret will kick off the late-night celebrations Friday, Sept. 5 at 11:30 p.m., with a special performance featuring members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.
"FringeArts' Late Night will present exciting, wild, unpredictable performers you'll see nowhere else. The Fringe's late-night lineup and Festival bar have always been a hub of social and artistic activity during the festival - this year that creative energy finally has a permanent home," says Nick Stuccio, FringeArts' president and producing artistic director.
Along with Philadelphia favorites like the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training and the Wilhelm Brothers, featured late-night performers include New York-based, self-proclaimed "best rapper in the world, " Champagne Jerry (aka Neal Medlyn, whose work has appeared at the New Museum for Contemporary Art, the Andy Warhol Museum and Dance Theater Workshop); gender-blending, "drag terrorist" Christeene, called by Spin Magazine "like (a) manic combination of Alice Cooper and Hedwig (of the Angry Inch)"; and virtuoso Israeli cellist Maya Beiser, currently on national tour for her new album "Uncovered." Beiser has been described by The Boston Globe as possessing "virtuoso chops, rock-star charisma, and an appetite for pushing her instrument to the edge of avant-garde adventurousness...the post-modern diva of the cello."
The schedule of free late-night performances is below. For the most up to date information visit FringeArts.com.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
Sept. 5
FRINGEARTS STAGE
11:30 p.m.: Martha Graham Cracker Cabaret,
featuring members of The Philadelphia Orchestra
Drag cabaret hosted by "The Drag Queen King." (The Philadelphia Inquirer)
Sept. 6:
LA PEG STAGE
10:00 p.m.: Dennis Diamond & Daryl Hannah (Elephant Room)
FRINGEARTS STAGE
11:30 p.m.: CHRISTEENE: The Christeene Machine
A sexually-infused sewer of live rap and vile shamelessness, Christeene is "Like Beyonce on bath salts" (Now Magazine, Toronto)
Sept. 7:
FRINGEARTS STAGE
9:00 p.m.: Maya Beiser: Uncovered
Rock classics from Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix,
and other legends re-imagined by a "cello goddess" (The New Yorker).
Sept. 10:
LA PEG STAGE
10:00 p.m.: The Sunset Club (from BalletX's Sunset, o639 Hours)
Cross the Pacific in a musical airship captained by award-winning composer Rosie Langabeer.
Sept. 11:
LA PEG STAGE
10:00 p.m.: An evening of cabaret with the Pig Iron School for Advanced Performance Training
Insanely funny bits from the city's next wave of theatrical innovators.
11:30 p.m.: The Only Band in Illyria (from Pig Iron's Twelfth Night)
Raucous Balkan music for drinking, dancing, and bringing the rumpus.
Sept. 12:
LA PEG STAGE
11:30 p.m.: Champagne Jerry
By far the greatest rapper in the world, he likes snacks, books, sexual intercourse and rhyming.
Sept. 13:
LA PEG STAGE
10:00 p.m.: Red 40 and the Last Groovement
Tangy, funky R&B.
11:30 p.m.: El Malito and the 33rd Century
Traveling through wormholes to bring you party music.
Sept. 17:
FRINGEARTS STAGE
11:30 p.m.: Adrienne Truscott is Asking For It
"Pantsless and breathless, Truscott bares her body and soul in an event that straddles the gap between performance art and comedy show." (The List, Edinburgh)
Sept. 19:
FRINGEARTS STAGE
10:00 p.m.: Eleanor Bauer: Bauer Hour
Variety show from the Brussels-based American choreographer and performance-maker.
11:30 p.m.: Doll Parts
Brooklyn's premiere Dolly Parton cover band.
Sept. 20:
FRINGEARTS STAGE
10:00 p.m.: The Wilhelm Brothers: Lightfoot Comes Alive!
Folk-rock with cello-infusion duo, of the 2013 Festival smash hit Red Eye to Havre-de-Grace, and special guests.
11:30 p.m.: Johnny Showcase & the Mystic Ticket
Eight-piece absurdist soul outfit blissfully toes the line between performance art and psychedelic soul revival.
Sept. 21:
FRINGEARTS STAGE
10:00 p.m.: The Wilhelm Brothers: Lightfoot Comes Alive!
Videos