Familiar Names Sign Up for NYC Fringe Fest

Every year some Broadway faves and people from the worlds of television and film head downtown to participate in the New York International Fringe Festival, and this year is no exception. Donna Lynne Champlin By Jeeves, Hollywood Arms, As The World Turns' Ellen Dolan, Daniel Franzese of the film Mean Girls, Broadway vet Annie Golden Hair, The Full Monty, Asa Somers Dance of the Vampires, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, two-time Emmy winner Heather Tom recently seen on Broadway in Prymate and Karin Wolfe the star of the 1973 Broadway musical Gigi are among the performers who will be seen this year at the festival, which will run at various locations from August 13 through August 29.

Champlin will appear in Ellen Craft: A New Opera alongside her co-star in off-Broadway's recent First Lady Suite, Sherry Boone. Boone conceived the show, wrote the lyrics and collaborated on the libretto with Sean Jeremy Palmer who wrote the music. Based on a true story, the tuner centers on a woman who escapes from slavery disguised as a white man. Tamilla Woodard directs.

Dolan will appear in Donald Steele's Graceland, which is being produced by another soap opera fixture, One Life to Live star Robert S. Woods. In the play, Janelle and Tom take her comatose mother to Memphis to pay their respects to The King. This "quest" leads to a surprising encounter with a female Elvis impersonator/wannabe psychic and her teenage daughter.

Franzese will headline Bert V. Royal's Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, an unauthorized parody of the Charlie Brown comic characters. In the play, audience members will find out what happens when America's favorite blockhead discovers that his beloved beagle has rabies. A missing penpal, an abused pianist, a pyromaniac ex-girlfriend, two drunk cheerleaders, a homophobic quarterback, a burned-out Buddhist and a drama-queen sister are all contributing factors to the teen-angst of America's most hapless kid. Susan Lovell directs.

Golden is appearing with Donald Grody Caroline, or Change, Allen Fitzpatrick 42nd Street and Kristine Zbornick Forbidden Broadway in the new musical Mimi Le Duck. The show features music by Brian Feinstein and book and lyrics by Diana Hansen-Young. Mimi Le Duck is about art, love, ducks and Ernest Hemingway. Miriam, a mother and wife, lives in Idaho and paints ducks for the QVC channel but dreams of the artist's life she never led. She flees to Paris and begins a bohemian existence among a group of colorful characters. What will her accountant husband do now? The musical will premiere at the Adirondack Theatre Festival from July 21 through July 31.

Somers will appear in Andru's Head, directed by Jonathan Warman and choreographed by Mark Dendy who worked with Somers on Taboo. It is an indie rock musical about a disembodied head who hosts a public access children's show which is co-opted by a mad corporate baddie.

Tom is set to star in Maureen FitzGerald's Moonchild. Based on events in the life of a young L. Ron Hubbard, Moonchild is a dark farce about money, sex, black magic, madness, mind control and the chance meeting that led to the birth of a billion-dollar empire. Alex Lippard directs.

Wolfe will appear in Dennis Schebtta's Burning Botticelli. The play interweaves three stories of artists as they grapple with their public and the force of their own inspiration. Scott C. Embler directs.

Other Fringe shows with Broadway names attached include Confessions of a Mormon Boy which was announced for off-Broadway last year, but never came in directed by Jack Hofsiss, Henry Covery's The First Step directed by Michael Leeds Swinging on a Star, a new musical Subway Train with Yassmin Alers Rent and the tuner Womyn in Three with Rent alums Dominique Roy, Caren Lyn Manuel, Sebastian Arcelus and Mark Richard Ford.