THE TREMENDOUS TREMENDOUS

Flushing, New York, 1939. It’s been a tremendous summer here at the New York World’s Fair, filled with technological marvels, real life mermaids and those can’t miss show stoppers, the Tremendous Traveling Abbotts. Their arousing soft shoe, swinging musical skill and impeccable timing have left jaws here on the fairgrounds agape in awe. Bravo!

Join The Mad Ones as they pull back the curtain on a tremendous moment in American history and reveal the closing night party of those irascible Abbotts, a tremendous traveling family with an unsettling secret.

Creator Credits

Created by The Mad Ones, Directed by Jeff Withers, Set Design by The Mad Ones, Costume Design by Sydney Gallas, Lighting Design by Mike Inwood, Sound Design by Stowe Nelson, Music Direction by Michael Dalto, Makeup by Michael Anthony

Featuring Marc Bovino, Joe Curnutte, Michael Dalto, Stephanie Wright Thompson and Henry Vick

Production History

The Tremendous Tremendous premiered at The Brick in April 2011.

Press Raves

TimeOut NY | 4 Stars

  • “The Mad Ones project is nostalgia—exploring it and creating it—and in an elegant marriage of form and content, The Tremendous Tremendous exists most sweetly in memory… carefully articulated in the service of a heartbreaking cumulative affect.” —Helen Shaw

The L Magazine

  • “Is it innovative and original or is it uninspired wanking? In theater and far beyond, ‘experimental’ is a dirty word; works billed as such are generally hit-or-miss. The Mad Ones’ production… is unwaveringly on target.” —Eugene Reznik

The L Magazine’s Ten Best Things on Stage 2011

  • "The Mad Ones’ hilarious vaudevillian romp lived up to the promise of its title. Five tremendous actors portray five tremendous actors acting, watching each other act and brilliantly babbling backstage on the night of their last performance in the 1939 World’s Fair. One room, one act, one hour—a real-time tour-de-force." —Eugene Reznik

Newyorktheatre.com

  • “The Tremendous Tremendous is a rich and rewarding work of theatre that transports its audience not only to the time and place where it unfolds but to other locations private and personal to each of us; it kind of magically casts a spell to bring you to a place in your own past where you felt something akin to what you’re witnessing on stage. The Mad Ones...are definitely a company to watch.” —Martin Denton

Awards and Nominations

  • Nominated for New York Innovative Theatre Award for Outstanding Ensemble

Production Support

The Tremendous Tremendous was supported through a co-production with The Brick.

Photo Credits for Video: William Hereford
Select Photos: William Hereford