Something about a cover charge can really generate a whole aura around a show.

$0- You get what you pay for. Sometimes you get a true gem for free, others, you get a piece of crap, but its okay! You have enough cash to get drunk and you enjoy the effort.

$5- They’re trying. There’s definetely effort, and some $5 shows have been the best shows I’ve ever been to. $5 at the door means that the performers are taking themselves seriously, and you should (try to) as well

$10- All right. The kids have grown up and they have a comprehensive performance that should captivate your attention for the time being, and even if it’s not great, should hold the gravitas that a double-digit door-charge should hold.

So if a Rock-Dance peformance called Fairytale Dreams, dreamed up by circus performer and neo-bohemian Jennifer Upchurch charges $15 at the door, you would expect it to be a real show. Intricate, talented, depthful and heavily choreographed dancers moving along a layered narrative, bringing us into a fantasy world that truly trancends us from the mortal realm.

Not a bunch of fairy-tale girls and flitty boys prancing about backed by a goof-ball drums-and-bass duo called Fat Free with some vague storyline of boys lost in the land of fairies.

The three major components of Fairytale Dreams were dance, trapeze and hula-hoops. The dance was pedestrian, an uninspired mix of spins, cartwheels and kicks, the type you can catch for a dime a dozen at the Prospect Park meadow any Sunday afternoon. The trapaze was, at best amature, and the hula-hoops with their detailed christmas light schemes were one of the minor pleasantries of the act.

Except that they can be found at any RUBULAD party or Burner fundraiser for enormously less money and attention expectation.

I can think of three things that would have made Fairytale Dreams a show worth going to:

1. More talent

2. More practice/rehersal

3. Less freakin’ money at the door.

If you’re going to charge $15 for a show, you have got to to earn it.