Fleet Week

Hey, guys,

If you missed last night’s deadline, don’t forget to buy tickets by Monday at midnight (see the PR stunt post below). In the meantime, enjoy reading the misadventures of another PR stunt we pulled. In this case, the misadventure may get better press than the original plan would’ve.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Ron Lasko
Spin CycleNYC
Press (212) 505-1700 ext. 11

“The Coast Guard finally gets some respect” –as an upcoming play’s tag line puts it — at least from the Fringe Festival.

Three thespians drifting in New York Harbor were saved by the Coast Guard yesterday, in real-world events that could have been taken right out of the plot of FLEET WEEK–the satirical new musical comedy where gay USGC sailors save the city–or even from the plot of Gilligan’s Island.

Two playwrights and a director from the New York International Fringe Festival put out to sea on Saturday, July 30th to advertise their plays, FLEET WEEK and PAYMENT, on a small fishing boat carrying huge banners and creative types dressed in sailor suits. However, their plans were set adrift when their boat ran out of gas in front of the Christopher Street Pier. The Fringe Festival participants had hoped to draw publicity to their shows, but when their boat began to float dangerously close to the pier, they got attention of a different kind: suspicious onlookers notified the Coast Guard.

The crew of Coast Guard boat CG25467 arrived on the scene and boarded the fishing boat. After determining that the playwrights were no threat to national security, they offered to tow the boat to the Liberty Marina in New Jersey.

The cast and crew on board the boat, including FLEET WEEK writer Mac Rogers and PAYMENT writer Donna Fiumano and director Amber Estes, were not discouraged by the setback. Rogers, whose play is billed as “a gay On the Town”, said “When they asked us if we had ‘ever been boarded by the US Coast Guard’, I knew that the line had to be worked into the script somehow”.

They intend to brave the waters once again on Sunday with the same enthusiasm, the same banners, the same sailor outfits, and, this time, a full tank of gas. There will be representatives at each pier to hand out promotional material and speak with the press. Coverage would be greatly appreciated. A tow rope wouldn’t hurt, either.

They will be sailing past the following piers:

SOUTH STREET SEAPORT: 2:00pm
CHRISTOPHER ST. PIER: 2:30pm
CHELSEA PIER: 3:00pm

We’ve got a big favor to ask you, oh you big blog audience out there. We’ve got a publicity stunt we want to try.

Yes, we’d like you to come see the play, but that’s not the favor.

This past Monday we had our first readthrough and it was FANTASTIC. Before I go any further, you should know we’ve got Fringe Festival award winners. We’ve got OOBR award winners. We’ve got cabaret and downtown theater award winners. And we have a TONY NOMINEE. I don’t know how we got this lucky, but the cast is incredible. Even if you hate the show, you’re gonna love the cast, I’m sure of this. And we’re getting amazing support from the Festival itself. Their biggest gesture of faith in us is our venue assignment, the historic 299-seat Lucille Lortel Theater on Christopher Street.

Now, sure, that’s 299 seats to fill per show, but we’re actually kind of excited about the challenge. After watching a week of reahearsals,
we can see that the show will do most of the work selling itself once it’s opened, so we’re focusing our efforts on selling out the opening
night.

We REALLY need you to come on opening night, which is half of the favor. The other favor is to buy your tickets as soon as possible. Like Saturday, July 30th. RIGHT NOW, if you’re reading this on Saturday.

Fringe Festival tickets go on sale tomorrow. If you’re already planning to see FLEET WEEK, please, please make every effort to come opening night, Friday, August the 19th at 7pm. And if you buy your ticket this weekend, it helps us 10 times more than if you buy it later.

That’s the favor. Please come see our play, on Friday, August 19th, and by your tickets by Monday.

We know it’s a lot to ask. But it is a hell of a show. And we are currenly trying to sweeten the deal a bit:

We’d love to repay the festival, the cast, and the production team for all their hard work and support with a kick-ass opening to get
everyone talking about the show. And we’d like to reward everyone who helps us do it, too. Right now we’re working on getting an opening night party together for all opening ticket-holders, we’ll send more news on that as it develops.

For information on how to get tickets, go to:

tickets

Obviously, we’d love to see you guys on any night you can make it. We know how busy things get for all of us. But come check out opening
night if you can. We can pretty well guarantee that you won’t be disappointed.

Lindsay, Jordana, Sean & Mac

These are just some pictures we got goin’ on.

Ahoy!

We just got a nice preview in Playbill online.

And, we forgot to mention that we were mentioned in the New York Times last Sunday!

Click here before it becomes an archive you have to pay for.

(Lindsay would like to point out that he wasn’t a producer for PlayCo, just the Managing Director, which is not half as cool, so please don’t sue him.)

Wow, cool! We’re in Newsweek. And we didn’t out Valerie Plame or anyone else.

Click here to read our old, more subtle, tagline in a national magazine!

Many thanks to writer Gersh Kuntzman, who is apparently a Good Egg, and is hereby named the first member of the “Seven C’s Club”

FLEET WEEK: The Musical will have its World Premiere in August 2005, at the famous and beautiful Lucille Lortel Theater!

The show is part of the famous and beautiful New York International Fringe Festival.

The dates will be announced in the space in July 11th. The run is limited, so order tickets early and often!

FLEET WEEK: The Musical is a gay salute to the patriotic musicals of yesteryear. Four blissfully unenlightened Sailors and their queeny Chaplain hit the New York City streets for FLEET WEEK looking for romance and adventure. They stumble into a bathhouse (don’t ask) where they overhear a dastardly plot (don’t tell) — but how can they stop it when nobody believes their story? (Don’t know.) Come see the Statue of Liberty find love, the Coast Guard finally get some respect and Gay Marriage save New York from a Martiniquean terrorist attack
during FLEET WEEK!

FLEET WEEK is an honest to goodness, old school musical — a fab new story told using a well-loved form. The 20-odd songs are catchy and clever, the jokes are smart and smutty, and the sweet, moving love stories are gay and straight and in-between.

It’s everything people pay $100 for a little ways uptown–without the tourists! (Well, not everything people pay for):

Dancing Sailors and singing Lady Cops… A slutty monument and gratuitous French-bashing… Dozens of songs from every musical theater genre… Dirty jokes and good, clean, old-fashioned, large-cast Musical Theater! Plus illegal gay weddings performed free of charge after the show.

If you miss this show, you’ll spend the rest of your life lying to your
children about what you did during FLEET WEEK!

FLEET WEEK features actor Micah Bucey (Oustanding Peformer, FringeNYC 2004 for “The Only Thing Straight Is My Jacket”) and is directed by Eric Pliner, who directed such FringeNYC favorites as “Jinkies!” (Outstanding Ensemble Cast, 1999) and “Madonna In the Title.”