Linda Buchwald

With 200 shows to choose from, all with vague, two-sentence descriptions, deciding which to see during the New York International Fringe Festival can be overwhelming. Now in its 20th year, it’s still a mixed bag—for every Matt and Ben (the show that launched Mindy Kaling’s career), there are at least a dozen forgettable titles. Even if you comb through every listing with painstaking detail, like we did, you never really know if you’re going to get a future Urinetown or a big, fat dud—but that’s all part of the fun! Here are five shows worth the risk (we hope). Starting Monday check our Fringe page (below); over the course of the festival we will review dozens of Fringe shows. RECOMMENDED: Full coverage of Fringe Festival NYCFlightThis acrobatic sequel to The Little Prince is a safe bet if you’re looking for a show that is appropriate for all ages. It was nominated for Best Show and Best Family Show at Edinburgh Festival Fringe (the largest arts festival in the world) in Scotland, so it’s already been vetted. Bonus (in case it’s not as good as we think): it’s only 45 minutes long.The Radicalization of RolfeThis dark comedy seems aimed at those who saw The Sound of Music and had feelings about the 17-going-on-18-year-old messenger boy who made them uncomfortable after he turned out to be a Nazi (this is probably most of us, right?). Rolfe may be a secondary character, but delve deeper and we might find out how a romantic teenager gets taken in by the Third Reich.Till Birnam Woo