[THEATER]
A LOVE/HATE RELATIONSHIP
Monologuist Mike Daisey attacks nonprofit theaters
With the theater increasingly seen as a passé art form, it’s exciting to think it important enough to have any impact on America at all. But in his new performance piece, How Theater Failed America, baby-faced, burly monologuist Mike Daisey discusses drama’s deleterious impact on those who produce it. Created with his collaborator (and wife), Jean-Michele Gregory, Daisey’s screed attacks nonprofit theaters—theaters not too dissimilar from the Public, which hosts him. In his polemic, he calls for braver play choices, lower ticket prices, and the hiring of local actors. Meanwhile, he attacks any “specious whining” that blames theater’s declining popularity on “television, iPods, Reagan, the NEA, short attention spans, and the folly of youth.” At 7, through May 11, Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette Street, 212-967-7555, $20 ALEXIS SOLOSKI
[COMEDY]
FUNNY GIRLS
The hysterical sex
“Who says women aren’t funny?” ask the creators of the Hysterical Festival. Well, no one. But any excuse to put a bunch of crass and sassy broads onstage for one night is good enough for us. This showcase, presented by BUST magazine, will raise money for the five-day, female-focused laugh-in, which comes to New York this fall. The multi-disciplinary festival will draw from a variety of talent pools: stand-up, music, burlesque, film, and other artistic areas. Tonight’s lineup includes the shockingly raunchy vocal prowess of Bridget Everett (At Least It’s Pink); Heather Lawless, most recently of Be Kind Rewind; Mel and El; and a trio of Jews (Adira Amram, Ophira Eisenberg, and Rachel Feinstein), arguably the funniest girls of all. At 8, Comix, 353 West 14th Street, 212-524-2500, comixny.com, $15–$20 SHARYN JACKSON