ENTERTAINMENT CELEBRITY MEDIA COMEDY MUSIC TV CELEBRITY KIDS MOVIEFONE Michael Giltz Freelance writer GET UPDATES FROM MICHAEL GILTZ Follow Musical Theater , Theater , John Lennon , Woody Guthrie , Fringefest , Musicals , Off-Broadway , Plays , Entertainment News 6 18 0 0React Inspiring Funny Hot Scary Outrageous Amazing Weird CrazyFringeFest NYC #1: Woody Guthrie, Soldiers, Sexy Students and Lennon FringeFest NYC is our response to the Edinburgh Fringe Fest.</p><p> This year it features almost 200 plays, musicals and dance pieces scattered throughout NYC over 16days.</p><p> Exhausting, fun and invariably a crap shoot wherethe one play you skip over turns out to be the hit of thefest.</p><p> Here are four shows I caught so far.</p><p> HARD TRAVELIN' WITH WOODY *** out of **** One-person shows about famous historical figures seem so easy.</p><p> You choose an important icon, preferablysomeone who said or wrote witty, insightful or just plaininteresting things.</p><p> Then you string together some oftheir best comments in a show that illuminates their life and times.</p><p> If the person is an artist, all the better -- you get to include some of their artwork or quotesfrom novels or sing their songs.</p><p> So why do they so often seem stiff and dull? Not so here.</p><p> Writer and star Randy Noojin delivers one of the delights of the fest with his straight-forward, no-nonsense portrayal of singer, songwriter and activist Woody Guthrie in Hard Travelin' With Woody.</p><p> Directed neatly by Richard Mover, the show is framed by Woody performing at a union fundraiser in 1940.</p><p> Noojin avoids imitationbut captures the spirit of Woody as he describes the mouthful of a name Woody had growing up(Woodrow Wilson Guthrie), his social awakening as a boom town goes bust when the oil dries up, hiswitnessing of the mistreatment of "Okies" in California and his aw-shucks approach to arguing for"sticking together" via unions, even as the people trying to unionize are beaten and killed.</p><p> The story ispunctuated with Guthrie's many terrific numbers, which Noojin delivers with aplomb, getting even an FOLLOW USSeptember 15, 2011 Signs Your Husband Is GayKirstie Alley Walks NYFW The Alexander Wang PartyKnightley Gets Dangerous EDITION: U.S.</p><p> Like 43 Posted: 8/18/11 05:27 PM ET SHARE THIS STORY Submit this story Get Entertainment Alerts Sign UpPHOTO GALLERIES CONNECT FRONT PAGE POLITICS BUSINESS ENTERTAINMENT TECH MEDIA LIFE & STYLE CULTURE COMEDY HEALTHY LIVING WOMEN LOCAL MORE Like 40KTelevision Mad Men Jersey Shore Scarlett Johansson Smarter Ideas More Log inuptight New York crowd (not least of all me) singing along from the start.</p><p> The show reaches a dramatic peak when Guthrie is auditioning for the Rainbow Room in New York City and feels tempted by the lureof fame and fortune.</p><p> The rest of the show is descriptive and passionate, but this is the moment of realtheater.</p><p> More scenes of genuine dramatic impact like that would have made this piece truly great. (And while the focus is on social justice, a delightful song or two Guthrie wrote for kids would have provided a useful break in the mood.) But this is solid, entertaining work that should travel far and wide in these hard times, just like Guthrie himself.</p><p> CIVILIAN ** out of **** Here's a play that should have hewed more closely to its title and description.</p><p> Civilian is described as a documentary drama about veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan "transitioning from soldier to college student to civilian." Would that it were so.</p><p> Perhaps 90 percent of the show covers far morefamiliar territory -- why soldiers enlisted, donning that uniform for the first time, firing their weapon,coming under fire, getting wounded and killing the enemy.</p><p> Those stories -- based on oral historiesrecorded at the University of Kentucky -- are no less gripping for being familiar, though here they arerarely shaped by playwright and director Herman Daniel Farrell III.</p><p> Instead, the 10 percent of the showthat does indeed focus on their life at home and on campus is far more fresh and compelling.</p><p> Soldierswho don't enter a classroom without planning an exit strategy, soldiers who have a panic attack whenstudents "gang up" on a teacher, soldiers who get furious when a professor blithely dismisses U.S. troopsas murderers, soldiers disdainful of students who describe an upcoming exam as life or death -- all of thisis fairly uncharted territory and feels fresh.</p><p> It's a pity so little of the show focuses on it.</p><p> And the metatrappings of the show, such as having the actors rehearse their scenes and getting notes or having astudent veteran interrupt their rehearsal to complain about the oral histories being turned into a play,serve no useful purpose.</p><p> And why is one of the most compelling tales of civilian life reduced to a textmessage read aloud by several cast members? That cast is fine in a stolid, unemotional manner surely meant to reflect the demeanor of the veterans interviewed.</p><p> Far weaker are the interviewers.</p><p> It's hard to make banal questions seem interesting and then listen with a look of concern and empathy on your face,but whatever would have worked isn't accomplished by Katie Ochoa, who makes every question soundfalse and trite.</p><p> But Andrew Zimmerman rings equally false as an interviewer, though when he returns tothe stage as a soldier he delivers one of the show's lengthiest and most effective monologues.</p><p> Too often,the stories aren't allowed to unfold this way, which is why his tale is so engaging.</p><p> Better shaping of thematerial and a genuine focus on veterans as students might have made Civilian far more distinctive than it is. 2 BURN * 1/2 out of **** A new college student seduces a vulnerable professor of literary theory in this gay noir.</p><p> Or does he? Or is he? No one is quite what they seem in this melodrama by playwright Alex Defazio.</p><p> Paul (Jody P.</p><p> Person)is the professor who has just been dumped by his long-time lover.</p><p> Manny (a comely Patrick Martin) isthe 19-year-old student who has the body of a 16-year-old and the mind of Anne Baxter in All About Eve.This kid is trouble and Paul knows it, even as he falls for the lad's naughty charms.</p><p> Manny is soonpeaking into the professor's laptop, having online sex with strangers, getting drunk on Paul's alcohol andbasically moving in, even as colleagues warn Paul about the danger he's in.</p><p> MOST POPULAR ON HUFFPOST 1 of 2 'Web Cam 101 For Seniors' Turns Oregon Oldsters Into YouTube Celebrities Scarlett Johansson Nude Photos Prompt Investigation SHOCK VIDEO: Debate Audience Says Uninsured Patient Should Be Left To Die Celestrellas: Angola named Miss Universe 2011 - show recap (PHOTOS & VIDEOS) AOL TV: Jon Cryer, Ashton Kutcher & Angus T.</p><p> Jones Talk 'Two and a Half Men' Season 9 (VIDEO) Ten Signs Your Marriage is Headed for Divorce Mark Blankenship True Blood Sucker Punch: Season 4, Ep. 12 Engadget: Windows 8 for tablets hands-on preview (video) AOL Jobs: Spelling Errors Send Red Flags To Employers DON'T MISS HUFFPOST BLOGGERS 1 of 5 Kumi Naidoo Don’t Make a Wave: Greenpeace at 40 Candy Spelling iPads and Social Media in the Classroom? Like 119K Like 101 Like 64K Like 2K Like 466 Like 3K Like 113 Like 3K Like 1K Missoni For Target Merchandise FloodseBay Scarlett Johansson Contacts FBI AboutHacked Nude Images Scarlett JohanssonWhile noir doesn't necessarily have to be realistic, you better be so caught up in the passion and danger that you don't care.</p><p> Instead, the world of the play just seems oddly divorced from the reality of campuslife and what would happen if a professor did openly shack up with a student.</p><p> Deena Jiles is the colleagueand friend who bizarrely mocks her mentor's scholarship repeatedly (thank God that's addressed lateron) and Michelle Wood comes off best as Sarah, the other woman, surprisingly enough.</p><p> Perhaps Woodbenefits from being a minor character with a clear focus and reason for behaving the way she does.Everyone else just seems to behave unconvincingly.</p><p> It doesn't help that co-directors Jennifer Joyce and Person have the two female characters often on stage doing this or that for no apparent reason.</p><p> They're not witnesses or reminders of the world at large or anything.</p><p> They're just... there.</p><p> Defazio's use of literarytheory often sounds strained ("Love is just a social construct!" whines Manny several times, or words tothat effect) but not as strained as the eye-popping plot twists and character revelations, each one moreunbelievable and unearned than the last, right down to the gothic finale.</p><p> Patrick has some fun with theobviously coy and self-absorbed Manny and the man next to me who whipped out his opera glassescertainly enjoyed Patrick's nude scene.</p><p> But little pleasure can be derived from 2 Burn as a whole, not even the guilty kind.</p><p> WALLS AND BRIDGES ** out of **** I'm a huge Beatles fanatic so tell me that your play is set in a hotel room in 1974 with John Lennon separated from Yoko Ono and having imaginary conversations with Stu Sutcliffe, his mother andmanager Brian Epstein (all of them dead in real life, of course) and I'm there.</p><p> This show has the addedbenefit of being written by fellow Liverpudlian Scott Murphy and being staged there twice by theLiverpool Actors Studio .</p><p> Unfortunately, it's strictly for Beatles fanatics like myself.</p><p> Philip Quinn doesn't try and mimic Lennon but rather embody his essence in this character.</p><p> But what might have been aninteresting look at what kicked Lennon in the arse at this low point in his life devolves into a rehashingof the past.</p><p> Its strongest passage comes first, with handsome devil Keir Howard playing the magnetic Stu,a (poor) bassist who quite the Beatles to stay in Germany and be a painter and bohemian, only to die at an early age. his give and take with Lennon feels the liveliest.</p><p> Claire O'Neill has less luck as Lennon's mother Julia, who abandoned him.</p><p> And Sam Inkson is unfortunately stiffest as all as closeted managerBrian Epstein, just as uptight in death as perhaps he was in life.</p><p> None of the actors are helped by dialoguethat spells out their feelings in blunt, obvious language.</p><p> Quinn holds the stage decently, even as he'sforced to make "predictions" about the future we all know will come true or paraphrase lines from futureLennon songs in his dialogue to give fans like me a thrill at "lyric-spotting." It's sincere but unaffecting,I'm afraid.</p><p> This can be done, as movies like Backbeat and The Hours and Times proved.</p><p> It's just not very easy.</p><p> Here's Lennon with one of his biggest hits at the time.</p><p> TOP VIDEO PICKS 1 of 12 Halle Berry's Flawless Bikini Bod Olsen Sister Flashes HerBra Scarlett's naked pics, TylerPerry is highest paid MOST DISCUSSED RIGHT NOW 1 of 2 HOT ON FACEBOOK 1 of 3 HOT ON TWITTER 1 of 2 More Entertainment News at THR.com More Celebrity News at People.comBecomes A TwitterTrending Topic Mark Ballas and PiaToscano Split READ MORE America's Got Talent Picksa Winner READ MORE Michaele Salahi Was NotKidnapped as Husband Claimed READ MORE Anna Faris On Her Boob Job & Bulls*it Women Actress Friends Getting Back To Her Roots? Miss Universe Is Fixed By Donald Trump: Choreographer PHOTOS: Johnny Depp Gets Creepy Like 2KThe Theater Season 2011-2012 (on a four star scale) All's Well That Ends Well/Shakespeare in the Park ** Broadway By The Year: 1997 ** 1/2 Hair *** Master Class w Tyne Daly ** 1/2 Measure For Measure/Shakespeare in the Park *** Olive and The Bitter Herbs ** 1/2 One Arm *** Silence! The Musical * 1/2 Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark * 1/2 Unnatural Acts *** Zarkana ** FRINGEFEST NYC 2011The Bardy Bunch ** Civilian ** Hard Travelin' With Woody *** Parker & Dizzy's Fabulous Journey To The End Of The Rainbow ** 1/2 Rachel Calof ** 1/2 2 Burn * 1/2 Walls and Bridges ** What The Sparrow Said ** 1/2 Thanks for reading.</p><p> Michael Giltz is the cohost of Showbiz Sandbox, a weekly pop culture podcast that reveals the industry take on entertainment news of the day and features top journalists and opinion makers as guests.</p><p> It's available for free on iTunes.</p><p> Visit Michael Giltz at his website and his daily blog.</p><p> Download his podcast of celebrity interviews and his radio show, also called Popsurfing and alsoavailable for free on iTunes.</p><p> Link to him on Netflix and gain access to thousands of ratings and reviews.</p><p> Note : Michael Giltz was provided with free tickets to these show with the understanding that he would be writing a review.</p><p> Follow Michael Giltz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/michaelgiltz Buy a link here Sponsored Links Refinance at 3.25% FIXED! Home Refinance with No Hidden Fees, Points or Costs.</p><p> Free Quotes! Mortgage.LendGo.com Truth About Scientology You've Heard The Controversy, Now Get The Facts.</p><p> Watch Online Videos Scientology.org eBay® - Official Site Visit eBay for great deals on a huge selection of items.</p><p> Shop eBay! www.ebay.com 10 Best Credit Cards Compare Multiple Credit Card Offers & Apply Online.</p><p> As Seen on PBS TV. www.CardRatings.com HUFFPOST'S BIG NEWS PAGES Celebrity Music Film TV Video Weird Animals Astronomy Food Fashion Buy a link here Sponsored Links Hyatt Summerfield Suites® All Suites Hotel with a Full Kitchen.</p><p> Free Breakfast & Wi-Fi.</p><p> Book Now Hyatt.com/SummerfieldSuites What is Scientology Think For Yourself and Find Out for Yourself.</p><p> Scientology.org College - 100% Online Be more employable! 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