One-Woman Rock Opera EXES: THE MUSICAL To Have NY Premiere At The New York City Fringe Festival
The limited engagement runs April 2 - 8
Journey through a harrowing array of ex-boyfriends in the new Y2K nostalgia rock opera EXES: The Musical written by Anne DiGiovanni (p/k/a deegie) and Joseph Lewczak. The limited engagement runs April 2 - 8 and will be presented as part of the 2025 New York City Fringe Festival with FRIGID New York. Olivia Facini directs the New York premiere.
deegie, a powerhouse pop punk princess, takes a deep dive into her past relationships through her real diaries in the one-woman rock opera, EXES: The Musical. Taking the audience on an unexpected journey through the fairytale romantic myths of popular culture, deegie's diaries chronicle a range of boyfriends - from men who made clear they never wanted to be serious, to clingy, cloying men who held deegie too tight. Her reliving of how that culture intertwines with rape culture and impacts women as they come of age is a rollercoaster ride with the highs of love and validation and the lows of emotional repression, leaving deegie screaming "Stop the ride!" With the sound of Olivia Rodrigo's older sister (or Avril Lavigne's younger one), each song is an exploration of memory, accountability, and perspective only time can give.
deegie released an EP called EXES about her ex-boyfriends with their real names in the titles and debuted EXES: The Musical in a sold-out performance at The Hudson Theatre in Los Angeles in October 2024. deegie shared, "Creating this show has been like making a scrapbook of my life, but one I want to glue shut forever, except the songs are so fun to do live and the stories are so vivid, that I'm addicted - almost as much as I was addicted to my EXES." She went on to say, "I also hope that recounting being sexually assaulted and the ambiguity and ambivalence of that trauma, is something that can help other survivors process in new ways."
deegie emotional directness and empowering energy have inspired questions like "What makes you so angry?" There's something about a woman being raw, bold, and fierce with her gut-punching lyrics that makes people uncomfortable despite her anthemic melodies, and deegie's mission is to shine a klieg light on that truth. deegie is currently releasing songs off her forthcoming EP, Feminism 101, documenting her experiences as a woman in a man's world.
EXES: The Musical runs April 2 - 8 with performances on Wednesday, April 2 at 6pm, Friday, April 4 at 9:20pm, Sunday, April 6 at 5:20pm, Monday, April 7 at 7:40pm, and Tuesday, April 8 at 9:20pm. Running time: 60 minutes.
The Chain Theatre is located at 312 West 36th Street (between 8th & 9th avenue), New York, NY 10018.
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