Brat Productions' Eye-95 was a raucous hit of the first Philadelphia Fringe Festival a decade ago, and the revamped musical celebrates (and gently mocks) today's much larger and more serious Live Arts & Fringe.

Promising to "live and love and lie and make some art," Brat founder Madi Distefano plays hick stripper Emaline, whose daughter Babydoll (Jessica Conda) schemes to escape pregnancy, stripping and stagnation (all inevitable "since my boobies came in") by driving north on 95 in her red Chevy Vega GT.

Eye-95: re-Tarred Photo By: jacques-jean tizou

Story doesn't matter in Eye-95 re-tarred — the title's pun is fair warning — as much as style, which is broad, silly and lots of fun. Distefano addresses the audience often, first asking us to pledge not to have heart attacks "if strobe lights or titties are flashed" in our faces, later to serve Emaline's famous Frito Pie — a delicacy best washed down with the can of Pabst Blue Ribbon provided at the door.

A tight band leads a rich variety of songs (punk, rockabilly, country ballads, even cheerleading and a cha-cha) on their own stage, connected on Matt Saunders' witty set to Emaline's dingy kitchen by a curving roadway punctuated with three athletically, aesthetically and erotically employed dance poles.

The terrific cast — including co-writers Aaron Cromie (voicing Emaline's puppet husband Big Fat Fucker plus the mean trumpet in the cha-cha number) and Bradford Trojan (guitarist and Jackass, Babydoll's lover); hot dancers Kira Coviello, Amanda Damron, Victoria DePaul, Kat Schadt and Heather Henderson; cool musicians Toothless George, Jay Davidson and music director Ben Edwards; and versatile actor Keith Conallen — camp and vamp shamelessly and hilariously.

Though hugely ambitious, Eye-95 re-tarred, staged in the Northern Liberties Design Center's huge open space, maintains a rough, Fringy irreverence. At Sunday night's sold-out show, light cues seemed created on the fly, and we could hear actors thundering from one stage to the other behind a tarp and see them watching from backstage — and it all adds to the fun.

Babydoll's journey of self-discovery takes her up I-95 past Philly's distinctive smells to fictional Metro City, where she forms the fem punk band Smell My Carpet, discovers coke courtesy of Jackass and seeks her long-lost father. Eye-95 re-tarred is a glorious mess, not only satirizing easy targets like red state buffoons and mainstream movie cliches, but poking fun at theatrical self-importance.

—Mark Cofta

Lure

What happens when a cute girl gets caught up in rock 'n' roll? In Good People's Lure, she becomes a drug addict. Jayne had issues before — her dad's dead, her mom's a boozer and her brother's her therapist — but once she smokes a joint with the band she manages, she's on an express train to coke and heroin dependency. That's bad news for Bob, her nice-guy boyfriend, who didn't sign up for cheating and dysfunction when he quit stealing meds himself. Kirsten Quinn is great as Jayne, and The Jesse Schurr Band drives the drama without eclipsing it.

—M.J. Fine

This Headlong adventure starts when my cell phone rings and a comforting voice guides me through the cobblestone alleyways and nooks of Old City. I start to think of these familiar sights as cells, built just for me. There are a few things to remember. First, pay close attention. Instead of quacking tourists on duck boats and the stench of rotting garbage, I notice sweet sounds and sensations: the rustling of windblown leaves, a bus screeching to a stop, rough concrete against my skin. Second, I learn, it's important to push back. No problem there. What they don't tell me is it would help to have a penchant for contemporary dance and a high threshold for invasions of personal space. But it's OK, I'm learning the performance depends on me and each scene promises to take me closer to my destination, the hive. I'd like to think this makes me the queen bee, but as the show continues I reluctantly realize I'm at best a worker, compelled to play along lest the whole production fall apart.

—Jenna Portnoy

Uhaul Trilogy Photo By: meinhard hiti

The audience sits in a pitch-black (Ryder, not U-Haul) truck. Three women come from behind, scaling the wall, banging and screaming. It's alarming, but once you realize these women are hurt, angry and — despite their company — alone, your sympathy surfaces. They long for, despise and love the men who filled the five pairs of shoes in the truck. By the time they sing, "I'm gonna wash that man right out of my hair," it's downright mournful. Aside from the false advertising, it was 15 minutes well spent.

—Lori Hill

Like Early Morning Opera's 2004 Fringe brainwarp [PSYCHO][COSMO][NAUTICS], this story of a pilot drifting into delirium after crashing in the desert cares little for linear thought. Instead, it's a sort of collage of acting special effects (mood shifts, bursts of humor and tension from its two stars) and actual special effects (inventive use of pulleys, overhead projectors, cameras, fishbowls and a theremin). Entertaining and unfettered.

—Patrick Rapa

Currently Franklin Photo By: jacques-jean tizou

Part puppet show, part movement piece, part history lesson, Currently Franklin tells the story of Ben Franklin's rise from ocean-loving youngster to superstar diplomat. Originally commissioned for young audiences, Sebastienne Mundheim's multimedia piece features brilliant set work (puppets and props made almost entirely of paper and corrugated packaging), ingeniously interpretive movement (Karin Bookbinder, Kate Carr, Charlie Delmarcelle and Aaron Mumaw pop in and out of paper backdrops, Laugh-In -style) and wonderfully creative puppetry (multiple Franklins, overhead projections). That the narration occasionally steps on, telegraphs and makes redundant the show's best visual moments is a small quibble with a production this enjoyable.

—Brian Howard

It's a truth universally acknowledged that a person who has seen several fringy Fringe acts will be in search of a sure thing. Austentatious to the rescue. It's a wonderfully funny, tested (in England) musical about an amateur theater troupe putting on a play of Pride and Prejudice . Think A Chorus Line if it had been pure comedy. And Philly's 11th Hour Theatre troupe gives this such a smart and winning production that it's hard to believe that some of them are amateurs. The only "problem"? Voices too good for the community theater hacks these actors are supposed to be.

—Carolyn Wyman

New York company Ontik takes on the Kafka story everyone knows (even if they don't know shit about "Josephine the Singer, or the Mouse People"), with mixed results. Performances are uniformly good, especially Caroline Tamas' twitching cockroach, both repulsive and pitiful, and there are some truly terrifying moments. But sitting through a full hour of strife and shouting with interludes of pretentious, koanlike dialogue is ultimately maybe only twice as enjoyable as having cockroaches crawl all over your bare feet.

—Rachel Frankford