While Broadway shows will always attract visitors to New York from all around the world, off-Broadway has plenty of gems, too. From February 17 to March 2, NYC & Company, New York City's official tourism organization, is promoting Off-Broadway Week with two-for-one tickets to lots of off-the-main-stem shows.
This promotion will give visitors some unique chances to get away from the crowds and see some top-quality theater. (47 shows are included in the promotion.) Buyer & Cellar, for example, is a one-man comedy about a man who goes to work for a certain legendary singer and actress in her redesigned basement, with hilarious impressions of her celebrity circle of friends. (It is running downtown at the Barrow Street Theatre, giving visitors a good excuse to explore a less touristy part of the city.) Dinner With Friends, meanwhile, won the Pulitzer Prize for its off-Broadway bow in 2000, and is back for a revival at the midtown Laura Pels Theater. Murder For Two is a musical black comedy at New World Stages in which one man plays a detective investigating a crime…and another plays all of the suspects. (Jeff Blumenkrantz' performance must be seen to be believed.) On the far-West Side, Disaster is a musical spoof of 1970s disaster films that includes covers of some of that era's top songs (think "Hot Stuff," "Don't Bring Me Down" and "I Am Woman").
There are always the stalwarts like Stomp, Perfect Crime, The Fantasticks and Avenue Q, but the best part of venturing beyond Broadway is discovering something new or seeing how a classic can be reimagined. (Theater Bedlam, for example, is doing Hamlet and Saint Joan in repertory with just four actors. We haven't seen it yet, but it sounds fascinating.)
Check out www.nycgo.com/offbroadwayweek and discover something different.