The wait is over. The FringeNYC Encore Series has announced the list of shows honored with an extended run, and it’s quite an impressive lineup! More than half were featured as Top Picks during the festival by us, so many should come as no surprise.

It’s not an easy feat to select highlights from a list this strong, but if your time and budget is limited, the shows featured in bold are deserving of prioritization in our estimation.

So without further ado…

The 2010 Fringe Encore Series

We’ve been asked more than once whether the Fringe Encore Series reflects “the best” of what the festival has to offer, and the answer is yes, to a large extent it does.

Ticket sales are certainly a factor, and thereby popularity, but we all know that mass appeal by no means guarantees quality. Some outstanding shows may have been poorly marketed, or had unfortunate show times. Likewise, many disappointing shows can sell out on the strength of aggressive self-promotion, hype, or merely a compelling title and subject.

Inevitably some of the best shows, especially those visiting from out of town, are simply unable to participate even if invited. Productions often have to turn down an extension due to conflicting cast obligations or a myriad of other mitigating circumstances.

As a result, every year there are gems which for one reason or another don’t make it to the Encores. This ensures that it will always be worth panning for gold during the full fest, even if finding the nuggets can be at times exhilarating and exhausting in equal measure.

On the other hand, the Encore Series virtually guarantees a much higher signal to noise ratio than the broader festival possibly can. These shows have all to some degree been tested, vetted, found meritorious, and have reviews to measure your personal taste and interest against.

It’s an opportunity to catch the shows which didn’t fit into your hectic schedule, or perhaps closed before you caught the buzz, and given the overall excellence to be found in the line-up this year, if you haven’t seen at least 50% of these shows, you’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

As we have done throughout the festival, NYCFringeGuide.com is here to offer it’s top picks and recommendations based on staff writer experiences, reviews from outside top critics, and word-of-mouth from the hundreds of Fringe Fanatics we’ve surveyed. Even so, the Encore Series is as close to a “sure thing” as the Fringe can offer, provided of course you get your tickets before the shows sell out… again.

Dante Amor
Senior Editor
NYCFringeGuide.com