Staff Picks No. 114
Christina Vantzou and John Also Bennett
Public Records
Friday September 5th 2025
Since 2011’s “No. 1”, Christina Vantzou has been blurring contemporary composition, ambient, drone, and complex drifting sadnesses over a series of seven albums, each one a harmonious yet distinct new planting in her garden of bummers. She has been Brussels-based for like a decade, and stateside performances are relatively rare; this’ll be a special one. It is good to have feelings among strangers and friends. Come through!
Staffer: Joshua Dumas
*Editor’s note - this one has passed but we wanted to include it anyway, since it was Picked! So, now please look up these artists and this space, if you are not yet familiar!
Iranian Girlfriend : SB Tennent, Built4Collapse
Mitu580
September 18th-October 4th 2025
This one’s been in the works for a long minute and you’d be remiss to not grab a ticket. SB is one of the coolest directors I know and anything she does is worth perusing. A piece that “combines solo performance, video installation, and runway fashion” is kind of absolute bait for me. And a killer design team to boot!
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
Stench : Sarah Grace Goldman, Max Mooney, Ian Reid, Gus Mahoney
The Tank
September 6th-13th 2025
Ian Reid wrote a lovely show, Heaven is a place in the sky, last year at The Tank, and now he produces a new show about scents, which is always the hardest sense for me to write about. So, sniff up! This smells good. And, Jacqueline Scaletta on lights!
Staffer : Billy McEntee
Independence Gay: Eric Adams and Andrew Cuomo get abducted by SOCIALIST Aliens and DJ Evangeline : Bertha Vanayshun (as Eric Adams) and Anne J Tifah (as Andrew Cuomo)
All Night Skate
Sunday September 14th 2025
I saw a video of an Eric Adams-themed Cell Block Tango number by Bertha Vanayshun from A VERY BLACK DRAG SHOW back in June and it blew me away. I will be attending this show in desperate hopes that Bertha will perform this number again because it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Electoral politics are an addictive distraction from the actual issues facing New Yorkers, but it is very fun to revel in the ways these grown men have humiliated themselves in the public eye for votes.
Suggested $5 donation for tickets and it's a drag show so you better bring cash to tip the queens
Staffer: Noa Rui-Piin Weiss
I will need reports from friends after this show. I want desperately to know what happens to Adams and Cuomo. My hope is that they fall in love and leave NYC.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
500 Rats: A Love Story : BT Hayes, Em Hausmann, Beth Slade
HERE
September 12th-14th 2025
Living in NY comes with it's many pleasures and many pains, chief among them the furry beasts we live alongside. Imagine not one, not ten, or not even one hundred, but.... well. They're the titular role (subject? character? THEME??) behind this play. I for one am excited for a look into the rat kingdom. Having read a few small slivers, I can tell you to expect some stellar writing at the intersection of landlord farce, puppet mania, and neo-camp. Praying I'm #501.
Staffer: Matthew Antoci
WEER : Natalie Palamides
Cherry Lane Theatre
September 20th-November 9th 2025
The Cherry Lane reopens! And inaugurates its new era with Natalie Palamides’ WEER, a comedy of genderfucking proportions the likes of which you may be unprepared for. I caught her show NATE at the United Citizens Brigade and loved the weird discourse it provoked by asking where it exists in the world of comedy & theater…and titty-slapping. It is close to sold out and I, as a rule, almost never recommend sold out shows but rush it! Waitlist it! I promise it’s worth the hype.
Staffer: Reuven Glezer
I was super lucky to see NATE at The Bell House and have, since then, been all - “I WILL go to anything ever at all that Natalie Palamides does.” I was fully pissed when the most recent Jackass movie cut the scene Natalie was in, but showed it in the preview. How rude. So, while this one seems mosssssstly sold out, get on the mailing list so that you can find out about added shows, go get on waitlists, whatever it takes. My hope is that it will be as nasty, thoughtful, hilarious and impossible as every other magical Natalie Palamides show.
Staffer: Theresa Buchheister
Philadelphia Fringe : Thaddeus McWhinnie Phillips, Sarah Norcross and Lydia Brinkmann
Multiple Locations
September 4th-28th 2025
Philadelphia’s record-breaking lineup features 320 productions across 96 venues, including 129 debut creators. This Fringe does not eff around, so if you missed Edinburgh as I have (and I really must get there), Philly is an easier Amtrak-able destination. "Weathering by Faye" Driscoll is a luminously living, breathing multi-sensory sculpture made of bodies, sounds, scents, liquids and objects. "Around the World in 80 Toys" pays tribute to silent filmmaker, magician, and visionary tinkerer Georges Méliès. "The Layaway" is a speakeasy for hard times where the Bearded Ladies are carving a cozy space for guests to let their hair down. There is MUCH to see!
Staffer: Billy McEntee