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Top 15 Current Shows Off-Broadway

From Maria Knapp, for About.com

It can be hard to get tickets to a Broadway favorite. Check out my picks for exciting performances happening Off-Broadway. Who knows? You may be seeing the next show to move to Broadway and win a Tony, but for half the price!

1. Altar Boyz

Boy Bands and God. What's not to like? I really enjoyed this show.

2. Doris to Darlene, a cautionary valentine

In the candy-colored 1960s, a biracial schoolgirl named Doris is molded into pop star Darlene by a whiz-kid record producer who culls a top-ten hit out of Richard Wagner’s Liebestod. Rewind to the candy-colored 1860s, where Wagner is writing the melody that will become Darlene’s hit song. Fast-forward to the not-so-candy-colored present, where a teenager obsesses over Darlene’s music — and his music teacher. Three dissonant decades merge into an unlikely harmony in this time-jumping pop fairy tale about the dreams and disasters behind one transcendent song.

3. Fan Yang Gazillion Bubble Show

Guinness record-holding bubble artist Fan Yang brings his dazzling family entertainment to Off-Broadway.

4. Frankenstein

Not "Young Frankenstein", this is a musical adapatation of the Mary Shelley novel.

5. Fuerzabruta

From the creators of De La Guarda, Fuerzabruta is another spectacilar event. The visuals are spectacular. The effects are stunning. Performers run and tumble across a vertical wall of technicolor cloth, a man runs headlong through a wall, two people try desperately to connect from opposite sides of a huge spinning and whirling sail and – most extraordinary of all – performers dance in watery world just above the audience’s heads. This all takes place to a soundtrack that traverses thumping club beats to the mellow sounds of new world music. Please note: Like De La Guarda, the audience stands for the show.

6. Jump

JUMP isn’t just about jumping. It’s also about flipping, punching and kicking all executed in a jaw-dropping, gasp-inducing and gut-busting manner. This London and Fringe Festival hit has finally landed in New York – and landed with gravity-defying ease. Although JUMP is set in a traditional Korean home, its inhabitants are anything but. The entire family – the strict grandfather, the no-nonsense mother, the drunken uncle, the daughter and her suitor – love nothing more than to challenges each other in martial arts and acrobatic displays. Their skills are put to good use when burglars break into their home and get to experience the family’s talent first hand.

7. Make Me a Song: The Music of William Finn

Dozens of playfully irreverent, whimsical, melodious, and deeply poignant songs from the Tony Award-winning composer of Falsettos, Elegies and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

8. My First Time

The creator of the piece asked online for people to contribute their stories of their "first time". This piece is a telling of these stories.

9. My Mother's Italian, My Father's Jewish & I'm in Therapy

Steve Solomon's one-man show about his wacky family and the crazy characters that he meets on the road whose sole purpose is to drive him into therapy.... and they have succeeded. Steve creates voices, dialects and sound effects which make the stories and jokes come alive. And there are a few musical surprises along the way.

10. Naked Boys Singing

They're naked! And singing! What more could anyone ask from a show?

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