1,408 stories by "Tony Frankel"
GOOD NEWS: PIPPIN'S A PIP Some shows stay young by never growing up: With a book by Roger O. Hirson, this 1972 hit show originally directed by Bob Fosse is the perfect example of a musical t…
THEATER AS THERAPY The waiting room at a psychiatrist's office is an emotional airlock between the chaos of the outside world and the sanctuary of the therapy office. It's public yet private…
THE TEMPEST AS RADIO PLAY One can only wonder why productions of Shakespeare's The Tempest have been sprouting up like magical vines in the jungle. Is it because the tale is about revenge as…
ANTSY The subject of "haves" and "have-nots" in the theater is nothing new, having been explored from The Greeks to Molière. More recent hallmarks are the Industrial Age's The Hairy Ape by …
LAST SUMMER THIS SUMMER Written in 1976 by the late Jane Chambers, Last Summer at Bluefish Cove " which opened in 1980, NYC " is a milestone in lesbian theatre history. Chambers' name is leg…
DANCING THROUGH WAR Costa Mesa's Segerstrom Center, which has presented world premieres by Alexei Ratmansky for more than a decade " including American Ballet Theatre's Of Love and Rag…
BETTER MAKE THAT LATER Christopher Shinn clearly understands the American consciousness. In Now or Later, a 2008 one-act which opened at the Royal Court Theatre with a fresh-faced Eddie Redm…
IT ALL COMES DOWN TO YOU TO SEE RAINEE BLAKE AS JONI MITCHELL LIVE During the 2018 Music Center concert, Joni 75: A Birthday Celebration Live, Peter Gabriel sent a prescient message to the a…
THIS SOUL NEEDS DOCTORING Soul Doctor is a 2010 musical about Rabbi Shlomo Carlbach, a.k.a. The Singing Rabbi and The Rock and Roll Rabbi, from his childhood in Nazi-occupied Vienna to his O…
MUELLER IS COOLER IN UP-CLOSE CABARET The Wallis in Beverly Hills lays claim to being the place to see and be seen on Friday June 16 at The Wallis in Beverly Hills, as one of Broadway's brig…
EVERYONE IS WELCOME AT THESE PARTIES With a fierce commitment to inclusivity and celebrating the beauty of individuality, Company XIV captivates audiences throughout Pride Month with its …
A NEOPHYTE BROWNSHIRT UNDER A BLUE WALL OF DEFENCE Written by June Carryl and directed by Michael Matthews, Blue is a 60-minute nailbiter which has been extended to June 5. Rogue Machine …
THE SONERO, THE BETTER Here's what tipped me off that we were about to see something special: Pianist Carlos Ordiano enters with four band members ("The Razor Blades") at Los Angeles Theatre…
PIFFLING PIRATES OF PENZANCE POPS WITH POP The plot of The Pirates of Penzance, a satire so cutting in Victorian days, will likely come off as inane to today's spectators. Still, Arthur Sull…
CELEBRATION THEATRE GOT IT RIGHT! (BUT "THEY" DIDN'T) When William Finn's autobiographical musical A New Brain opened at Lincoln Center in 1998, I couldn't understand why the reviews were…
DEAR SAN FRANCISCO: A HIGH-FLYING LOVE STORY AT SAN FRANCISCO'S HISTORIC CLUB FUGAZI EXTENDED THRU DECEMBER 31, 2023 WORLD-RENOWNED CIRCUS AND ARTS COLLECTIVE, THE 7 FINGERS, CREATED THIS ON…
CHEERS! If there's anything better than a cocktail before or after a Broadway show, it's a cocktail in a Broadway show. So, I'd like to propose a toast … slide your coffee table book to th…
QUEERILY, WE ROLL ALONG From June 15-July 3, 2023, the 9th annual Queerly Festival hits The Kraine Theater (85 E 4th St) and UNDER St. Marks (94 St Marks Pl), Most performances will also be …
HOP INTO SPRING Friendship is among the hardest subjects to parse, but this musical based on Arnold Lobel's "Frog and Toad" stories, considers friendship warts and all. Frog and Toad worry a…
After the roaring success of Pasadena Playhouse's wonderful production of Sunday in the Park with George, now comes A Little Night Music, which officially opens May 1, 2023. This is…
SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY GOES No plague can kill a great show. It's back. In a rare clash of film noir, performance art, an awesome murder mystery party, and Shakespeare, Punchdrunk's Sleep…
THE BEST OSCAR GOES TO SEAN HAYES "It'd be nice to please everyone but I thought it would be more interesting to have a point of view." The incomparable Oscar Levant is the subject of the hi…
WHAT'S SO WONDERFUL? THIS REVIVAL OF WOMAN OF THE YEAR I'm jealous of New York Musical lovers. If they want to catch a rarely produced musical from the "golden age" of Broadway (the dates of…
HOW DO YOU CATCH A TIGER BY THE TAIL? STAGING. The eye-popping special effects of Life of Pi are reason enough to see this show, which opened this week at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre. Yes,…
WHAT A PIECE OF WORK IS FAT HAM Ah, the Father/Son relationship. Tough when bad and often difficult even when pop and junior love each other. In Shakespeare's Hamlet, adapted with delightful…
