THEATRE ISN’T DEAD:
HOLLYWOOD FRINGE 2025, JUNE 5-29

For those under the impression that creativity begins and ends in LA on the multi-screens of the AMC and IMAX theatres in every mall scattered about this town, the 2025 Hollywood Fringe has arrived to disabuse you of this false dichotomy.

For the past 14 years, come the month of June, the Hollywood Fringe Festival has swooped down to occupy Santa Monica Boulevard from the vicinity of Vine Street to Highland, with outposts on Western and Melrose  Avenues.  For the entire month, from June 5-29, every stage, available store front, bar, performance venue, coffee shop, back alley and occasional cemetery will be hosting plays of every variety, operas, immersive experiences, dance recitals, clown exhibitions, magicians and lots of solo shows running the gauntlet from a stunning bald model’s inspiring saga of her triumph over alopecia, to the star of a popular HBO series sharing the debauchery drenched memories of his years as a fixture in Germany’s Underground Techno-trash scene.

How many shows? This year, more than 416. Here I offer 42 shows that caught my attention, about 10% of the total number of participating productions. I include some performers I’ve seen before, international offerings, and stuff one just has a sixth sense about. But you need to discover what other wonderous entertainment and spectacular performances are being offered for yourself. Stage and Cinema will be publishing reviews, so feel free to contact us should you discover gold in them thar hills of Hollywood.

The festival officially begins on June 12, but previews run June 5-10, when it’s much easier to book shows (you’d be amazed how many sell out). Except for the rare full-length show, individual outings run from 10 to 90 minutes (average time: 45 minutes to an hour) with ticket prices wavering between “free” to twenty dollars (average $10 to $12). Running through June 29, the Hollywood Fringe offers a smorgasbord of tasty entertainment guaranteed to please any artistic appetite. To help you navigate scheduling (especially when you need to get from one event to another in five minutes!), peruse the back pages of this year’s Fringe Guide.

Here’s a sampling in no particular order. Click on the title for show info and performance dates.

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BEST. DAD. NEVER.

Woven from his essays featured in Cosmopolitan and O The Oprah Magazine, gay Armenian-American Haig “Hike” Chahinian recounts his humbling and oft-time hilarious adventures as he fumbles through fathering a bouncing biracial baby girl. A compassionate contemplation of all the hardships and hazards the heart is willing to endure for the joy of holding the world’s greatest treasure in your arms.

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THE DOG LOG

The West Hollywood Sheriff’s Department informed performerwriter Richard Lucas that to file a civil complaint against the hoarder next door to him and her two incessantly barking Yorkies from Hell, it would require he keep a “Dog Log”—a daily record chronicling their barking to show the court they qualify as “public nuisances.” But as he begins keeping the “log,” fate steps in with sadistic whimsy. The hoarder is hospitalized, and suddenly Lucas finds himself the caretaker to her two badly behaved Yorkshire terriers, the furry banes of his existence.

The show is based on the book The Dog Log: An Accidental Memoir of Yapping Yorkies, Quarreling Neighbors, and the Unlikely Friendships That Saved My Life. As I wrote in my TVolution review: “With a style approaching Japanese senryū, Lucas takes us down dark paths, but the light at the end of his tunnel is a reminder of a too often forgotten truth that, as Robert Ingersoll wrote, ‘We rise by lifting others.’” Signed copies will be on sale after every show. Directed by Bruno Oliver, and produced by Steven Vlasak, this true story of an epic journey—one which begins with a knock on a neighbor’s door—celebrates the amazing changes forged within the relationships we form.

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MARK VIGEANT: OUT THERE

With his last two solo shows, Mark Pleases You & The Best Man Show (reviewed by Stage and Cinema), Mark Vigeant sauntered over to the Hollywood Fringe like Godzilla over Tokyo. Only much, much funnier. Mark is dealing out uncut comic heroin; one taste and you’re jonesing for more.  This newest interactive work tells the tale of one man’s journey into the vast wilderness of Alaska, where he tries to survive with no food or water, all the while filming himself so he can be a viral sensation. Mr. Vigeant tells me, “It’s kinda like if Grizzly Man was an interactive physical clown piece that was slightly less sad.” Expect an avalanche of absurd fun.

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PANDORA’S BOOMBOX

One of the crowd pleasers from HFF24 was the beautifully moving, shyly entertaining, wonderfully performed Delusions and Grandeur, featuring Australian clown and classical cellist Karen Hall. All that’s being revealed about her new show is this: two clowns are desperate to sneak back into paradise.

Before Pandora released stress into the world, harmony and a good night’s sleep were easy to come by. But now, well, now we’re all just trying. So give yourself a break today, you deserve more play. For this family-friendly, non-verbal tale (think “Mr. Bean”), Hall’s clowning partner is deviser/writer Cota.

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MIKE BLAHA: INTERNATIONAL JOKE

One of the top Fringe producers, Mike Blaha has been treading the boards himself with two critically acclaimed shows, Spanking the Monkey; The Etymology of Onanistic Euphemisms, and Shagadelic – An Exploration of Terms for Doing the Dirty. This round, the U.S. premiere of International Joke, Blaha will regale audiences with how he was mocked by a monkey in Bali, nearly fell victim to Parisian muggers, and dodged being murdered in Sarajevo, all in his never-ending quest for the Holy Grail of comedy: the funniest joke in the whole wide world.

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MUST GO ON: A RITE OF PASSAGE

A solo show directed by Jozben Barrett, Terrell M. Green offers a poetic multimedia exploration of “coming out” through poetry, yoga, voguing, and puppetry, touching on themes of identity, mental health, and loss. More than a show, Must Go On is a call to action: to build community, break generational cycles, and redefine what it means to thrive.

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ELTON IN VICE-BOYS SCANDAL

This world premiere is an exposé of Britain’s most notorious libel case, the brutal, bare-knuckle courtroom clash pitting Elton John against Rupert Murdoch’s tabloid The Sun, infamous for headlines like “Freddie Starr Ate My Hamster.” Written and performed by UK Fringe veteran Henry Naylor—whose Afghanistan Is Not Funny was awarded as Best International Production by TheTVolution in 2022—Elton in Vice-Boys Scandal, the story of a glitter-covered David against that bloated corporate giant responsible for Fox News, takes us to 1987, when The Sun ran an article accusing Elton John of paying “rent boys” for sex. The Rocketman would eventually file a total of 17 libel suits as he fought to clear his name.

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MONA LISA MISSING! THE MUSICAL!

In August of 1911, an art lover visiting the Louvre asked a museum guard why the most famous painting in the world wasn’t where it had been hanging since 1797. And that was how the guard, the Louvre, Paris, France, Europe and the rest of the world discovered that Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa had been stolen. What ensued was a madcap global manhunt (well, actually “La Gioconda-hunt”) that even landed Pablo Picasso in a police lineup—a perfect subject for a musical! A fact-based musical whodunit featuring a cast of thousands (okay, just nine).

With music by five-time Grammy nominee David Arkenstone, lyrics by musical theatre legend Wayne Moore, and book by Fringe veteran and really nice guy Steven Vlasak, this world premiere has singing, can-can, butting heads with France’s Sherlock Holmes Police Inspector Louis Lepine, and uncovering the beginnings of love and redemption with an aspiring Italian artist coincidentally named Lisa.

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HER RAGE

In a Taiwanese police station, a woman sits alone in the interrogation room after confessing to the murder of her abusive husband.   Exhausted and traumatized, she falls into a dark dream that calls forth Medea and other women who were victims of domestic violence, and the painful isolation of being discriminated against as outsiders. Together they dance in sorrow and rage at the shared fate they suffered and seek to overcome. From China, Her Rage, written and directed by Dorothy Guo and Yuwen Yang, with music by Jiawei Shen and Giada Jiang as choreographer, we learn that sometimes violence becomes the only path to liberation, but it comes with a consequence.

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BELA LUGOSI MEETS EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY

Rose London’s one woman show imagines a meeting between the great Hungarian actor Bela Lugosi (1882-1956), who is in Hollywood to recreate his celebrated stage role of Dracula, and Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950), the first woman to win a Pulitzer Prize for poetry.  Written by Jordan R. Young with Christine Cummings directing.  (They had me at “Bela.”)

Lugosi and St. Vincent Millay had a number of things in common: Both achieved international recognition during their lifetimes for their respective artistic endeavors, both were charismatic, both had active romantic lives, both were prominent social activists, and both struggled with drug addiction at the end of their lives. So, what happens when Bela meets Edna? And what happens when the show’s narrator, Rose London, is commissioned by iconic 1960s TV star Bettye Ackerman (1924-2006) to write a solo performance piece in which Bettye will portray Edna on stage, to be helmed by prolific director Ted Post (1918-2013)? You’ll soon find out.

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WOODY FU: ONE MAN JOHN WICK 2.0

Merry mayhem and a brutal ballet of bloody battling knuckle busters are back as Woody Fu returns with the sequel to his epic HFF24’s One Man John Wick. Utterly sublime silliness with Fu himself as the kookiest and koolest ikonic Keanu! Version 2.0 has new games and pieces, as it preps for an Edinburgh Fringe run in August.

This scripted solo show takes us on the set of John Wick Chapter 5: E Pluribus Unum. Keanu needs the audience’s help to recreate all the hallmarks of this billion dollar franchise: elaborate fight choreography, death-defying stunts, and a plot device called “undeveloped dead wife character.”

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EARTH, WIND & CAR FIRE

In Earth, Wind & Car Fire, a journey of self-discovery, Janora McDuffie explores and rejoices in the twists and turns of life’s joyful road trip, taking us on a captivating journey of self-discovery and transformation. From embracing her sexuality and navigating the complexities of race to redefining personal expectations, this 60-minute solo show directed by Joseph Megel is also a celebration of life’s triumphs. Come with Janora on this entertaining & soulful joyride and oversharing adventure.

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TO BE LIBERATED

On August 15, 1945, the Allies announced the unconditional surrender of Imperial Japan, ending the Second World War. It also ended 35 years of Japan’s brutal colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula. Today, Liberation Day is the only holiday celebrated by both North and South Korea. Commemorating the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation, Karla Suyeon Kim and Aubrey Kim portray two women who must face the choices each made during that occupation. Produced by Soo Chyun, who unleashed Cadenza on last year’s Fringe, the show is performed in Korean with English subtitles.

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THE SECOND COMING OF JOAN OF ARC

Bridging historical gravitas with bold, contemporary relevance, The Second Coming of Joan of Arc, a solo performance from the UK, makes its U.S. debut at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe. Written by Obie Award-winning playwright Carolyn Gage and performed by Romanian actress Catinca Maria Nistor (seen in Golda, opposite Helen Mirren), the show conjures up the historical Joan to confront and expose today’s brutal misogyny and patriarchal oppression, in which women still find themselves consigned to flames on the political and social stakes of the modern world for the heresy of following their own visions.

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ANTONY ZIONI – TALES OF THE ANCIENT EAST

Described as “an ancient fantastical immersive experience,” Antony Zioni’s musical storytelling spectacular commences with Eden’s serpent, shimmies into the realm of Cleopatra, hops into the biblical tale of Exodus—complete with those crowd pleasing plagues—and then high kicks it to Golgotha to check out the crucifixion with the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse as the eleventh hour number. Sounds like toe-tapping fun to me.

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ABSOLUTE LEGENDS! 

Two dudes hang out shooting the breeze. One is Heracles, bad boy of ancient Greece, and the other is Yuri Gagarin, first man in space, who had it a lot easier than Laika, the Soviet space dog.

Performers Will Thomas McFadden and Alan Linic assure audiences of “grueling physical comedy, advanced dialect work, bold movements that occasionally resemble dance, and deeply consensual audience interaction.” Cosmic hijinks where no clown has gone before.

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A HISTORICAL GAY COMEDY STARRING NANCY REAGAN; CLOWN SHOW 

Seamus Mulcahy, in speaking of his solo clown show, tells us: “One Faggot’s border line infatuation with Presidential Libraries & Museums has taken him nowhere in life… Now that Faggot’s busting out all over the door steps of the Hollywood Fringe Festival.” On Nancy Reagan: “Who is she? Who was she? Who does she hope to be?” Where does the show take place? “Not heaven, not hell; sounds like a bathhouse on a Thursday evening.”

The desecration of an iconic Republican heroine, hmmmmm? Sounds like a good night of theatre to me.

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5:45

Edinburgh Fringe alumni from the UK, Abi Watkinson brings L.A. her darkly comic show of an uptight accounts clerk on the rise whose tightly wound existence begins to unravel when she encounters the turbulence of her ascent. An orderly life collides with a messy truth.

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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

One of  Shakespeare’s most popular comedies is given a uniquely modern 75-minute spin. As any bardolater will tell you, “nothing” was a word Shakespeare delighted in using. In A Midsummer-Night’s Dream, “to airy nothing” his poet’s pen gives a “habitation and a name;” and in King Lear, he warned us “Nothing will come of nothing,” yet so much suffering did. In Elizabethan days, “nothing” was pronounced “noting,” and “noting” meant gossiping or overhearing.  So, the title’s a play on words lost to us today. But director Evelyn-Claire Smith puts the “noting” back by cleverly framing the play’s persona as participants in a reality TV show.

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RAG DOLL ON A BOMB SITE

Whether as