{"id":274490,"date":"2025-10-03T12:05:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274490\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:05:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:05:12","slug":"some-fringe-shows-that-were-not-allowed-to-go-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/274490\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Fringe shows that were not allowed to go on"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to cover? Let us know!<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

The Philadelphia Fringe Festival broke its own record for ticket sales in 2025, selling at least 33,000 seats during the monthlong festival of emerging and experimental theater.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still tabulating final walk-up sales. We don\u2019t have all of those yet, but at least 33,000,\u201d CEO and Producing Director Nell Bang-Jensen said Wednesday. \u201cLast year, it was around 30,000.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

But Fringe did not go off without a hitch this year. Federal changes to travel visa requirements prevented some international artists from participating, and the city\u2019s Department of Licenses and Inspections shut down a series of cabaret performances planned for the former Macy\u2019s department store.\n <\/p>\n

Wanamaker inspections<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Layaway,\u201d a cabaret series staged inside the empty Wanamaker building, was meant to be part of Opera Philadelphia\u2019s takeover of the space this fall<\/a>. The opera launched the program with a concert on the famous Wanamaker pipe organ in Macy\u2019s Grand Court. Then, the Bearded Ladies Cabaret planned a three-weekend run of cabaret performances in Greek Hall on the third floor.\n<\/p>\n

After the first weekend, L&I shut down the remaining program due to a lack of updated building certifications regarding the elevator and sprinkler systems.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had been issued the permit to do the show, and then it was revoked when the inspection happened,\u201d Bang-Jensen said. \u201cIt turned out Macy\u2019s certificates were more than two years out of date. They kept failing the inspections, but no one had taken action.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The problems with building certifications predated the involvement of the Bearded Ladies Cabaret.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cTo fill it with art is such a beautiful idea,\u201d said Rose Jarboe, formerly John Jarboe, founding artistic director of the cabaret. \u201cWith ideas like that, that are super-ambitious, you discover a lot of things. It just so happens that the Beards were invited to be the first people as part of that experiment.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Beards are often on the front line of ambitious artistic experiments in the city of Philadelphia,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re on the front line, sometimes you go down first.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Shutting down the cabaret resulted in a significant financial loss for the Bearded Ladies company, from equipment rentals to paying performers and crew. Jarboe is asking ticketholders to donate the cost to the Bearded Ladies. Jarboe said she personally called about 100 individuals to thank them for being a friend, by singing the theme song to \u201cThe Golden Girls\u201d over the phone.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are serious about love for our audiences,\u201d Jarboe said. \u201cIf anyone wants to be sung to because they feel they didn\u2019t get the experience they wanted, just let the Bearded Ladies know on Instagram or whatever. I\u2019ll give you a call.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Philly and the Pa. suburbs to South Jersey and Delaware, what would you like WHYY News to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":221786,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5132],"tags":[5229,80077,12287,1448,2830,1311,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-274490","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-fringe-festival","10":"tag-immigration-policy","11":"tag-pa","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-philadelphia","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115310148368988031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}