Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino from MTV’s Jersey Shore and Billy McFarland of the Fyre Festival fiasco were locked up in the same federal prison in 2019. That’s 100% true. This comedy about these fraudsters’ unlikely friendship is also 100% true…except for the parts we made up. Jersey girls and those who love them: get Fyred UP for gym, tan, laundry, bromance, and betrayal!
“This new two-person play about NJ’s baddest boys will have you laughing out loud” -TIME OUT NEW YORK
“Think along the lines of Mindy Kaling’s Matt & Ben” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
“Inherent fun from the get-go” – EDFRINGE REVIEW
“The more unhinged these scenarios become, the funnier the show gets” – THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tix to this show are Name Your Price starting at $15, meaning you decide what you pay! We take a small portion of ticket sales to pay for the show’s front-of-house and theater technicians then pass on the rest of the single ticket revenue directly to the show’s lead artists. You can learn more about What’s Ars Is Yours: Name Your Price Tix by visiting our How We Do It page.
Billy & The Situation will stream live from Ars Nova on November 21 @ 7pm on Ars Nova Supra. Following the live stream, you’ll be able to watch the show on-demand for up to a year. Get a cancel-anytime $15/mo subscription to stream live or on-demand.
Jenny Gorelick is a comedian, actress, and two-time Emmy-nominated producer (lol). She creates and hosts some of New York’s best comedy variety events and has been called a “crushworthy comedian” by Time Out New York and an “incredible host” by Jezebel. She has appeared in the Netflix is a Joke Fest and sketches on Comedy Central and Late Night with Seth Meyers, and on television on Blue Bloods and in And Just Like That as an adoring fan of THE Che Diaz. She won Best Actress for QuickieFest. At the award ceremony, Taxi TV’s Sandy Kenyon told the room that she is a “star of tomorrow” in that voice of his. It was just like being in a taxi. As a writer, her pilot After D!sney is in the top 1% of comedy pilots on Coverfly and her essays have been featured in the New York Times’ Modern Love column, Cosmopolitan, McSweeney’s, and the New Yorker Shouts & Murmurs. More on her website: jennygorelick.com and instagram @jennycestquoi.
Gabby Bryan is a New York-based stand-up comedian, actress, Emmy-award winning producer, and overall girlie girl. This winter, she brought her Fringe hit Billy and the Situation to Union Hall, garnering praise in the New York Times, after a successful Edinburgh Fringe Festival run. She performed alongside Olivia Wilde and Oscar Isaac in the film “Life Itself” (Amazon Prime), appeared in the bilingual film “Ruta Viva” (HBO), and featured in Ilana Glazer’s special “Comedy on Earth” (Comedy Central). Gabby co-hosts “L’Podcast” with comedian Zack Signore,which has built a global audience, as well as “Let Me Ask My Dad” Podcast with musician and composer David Bryan. Gabby has toured all around the globe, including shows in London, Dublin, Los Angeles, Boston and hits the road again with her headlining tour “Gabby Bryan is my Best Friend” this fall. She is wildly popular on social media with over 270K followers, sharing viral stand up clips & comedy sketches. Follow her at @gabbyisbryan on all platforms!
Ashley Rodbro is a director and writer for theater and film. She’s put up productions of Moulin Rouge: The Musical! around the globe as the Worldwide Supervising Associate Director (Broadway, Australia, West End, Germany, 1st North American Tour). She was previously the Resident Director for Hamilton: An American Musical (And Peggy company—Puerto Rico & San Francisco) as well as the Associate Director and Script Supervisor for the hit show Oh, Hello on Broadway starring John Mulaney & Nick Kroll, and directed by Alex Timbers in productions Off-Broadway, on a National Tour, on Broadway at the Lyceum Theater, and as a Netflix special. She was also AD for John Mulaney’s Kid Gorgeous Netflix special at Radio City Music Hall. She is the Creative Director and CEO/Founder of Heredia Vision, a production company that puts women at the helm of developing and creating digital content.
bio to come
Chloe Joy Ivanson is an actor and producer. chloejoyivanson.com
Douglas Widick is a founding member of Hip-Hop Improv group, North Coast, which was named one of Timeout NY’s Top 10 Comedy Shows of 2014 and tours internationally. He is currently in the cast of Sonja In Your City (which he composed the music for) and Toxic Masculinity: The Musical. Doug teaches musical improv all over the world, and was recently seen in the Off-Broadway musicals, “F#%king Up Everything”, “Blank! The Musical”, and “Anybody: An Improvised Historical Hip-Hopera.” He is the founder of VeryOwnSong.com, and you can watch his many comedy videos at douglaswidick.com.
Ian Kagey is Grammy-Award winning engineer and mixer who has engineered numerous broadway cast recordings including: Into the Woods, Come From Away, Funny Girl, Camelot, Merrily We Roll Along, Be More Chill, Water for Elephants, Shucked and The Great Gatsby. Ian also has done extensive work recording for films including West Side Story, Wicked, Tick Tick Boom, and The Wild Robot as well as for TV shows such as: Smash, Up Here, and Harlem. In addition to his work in theater, TV, and Film, Ian has also recorded for a wide range of artists including Joshua Bell, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney and Michael Bublé. As a producer Ian has also made albums for multi-hyphenate artists including The Bengsons and Joe Iconis. In addition to his work as a recording and mix engineer Ian was the Director of Operations for Power Station at BerkleeNYC from 2017-2023 and now runs and operates Renaissance Recording with fellow Grammy-Winning engineer Derik Lee.
Upcoming Co-Lighting Design: Take The Lead at Paper Mill Playhouse. Recent Lighting Designs: The Hollow by John Rapson, Westerly Breath by Hamed Sinno; Imaginary Comforts by Daniel Handler; The Christians by Lucas Hnath and The Prince of Players by Carlisle Floyd. Recent Associate Lighting Designs: Death Becomes Her, The Outsiders, Moulin Rouge! and The Music Man. Nick is originally from Los Angeles and lives in New York City. SolyomDesign.com
Katie Spelman (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based choreographer who made her Broadway choreographic debut this season with The Notebook. Recent credits include Great Comet (Writers Theatre), The Music Man (Marriott Theatre, 8 Jeff Nominations), Cabaret (Barrington Stage Company, Berkie Award for Best Choreography); the world premiere of An American Tail (CTC); Hello Kitty Must Die (Edinburgh Fringe), Day 365 – Live from the Rainbow Room with Dylan Mulvaney, Once (Writers Theatre), Swearing in English (Ars Nova), aren’t you glad you stayed in (TEAM Petri Project), AD 16 (Olney Theater, Helen Hayes Award for Best Choreography), The Beautiful Game (Tokyo, TOHO Productions), The Who’s Tommy (DCPA), and Oklahoma! (Goodspeed). She was the Associate Choreographer on Moulin Rouge for the Boston, Broadway, and Australian companies, as well as an associate on the Broadway productions of Amelie, American Psycho, and Once; she was the Associate Choreographer on RENT Live! on Fox, and the Associate Director for Close To You on the West End. Katie has also collaborated with Lookingglass, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Camerata Bern, Court Theatre, The Hypocrites, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Timeline Theatre, and Northwestern University.
Amy is a Brooklyn-based director, writer, and producer of theater, film, and television. In theater, she has worked extensively on and off Broadway, including last season’s The Notebook, and with the Manhattan Theater Club, Berkeley Repertory Theatre, Playwrights Horizons, Vineyard Theatre, The New Group, New York Theatre Workshop, Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage & Film, Red Bull Theater, The Play Company & more. In TV, she was a Co-Producer and the Casting Director of Showtime’s Couples Therapy Seasons 2-4 and worked on Severance Season 2. Co-writer and Director of Go Tell Your Fathers (Palm Springs International ShortFest, New York Independent Film Festival), member of Lincoln Center Directors Lab, SDC associate.
This show will take place at Ars Nova, located at 511 W 54th Street, New York, NY 10019.
Seating is general admission and first-come first-served. So, the earlier you arrive at the theater, the more choice you’ll have about where you sit! (Bonus: cheapest drinks in Midtown are at Bars Nova!)
The only way to guarantee you reserved seats is to become a Super Nova. Super Novas never hear “sold out,” get reserved seats in prime locations, and make fair wages and accessible tickets possible. Learn more about becoming a Super Nova here!
Tix to this show are Name Your Price starting at $15, meaning you decide what you pay! We take a small portion of ticket sales to pay for the show’s front-of-house and theater technicians then pass on the rest of the single ticket revenue directly to the show’s lead artists. You can learn more about What’s Ars Is Yours: Name Your Price Tix by visiting our How We Do It page.
If a performance is sold out, you can join a standby line for day-of-show tix made available by minute cancellations and no-shows. Standby will begin 1 hour prior to curtain and will form outsideFolks from the standby line will be admitted into the show on a rolling basis as availability is confirmed. Standby tix are name-your-price starting at $5 + fees.
Additionally, Supra is never sold out! If you can’t make the show in-person, you can always stream online for only $15/mo, which gets you unlimited streaming access to performances from the last year. You can cancel your membership anytime by emailing contact@arsnovanyc.com.
Once you’ve selected your performance date and time at check-out, you’ll see a number of ticket price options ranging from $5 to $100. Select the price point you want to pay and the number of tickets you’d like to purchase and they’ll be added to your cart. After that, continue through the check-out process and you’ll be all set!
Yes. The processing fees are charged by our ticketing and credit card processors, and increase along with the base price of your ticket.
Yes! Ars Nova Supra is our digital platform where you can live stream all of our one-night shows and watch premieres from the past year on-demand. For the low price of $15/mo, you can access an entire seasons worth of comedy, music and theater from our groundbreaking artists, and additionally you can cancel your subscription anytime!
All sales are final – there are no refunds or exchanges.
If you’re unable to use your tickets, you may donate them in exchange for a letter of tax credit by emailing tix@arsnovanyc.com.
We ask that you stay home if you aren’t feeling well or are awaiting the results of a COVID test. Please let us know prior to your ticketed performance, and we will work with you to find a solution if you’re unable to attend.
We welcome and encourage mask-wearing to protect yourself and others. However, as mask mandates have lifted and city, state and federal guidelines have changed, we will not be requiring them at performances.
We no longer require proof of vaccination, but we strongly encourage all audience members to get vaccinated and boosted in accordance with public health guidelines.
Our staff will clean and sanitize the theater and common areas and we’ll continue to provide hand sanitizer for your personal use.
Signage is posted in all spaces encouraging washing or sanitizing hands frequently.
Ars Nova is uncensored. We provide content advisories — to the best of our ability — to inform audiences when shows contain racial violence, racist language, sexual violence or nudity. We provide information about this type of content in advance, based on our core values, so that each audience member can make an informed decision about if and how they’d like to engage with that content. We welcome artists to share additional information about their shows based on their own core values.
Ars Nova is wheelchair accessible. If you wish or need to remain in your wheelchair throughout the show, our staff will remove the theater chair. This can be done by letting us know your needs/plans in advance; just email Declan Zhang. It can also be done without prior notice when you arrive! If you wish to transfer to the theater seat from your wheelchair, we are happy to store your wheelchair or motorized mobility aid in the lobby during the performance. The House Manager will return your mobility device to you at the end of the performance as this show has no intermission.
About 25% of the seating is on the ground floor of the theater and does not require using stairs to access. There are five six-inch steps to get into the building.
All remaining seats require no less than one and no more than three steps to access.
Licensed service animals (any dogs that are trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities) are welcome at Ars Nova. They must rest in your seating area throughout the performance and are unable to occupy the aisle. Please bring proof of certification or a license for your service animal and be prepared to present it to the House Manager upon request. You can send advance notice to Declan Zhang, which is appreciated, but not required.
Our bathrooms are stalled, all gender restrooms – everyone is welcome to use any bathroom of their choice. We have two single-person restrooms in the lobby; with the wheelchair accessible option located right outside the theater on the first floor (doors 7 feet 10 inches x 3 feet 10.5 inches).
We have space that can be made to offer privacy for feeding should you need at any time. See the House Manager onsite and they will arrange a comfortable space, with storage and refrigeration for your materials.
The audience seating locations could be in, around and throughout the playing area. Performers will be within 3’ of you.
The seating is a combination of chairs.
Black Chairs with back: 19” wide x 32.25” high x 21.75” deep with a 500lb capacity
Black Counter height: 16.5” wide x 38” high x 18” deep with a 500lb capacity
The doors for entry into the building are 7 feet 10.5 inches x 3 feet 7 inches (external) and 7 feet 10 inches x feet 10.5 inches (internal).
Box Office height is 3 feet 6 inches and the Bar height is 3 feet 8.5 inches.
