Deja Vu Alert! Fringe & Purge has noticed that tonight’s Fringe menu includes performances of a veritable circus trunk-load of shows that have already earned the endorsement of your Fringe & Purge Action News and Commentary Squad. With so many options and so few reliable, portable A/C units, drawing up a Friday-night Fringe flight plan can be overwhelming. We’re here to help.
Like aesthetic challenge? Modern dance? Okay, how about female nudity? Elephant is at The Apothecary, but don’t expect a passive viewing experience, says Ann Willemssen. 6:30 p.m.
Speakeasy DC presents Showcase Showdown at the U.S. Navy Memorial. Geek Sweeps Week champion Glen Weldon dug it, but cautions and indeed, instructs prospective contestants not to bet like a chump. 8 p.m.
Washington Improv Theatre presents iSchool Musical at Source. “Scripted lines are definitely overrated” opines Adam Gorod. 8 p.m.
Molotov‘s splashy, puppet-enhanced psycho-killer musical The Horrors of Online Dating is at Playbill Cafe. Our Ian Buckwalter is gonna weigh in with a proper review later on, but I saw it last night, and I can tell you absent any hyperbole that it’s so intense it gave my date an asthma attack. Smocks provided; BYO inhaler. 8 p.m.
‘Tis a Pity She’s a Whore! I just like saying that. “Spry-ish!” raves (ish) G-Weld. Okay, so less a rave than a generally favorable notice. What’s the verb for that? Hedges? Is this a gardening blog now? At The Warehouse, 8 p.m.
At The Shop, a psychologist goes rogue to prevent “enhanced interrogation” in Alternative Methods. Our Sophia Bushong admired its power and relevance. 8:15 p.m.
At The Clinic, the first man and first woman are children of a lesser, popcorn-snacking, Miami Vice-wardrobe-rocking God in the agreeably blasphemous After the Garden. 8:45 p.m.
Superheroes Who Are Super! brings their enthusiastic staged readings of classic comics back to The Apothecary. They’re doing two consecutive issues from the Chris Claremont-John Byrne glory days of The Uncanny X-Men this time, so a different show from the one I loved, but equally ripe for awesome. And equally ripe for ripeness: It’s hot in The Apothecary, you guys. 10:15 p.m.
There’s no better way to cap off a midsummer night’s fringery than with punk raconteur Ed Hamell‘s midnight performance of This Is Your Brain on Rock and Roll at the Baldacchino Gypsy Tent. I’ve been repeating a couple of snail jokes I heard ihim tell last Sunday all week long, and I’m sure he’s got more. Even if you’re not really into snail jokes, you should still check him out.