Summer Stages: BWW's Top Summer Theatre Picks - NYC!

Summer in New York is traditionally a quiet time for Broadway, although the now-previewing Tupac Shakur musical, Holler If Ya Hear Me is certainly creating quite a buzz. Perennials like Shakespeare In The Park and the New York International Fringe Festival always draw mobs of playgoers looking for a great time, but everywhere you turn in this arts-crazy city there's somebody putting on a show.

The Brick is one of those adventurous theatre spaces where you should always expect something a little out of the ordinary. That's certainly an apt description for their Comic Book Theatre Festival, Issue #2. This unique event boasts a repertory of 18 new productions that explore the intersection of the panel and the stage, the live and the drawn, the ink and the actor.

You may go to London for the Shakespeare or Paris for the Folies but nobody does musical theatre like New York and every summer some of the most exciting emerging musical theatre bookwriters, lyricists and composers show off their latest projects at the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Now in its 11th year, NYMF has been known for presenting everything from traditional book musicals to experimental pieces to punk rock spectacles, and you'll frequently see familiar Broadway faces on stage, hoping to find a great new vehicle to bring them back to the Great White Way.

Affectionately known as the Freak Show, Sideshows By The Seashore has been keeping the great tradition of carnival entertainment alive at Coney Island for over 25 years. During peak summer weeks shows are continuous throughout the day, so stop by anytime, buy a ticket at the door and be thrilled and amazed by the man who chews glass, the human blockhead, sword swallowers, snake charmers and other wild wonders.

After a sensational premiere season in 2013, City Center's Encores! Off-Center series returns with three exciting new productions: tick... tick... BOOM!, Randy Newman's Faust and Pump Boys and Dinettes. As with the beloved Encores! series, these are concert productions with an emphasis on presenting interesting scores as they were originally orchestrated.