Award-winning actor/writer Dan Ruth, returns to 42nd Street with this dark, comic work of monologues and stories, fermented in over two decades of booze, bars and gentrification. Based on 24 years as a New York City actor-turned-bartender in Hell’s Kitchen, Brooklyn and beyond, A Life Behind Bars sheds comedic light on the darker side of the world of the bar, club and restaurant industry.

Actor/Writer Dan Ruth made his Off-Broadway debut with A Life Behind Bars at The United Solo Festival last October. The show garnered Ruth “Best Seller” status and the 2016 United Solo Festival Award for “Best Autobiographical Show.” A Life Behind Bars was first developed with David Drake’s Solo Show Shop at The Abrons Center in 2014. Working with long-time Collaborator and Multi Mac-Award-winning Director Tanya Moberly, Mr. Ruth performed A Life Behind Bars to a single sold-out audience on December 19th, 2015 at Dixon Place in their main stage theatre and later went on to mount sold-out performances at both The Gutter Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and at Theatre Lab in Richmond, Virginia in April and May of last year.

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“One of the best solo shows I’ve ever seen.” (Michael Portantiere, broadwayradio.com)
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“Crawl into The Gutter… a depiction of life in the service business that any bartender can relate to.” (Bedford+Bowry)
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“Ruth is an actor of immense talent…profane, captivating and masterful…” (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
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“A tour-de-force performance.” (SIFTER)
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“A must-see! … Ruth knocks it out of the park!” (GayRVA.com)

Cutting-edge theater, or in this case, biting-edge theater, is all about taking risks. What’s new and different about Dan Ruth’s A Life Behind Bars is both his deep honesty in portraying a quarter-century dive into a life of booze, and also his inventive ways of telling that story. No, Dan Ruth was not in jail, but he has served a lot of drinks, and has drunk a lot too – which is the basic premise of this darkly comedic one-man show which played at The United Solo Festival last year, winning an award for “Best Autobiographical Show”. Based on his own life of nearly a quarter century in and around bars in New York, Ruth weaves together character portrayals, mini-sketches, monologues and comedic insights to tell the story of a person whose life took unexpected turns. It’s a grim topic told unapologetically. Along the way we get to meet many flamboyant characters, whom Ruth is able to hop in-and-out of with flair. If you’re into theater with something to say, grab up tickets to this show, currently playing at the West Bank Cafe.