A One-Man Play About Finding an Affordable Apartment on the Upper West Side

Once upon a time, apartments on the Upper West Side were pretty affordable. Even if it meant sleeping on an examination table in a doctor’s office daily. What? Charles Gross gets it. He speaks to this and more in his one-man play titled How I Found an Affordable Apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan Without Really Trying. The performance will take place at the United Solo Festival this fall.

Charles Gross, a former theater critic, shares his story of how he came across an affordable apartment on the Upper West Side and what little old New York was like in the 1990s in his “Spalding-Gray-meets-Jerry-Seinfeld” one-man play.

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The play details how Gross moved out from his parents’ home in New Jersey into an apartment on the Upper West Side. This was his first time living alone, and he had a charmed experience, to say the least. He almost found love in an elevator and was able to hold on to his beloved 1979 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. That’s a nice car, I think.

Like many New York transplants, Gross never expected to stay in the city for long. “I thought I would come to the city, meet a nice girl, and move back to Englewood,” he explained to Northern Valley Press. Fast forward twenty years and Gross and his wife, Margie, are still in the city with their two daughters.

The United Solo Festival is the world’s largest solo theatre festival, dedicated to celebrating the genre of the one-person performance. All shows will be held in Theatre Row at 410 West 42nd Street, New York City. Tickets are $45 and available at the theatre box office or online.

The performance takes place on Thursday, October 10th at 9:00 pm.

Learn more about the play here.