By Ernest Kearney — The TVolution.com’s Recommendations for Hollywood Fringe Festival 2019 — Part II
(Editor’s Note: Previews for the Fringe officially begins tonight, June 6. These are shows that popped out to us here, but in a festival sporting 300 plus shows from which to partake, there are plenty more from which to choose. Be sure to browse the Hollywood Fringe Festival Website to take in all that’s available and structure a must-see list of your own.
(Editor’s Note: Festival Director Ben Hill in featured image, with Fringe Festival participants and attendees, at the 2018 HFF 2018 Ceremonies)
Here are the key remaining Festival Dates. Make note in your calendars:
June 6th-11th- Fringe Previews
June 12th- Fringe Opening Night Party
June 13th-30th- 10th Annual Hollywood Fringe Festival
June 26th- Fringe Prom
June 30th- Fringe Award Ceremony & Closing Night Party
The TVolution.com’s Recommendations for Hollywood Fringe Festival 2019 — Part II
ED GOODMAN’S OL’ TIMEY BRAINWASH
Edward C. Goodman is a Fringe veteran of such HFF laff-generators as Mr. Mark Twain Answers All Your Questions and The Poe Show; I’m happy to see that producers Kristen Boulé got him off his meds long enough for this production.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
The Broadwater (Studio)
1078 Lillian Way
45 MILLIGRAMS
An ensemble piece with movement and dance from Nikki Muller and Jason Rosario, the folks who took HFF17’s Best in Dance and Physical Theatre with Definition of Man. Muller and Jason direct this dark comedy set in a mental institution as our protagonist tries to murder a man who may not even exist.
Script by Ian Kaye.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
The Broadwater (Black Box)
6322 Santa Monica Blvd.
A NIGHT OUT BY HAROLD PINTER
Benevitriol Productions from UK/Northern Ireland offers Hollywood audiences a rare opportunity to see this 1960 piece by the master himself, Harold Pinter.
Originally a teleplay, which starred Arthur Lowe, Vivien Merchant and Pinter himself, it was the playwright’s first success in the realm of television.
Tickets and Info:
Venue
The Complex Hollywood (Flight Theatre)
6472 Santa Monica Blvd
RORY & THE DEVIL
Set in Ireland during the height of The Troubles, David Mcelwee’s play shows the balancing act required by the Orange and Green factions in maintaining peace as a a hundred-year-old murder divides the patron of a pub in 1978. ** 
**
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
Thymele Arts (California Room)
5481 Santa Monica Blvd
ROCK BAND MURDER MYSTERY
Aaron Vanek brings an immersive theatre piece to the Fringe by way of the video hit Guitar Hero. In this musical murder mystery audience members assume the “personas of the band, manager, roadie, groupies, and other members of the crew.” The video game I don’t know, but any fan of H.P. Lovecraft gets a gold star in my book.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
Unique Studio Space in Hollywood (Main Space)
5770 Melrose Ave.
GUILT
This show offers two short plays: The Holy Name of Apostasy by Ryan Lisman (HFF16’s Absolute Zero & HFF17’s Apathy Killed the Cat) and Man vs Armadillo by Benjamin Schwartz (HFF18’s American Conspiracy & HFF16’s Angel’s Flight.) A powerhouse of writing on this one seems assured.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
2nd Stage (Main Space)
6500 Santa Monica Blvd
TRANSFERENCE
This dark romantic comedy from Writer/Director Jim Blanchette concerns a woman who emerges from hypnotherapy remembering not only all of her past lives, but that in everyone her therapist has been the love of her life. Esther Mira and Lisa K. Wyatt star.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
The Broadwater (Black Box)
6322 Santa Monica Blvd.
THE DEATH OF SAM MOBEAN
The Fringe’s Salutatorian Bardologist *** *** Writer/Director Michael Shaw Fisher (HHF16’s Tilt) offers audiences another madcap adventure: Michael promises murder, justice, religion and marriage, will purée in that blender called his brain and be “thrown ass-backwards into a web of absurdity and insanity.” Sounds like an E-ticket ride to me.
Staring Fisher, Alli Miller, Eric Curtis Johnson, Schoen Hodges and Heather Schmidt with choreography by Brin Hamblin.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
The Broadwater (Studio)
1078 Lillian Way
AND NOW IT’S ALL THIS!
It’s 1965 and Beatlemania is at its apex when John Lennon was quoted on the cover of Datebook Magazine: “We’re more popular than Jesus….” And the albums started to burn as protests broke out across the nation. A fascinating look into a lost moment of rock and roll history. David Foy Bauer stars as Lennon in the play by Trevor Boelter.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
The Complex Hollywood (The Dorie Theatre)
6476 Santa Monica Blvd
KARAOKE SAVED MY LIFE
From UK/Northern Ireland (More micks, yea!) Scott Swinton Productions has brought this show on the “communal power of music” to HFF 2019 via the Edinburgh Fringe and Brighton Fringe Festival.
“Like a disco-themed Steve Martin, he generates smiles wherever he goes. For those who are itching to grab the mic and belt out a power ballad, you’ll have a great night” Broadway Baby
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
Lounge Theatre (Lounge 1)
6201 Santa Monica Boulevard
WHAT AM I EVEN DOING?
Another guest from Northern Ireland, Kelly Coughlin, in a solo show that offers a spin on Socrates’ famous dictum in this “confessional about your average existential crisis;” And as she wisely adds, “If you haven’t questioned your life choices, what are you even doing?
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
studio/stage (Main Space)
520 N. Western Ave
DANCING TO THE EDGE OF A CLIFF
Margaret Mendenhall’s one-woman show is described as a “musical mythological journey towards self-acceptance…incorporating music, multimedia, humor, a touch of mythology, and embodying over twenty characters.” (She had me at “mythological.”)
Information and Tickets:
Venue:
Lounge Theatre (Lounge 1)
6201 Santa Monica Boulevard
Agnes fights Miles, the Doppelganger in “She Kills Monsters”
SHE KILLS MONSTERS
This play by Qui Nguyen uses “shadow puppets, soundscapes, and swords. And monsters. Lots of sexy monsters” to plunge the audience into the board game universe of Dungeons and Dragons; I’m up for that plunge. (She had me at “sexy monsters.”)
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
The Hobgoblin Playhouse at The Arena Stage, Theatre of Arts (The Hobgoblin Playhouse at The Arena Stage, Theatre of Arts )
1625 N Las Palmas Ave.
GUNFIGHT AT THE NOT-SO-OK SALOON
And if you’re up for a wild fusion of genres, here’s a rooting-tooting toe tapping show for you: The Wild West ala a Gilbert and Sullivan musical, composed by Brooke DeRosa. (She had me at “Gilbert.” “Sullivan” I can take or leave.)
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
McCadden Theatre (McCadden Theatre)
1157 N. McCadden Place
HOW I BECAME A SUPERHERO
John Patrick Daly (HFF2018’s New Kid On the Block) explores the trials and tribulations of your wannbe superheroes as two online activists (the playwright and Malinda Money) decide it’s time to become a dynamic duo.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
The Broadwater (Second Stage)
6320 Santa Monica Blvd.
NOT HERE RIGHT NOW
Described as “The Hilariously Touching Tale of a Tall Man in Tight Spaces, Finding Clarity and Avoiding a Quarter Life Crisis In Southeast Asia, All While Wearing Strappy Velcro Sandals Except to the Wedding of the Century.” Writer/Performer Royce Bable relates his eight country adventure in a story of self-discovery directed by Ina Williams.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
The Broadwater (Second Stage)
6320 Santa Monica Blvd.
LET’S WRITE A MUSICAL
When David Hamilton and his wife Lawrie Chiaro Smylie learned he had been diagnosed with Stage Four cancer, they did what all couples do. They decided to write a musical comedy. This one you may have to wait for the Encore Series to see, as rumor has it, it’s already sold out. It couldn’t have hurt in achieving these results to have Matthew Quinn, the High Grand Poobah of the “Gang of Matts,” as consulting producer and Bertha Rodriguez doing PR.
Tickets and Info:
Venue:
McCadden Theatre (McCadden Theatre)
1157 N. McCadden Place
To Return to Part I of The Tvolution’s Final Recommendations click HERE.
