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Photograph: Courtesy Maria BaranovaSkinnamarink (Little Lord)
Photograph: Courtesy Maria Baranova

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 right now.

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 more than 100 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 magic shows 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

  • Drama
  • Woodside
  • price 2 of 4
The Secret Theatre, which had a near-death experience during the pandemic, decks the halls of its new Woodside venue with its version of Charles Dickens's haunted tale of a pinchpenny's redemption. Company founder Richard Mazda, who wrote the adaptation, also directs the show and leads the cast as Scrooge. 
  • Midtown East
  • price 2 of 4
Local bump-and-grind impresario Johnny Porkpie reimagines Scrooge as a greedy strip-club owner named Ebeneza who rips off her dancers—and, of course, her clothes—in this risqué burlesque-theater adaptation of Charles Dickens's holiday chestnut. If you like your spiritual redemption stories perked up with pasties and tassels, this is the Carol for you. The cast this year includes Scout Durwood, Fancy Feast, Cheeky Lane, Tiger Bay, Tigger, Cashlee Banks, Miscallaneous DomTop and Jo Weldon. (Leave the kids at home for this one, folks.)  
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  • Comedy
  • Williamsburg
  • price 1 of 4
Jack Grossman and Zoe Wohlfeld, who met at a clown college in France, made their Ediburgh Fringe debut earlier this year with A Night of Drama, a semi-improvisational romp in which a very serious director attempts to stage a very serious play—only to be thwarted by unccoperative performers and stray banana peels. Grossman directs this special Christmas edition of the show, with a cast that includes Wohlfeld, Kate Owens, Miles Calderon, Jill Calderon and Michael Galligan.

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