Prize sponsor: Murder Ballad

This blasted prize haul just cannot be stopped, folks. And with the Sneak Preview TV Screening Party and Quiz coming up ridiculously fast (July 9 is the date, this is the place for tickets), let's tell you about some more fabulous theater tickets on offer…

 

Two tickets to Murder Ballad

Just last week, several members of the team at our indispensable production partners, Second Bolt, joined me to go see this show, at the Union Square Theatre, and the verdict was a unanimous thumbs up. Murder Ballad is a sung-through musical (meaning everything's a song, so no dialogue, technically an opera if you really want to look at it that way, but there are no fake viking costumes), about a modern, melancholy love triangle that goes bad. I know, I know, "as opposed to the love triangles that end with sunshine and rainbows?," but look again at that title—this one goes really bad. The show is supported by an absolutely kick-ass cast: the ultra-cohesive quartet of John Ellison Conlee, Rebecca Naomi Jones (I noticed her a few years ago in Passing Strange), Caissie Levy, and Will Swenson. Levy is the only one who hasn't appeared on Law & Order.

The production also features extremely creative set design: To find our seats, we basically had to walk through the stage, which was essentially the floor of a bar, complete with tables that other, luckier audience members got to sit at. Much of the show's action takes place in a bar, so the cast was performing among the crowd, even upon their tables at moments. This gave the productiona feeling of extreme, at times frightening intimacy. Oh, and there's a shit-hot rock band backing up the cast's superlative pipes.

The show's in Union Square, though you have to act fast—it closes July 21. Go to MurderBallad.com now and get tickets. Though yep, two passes will be on offer at the #BQTonTV blowout. Tickets here; YOLO, my friends.