Cheap New York: Affordable live-music concerts

The irrepressible Paul Iacono, who played the title role in MTV’s hung-teen series The Hard Times of RJ Berger, uses hits by Elton John and Bernie Taupin to regale audiences with tales of times he spent as a youth with the wind to his candle: the legendary Broadway battle-axe Elaine Stritch. (Stritch's never-realized final project was an Elton-themed cabaret.) Green Room impresario Ben Rimalower directs, and musical director Drew Wutke helps Iacono hit the John. 

What are the odds that New York City would simultaneously offer two shows about making a radical career change to work as a security guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art? And yet: As Patrick Bringley performs a stage version of his memoir All the Beauty in the World at the DR2, the performance artist and proud weirdo Neal Medlyn takes the stage at Joe's Pub—mere blocks away!—to weave his own tale of gainful employment, joined by a live band and some of his colleagues from the Met. (Medlyn estimates that, among other differences, his show will have "approximately 150 times the amount of talking about penises" as Bringley's.) For an extremely New York double header, try catching both performances back to back on April 15. 

Understudies, alternates and standbys get their moments in the sun in Stephen DeAngelis's longevous cabaret series, which began in 2003 and has so far shone a spotlight on more than 1,200 performers. The April edition features sometime Gypsy Rose lead Tryphena Wade, Kelly Belarmino, Andrew Montgomery Coleman, Sam Hartley, Hannah Kevitt, Jessi Kirtley, Michael Milkanin and Sunset Boulevardiers Emma Lloyd and Diego Andres Rodriguez. Rachel Dean is the musical director and accompanist.