Im Dunkeln sieht man Besser
Photograph: Courtesy Walter Wlodarczyk | Im Dunkeln sieht man Besser
Photograph: Courtesy Walter Wlodarczyk

Off-Off Broadway shows in NYC

Looking for the best Off-Off Broadway shows? Here are the most promising productions at NYC’s smaller venues this month.

Adam Feldman
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Broadway and Off Broadway productions get most of the attention, but to get a true sense of the range and diversity of New York theater, you need to look to the smaller productions collectively known as Off-Off Broadway. There are dozens of Off-Off Broadway spaces in New York, mostly with fewer than 99 seats. Experimental plays thrive in New York's best Off-Off Broadway venues; that's where you'll find many of the city's most challenging and original works. But Off-Off is more than just the weird stuff: It also includes everything from original dramas to revivals of rarely seen classics, and it's a good place to get early looks at rising talents. What's more, it tends to be affordable; while cheap Broadway tickets can be hard to find, most Off-Off Broadway shows are in the $15–$35 range. Here are some of the current shows that hold the most promise.

RECOMMENDED: Full guide to Off Broadway shows in NYC 

Off-Off Broadway shows in NYC

  • Comedy
  • Flatiron
  • Open run
  • price 2 of 4
After more than a decade performing Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind, an ever-changing collection of 30 two-minutes plays, the New York Neo-Futurists had to change course when piece's author pulled the rights abruptly in 2016. Now the troupe performs a different ever-changing collection of 30 two-minute plays called The Infinite Wrench. (We wrote about it here.) 
  • Comedy
  • Hell's Kitchen
  • price 2 of 4
Lynn Rosen's new play is not intended to be scary, but it is set near Halloween with a serial strangler on the loose, so we think it should count. The formidable Danielle Skraastad (Hurricane Diane) plays a New England waitress who bonds with a loyal customer in this intimate one-act comedy, which also features John Alejandro Jeffords and Annie Henk. The director is Julie Kramer, and since the actor-illusionist Steve Cuiffo is credited as Magic Consultant, you can anticipate more than a few tricks to go with the treats.
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  • Drama
  • East Village
  • price 2 of 4
The seasoned trans actress Rachel Crowl (Prince Faggot) contains multitudes in the U.S. premiere of El cos més bonic que s'haurà trobat mai en aquest lloc, a solo work by Josep Maria Miró that won Spain's 2022 National Prize for Dramatic Literature. Crowl plays many different inhabitants of a small town reeling from the murder of a popular local man. Mei Ann Teo (Jesa) directs the production for PlayCo, which has been working on it for years with Miró and Sharon Feldman, who has translated it from the original Catalan.  
  • Children's
  • East Village
  • price 2 of 4
The clever Peter Michael Marino brings back his kid-friendly spoof of Planet of the Apes, which uses toy-theater techniques to tell the story of astronauts who land on a world controlled by hyperintelligent vine fruit. It sounds like—dare we say?—a whole bunch of fun. The hour-long multimedia production, directed by Michole Biancosino, features original music by Michael Harren.

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