“Funny and insightful” — Michael Musto, Out.com (December 2016)
After two successful nights in 2016, Ben Rimalower will return 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) on Sunday, February 19 and Sunday, March 19. Tickets are available separately and for the combined evening of both shows.
PATTI ISSUES will be released on Audible.com by Roven Records 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.
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 Bad with Money four stars, “light, funny” and “vividly personal,” while London’s The Stage decreed “Utterly extraordinary! Superb!” Both works are written and performed by Ben Rimalower and directed by Aaron Mark.
Patti Issues will play on Sunday, February 19 and Sunday, March 19, both at 7:00 PM. Bad with Money will play on Sunday, February 19 and Sunday, March 19, both at 9:00 PM. Both are at The Duplex (61 Christopher Street at Seventh Ave, New York, NY 10014). Tickets to each are $25 (with $37.50 double-bill tickets available) and can be purchased at www.BenRimalower.com. There is a two-drink minimum per person. You must be at least 21 years old to attend.
BEN RIMALOWER is the author and star of Off-Off-Broadway’s long-running, critically acclaimed, smash hit solo plays Bad with Money (The Advocate’s #1 Solo Show of 2014) and Patti Issues (New York Time Critics Pick, M.A.C. and Bistro Awards, Official Selection: Adelaide Cabaret Festival and Eugene O’Neill Theater Center Summer Conference), both of which he continues to perform around the world, while simultaneous regional productions pop up with other actors “playing” Ben Rimalower, including two-time Tony nominee Robin De Jesus in New York. His “Do You Have Patti Issues?” PSA with Alan Cumming and Patti LuPone was a homepage selection on FunnyOrDie. He is a regular contributor to Vulture, Playbill, Out, Time Out New York, Decider and New Now Next and his short story, Little Old Sam, was included in the book My Dog, My Friend.
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.
Follow @benrimalower on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube and visit benrimalower.com.
AARON MARK is a New York-based director and playwright. As writer-director: Empanada Loca with Daphne Rubin-Vega (Labyrinth Theater Company, 3 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), Ben Rimalower’s award-winning Patti Issues and Bad With Money (Duplex and tours), Hedwig… (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 aaronmark.com because it belongs to a German gay porn star with the same name, so his website is aaronmark.info.
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