After another successful return engagement last season, Ben Rimalower comes back to New York with his acclaimed long-running solo plays, Patti Issues (about his obsession with Broadway diva Patti LuPone and his relationship with his troubled gay father) and Bad with Money (about how an addiction to spending beyond his means has driven him to extreme lengths all his life) at The Duplex (61 Christopher Street at Seventh Avenue in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village) for four Monday evening performances at 7:00 PM. Patti Issues will be performed on September 11 and November 13; Bad with Money will be performed on October 9 and December 11. Tickets are available at BenRimalower.com.
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Both will be released in audio form by Roven Records on Audible.com by on November 26. That date commemorates the 22nd anniversary of the first time Ben saw Patti LuPone on Broadway — fittingly in her one-woman show, Patti LuPone on Broadway. Even more fittingly, he maxed out his first credit card on the trip. The audiobook publications come as part of the label’s commitment to present great American plays via digital media. Recent releases include Charles Busch’s Judith of Bethulia, Jeffrey Sweet’s Kunstler, Mark St. Germain’s Dancing Lessons and Lanford Wilson’s The Hot L Baltimore.
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Patti Issues has garnered praise from numerous high-profile attendees such as Alan Cumming, Tony Kushner and Ms. LuPone herself. (“The show’s fantastic,” she said. “It’s really wonderful. I was moved.”) The New York Times cited “a well-honed script with an engagingly spontaneous delivery and a nose for sharp, observational comedy” and The New Yorker hailed it as “endearing, drolly written and performed with heaps of charisma.” In Bad with Money, Rimalower charts his journey through drug 
addiction, prostitution, fraud and multiple betrayals—a no-holds-barred self-portrait of an addict, which casts light on the last societal taboo. Time Out New York rated the performance four stars, calling “light, funny” and “vividly personal,” while London’s The Stage proclaimed, “Utterly extraordinary! Superb!” Both works are written and performed by Rimalower and directed by Aaron Mark. Tickets to these Duplex nights each are $25 and can be purchased at www.BenRimalower.com. There is an additional two-drink minimum per person. You must be at least 21 years old to attend. Follow @benrimalower on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and visit benrimalower.com. ~~
As an actor, Ben has been seen at Joe’s Pub in Our Hit Parade, and Murray Hill’s Oscar Night show, as both Patti LuPone and Elaine Stritch in You Like Me and as a literally flaming Jack Nicholson in The Witches of East Village at the Gramercy Theatre with Coco Peru and Chad Michaels, in addition to the upcoming The Night Elaine Stritch Died by Matte O’Brien. Television appearances include Bravo’s “Real Housewives of New Jersey,” “Watch What Happens Live,” ABC’s “Extreme Makeover” and Billy Eichner and Rachel Dratch’s “Halloween Adventure.” Ben directed and produced the Off-Broadway plays Joy (Actors Playhouse, Out Magazine: “Top Ten Theatre”) and The Fabulous Life of a Size Zero (Daryl Roth/DR2 Theatre), as well as numerous Off- Off-Broadway plays, readings, benefits and concerts. He has earned the title the “Midas of Cabaret” (The Advocate) helming a slew of solo shows, most notably conceiving and directing Leslie Kritzer Is Patti LuPone at Les Mouches (Time Out New York Award) and subsequently producing Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records’ long-awaited recording, Patti LuPone at Les Mouches.
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Aaron Mark is a New York-based director and playwright. As writer-director: Empanada Loca with Daphne Rubin-Vega (LAByrinth Theater Company, three Drama Desk nominations), Another Medea with Tom Hewitt (AFO at Cherry Lane and Wild Project), and the upcoming Squeamish with Alison Fraser. His plays Empanada Loca and Deer (which will premiere this spring at Stage West) are published by Dramatists Play Service. Directing credits include The Mystery of Irma Vep and Deathtrap (Berkshire Theatre Festival), Hedwig and the Angry Inch (BC/EFA at New World Stages), and numerous readings and cabaret acts. He is the writer-director of three independent feature films and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect, but he does not have the web address Aaron Mark dot com because it belongs to a German gay porn star with the same name, so his website is aaronmark.info.
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