The winners of the prestigious Carol Tambor Award: The Best of Edinburgh from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which is, after all, THE LARGEST INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL IN THE WORLD, are coming here, to humble New York City, for five, very special performances. Under no circumstances miss them. Not only are they sure to be great, enlightening theater, but the Edinburgh Fringe is responsible for launching the careers of such luminaries as Emma Thompson, Eddie Izzard, and Jude Law. JUDE LAW. Here’s your chance to get at the next Jude Law before he gets all famous and sinks inextricably into the model-dating morass of celebrity. And if somebody else snaps up Mini-Jude, well, at least you saw a good play. And there will probably be some other cute guys there anyway. And, besides, maybe you’re married.

“Rosebud (The Lives of Orson Welles)” explores the multiple personas of Orson Welles, from child prodigy to cultural icon to frozen pea salesman (and Marlon Brando prototype.) The play, which has won awards too numerous to name, was written by Mark Jenkins (author of ‘Playing Burton’) and features what we are assured is a tour-de-force performance by Christian MacKay as Welles, or “La Divine Orsonne” as we called him in Nebraska.

“Sisters, Such Devoted Sisters” is set in the seamy Glasgow underworld—always a good sign. In a nutshell “when drag queen Bernice Hindley witnesses a horrifying murder, her entire harrowing life story begins to unfold.” I don’t know about you, but I can’t think of many things more strangely satisfying than listening to a terrified trannie emote in the accents of Robert Carlyle, who played the psycho guy in “Trainspotting.” Disturbing. But in a good way, Written and performed by Russell Barr and directed by Ben Wright.

Rosebud (The Lives of Orson Welles) and Sisters, Such Devoted Sisters will be presented for FIVE performances only at The Michael Schimmel Center for the Performing Arts at Pace University (3 Spruce Street, at Gold Street), from Friday, November 5 – Tuesday, November 9.

The performance schedule is Friday and Saturday at 8:00 PM; Sunday
and Tuesday at 2:00 PM. There is a special Benefit and reception on Monday,
November 8 at 6:30 PM. Tickets are $45. Tickets to the benefit and
reception on Monday, November 8 are $100. To order tickets, the general public can call SmartTix at 212-868-4444 or visit www.smarttix.com. For more information about The Best of Edinburgh, please visit
www.bestofedinburgh.org.