A Puppet-Play Photos - Broadway

For those too young to remember the vaudevillian style lounge shows popular in the 50s and 60s in Las Vegas, where an iconic and often talented performer in their own right hosted other acts to keep gamblers entertained as they visited the lounge bar for a drink, looked for a companion for the night, or needed time to recover from a huge loss at the tables, you can now experience a little bit of old Vegas, right here in Hollywood. And I can tell you, I don't remember laughing as hard as I did the night I attended THE TONY MARTINI VARIETY HOUR at Three Clubs Cocktail Lounge, rumored to be the exact same place where Frank Sinatra would hang out with his assorted Rat Pack buddies, friends, and lovers during their own Las Vegas heyday. And that vibe still exists in the room where those great entertainers wowed the crowds so many years ago.

'Feathers of Fire: A Persian Epic' is a visually breathtaking cinematic shadow play for all ages, created and directed by Hamid Rahmanian, a 2014 Guggenheim fellowship-winning filmmaker/visual artist. Inspired by the tenth century Persian epic 'Shahnameh' (The Book of Kings), it dramatizes the origin story from the tale with elaborate shadow puppets, multimedia and live actors. The production, which debuted at BAM in 2016 and was presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art the same year, returns to New York next month for two days only.  It will be presented by Fictionville Studio September 7 and 8 at Kaye Playhouse, 695 Park Ave. (at 68th Street), for three performances only before it travels to China and Paris.

To shake up the usual outdoor theatre fare offered in NYC, Elephant Run District is presenting BRECHT IN THE PARK. Included in this are three rarely-performed short plays, two of which required the creation of a special contract from the publishing company Samuel French because they had never been performed in New York City. Scroll down for a first look at the cast in action!