All stories by Tony Frankel on BroadwayStars

Friday, June 28, 2024

Theater Review: FEMMINA SUPER (Broadwater Main Stage at the Hollywood Fringe Festival) by Tony Frankel

SUPER FEMMINA SUPER To say that I was fascinated with Femmina Super is an understatement. The show is subtitled, "A Modern Opera," which normally has me running in the other direction, as ne…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:03PM[SHARE]
Friday, June 21, 2024

Theater Review: SUCK MY TONGUE (Catharsis Theatre Collective at the Hollywood Fringe Festival) by Tony Frankel

A PREMISE THAT DOESN'T SUCK I have dealt with PR firms for 15 years now, both in (mostly) and out of the arts world. Some may say that public relations is a strategic communication practice …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:12PM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 20, 2024

Highly Recommended Theater: BBC " BIG BLACK COCKROACH (REDCAT) by Tony Frankel

What Happens When a Right-Wing White Woman Wakes up Trapped in the Body of a Black Man? LA's beloved and acclaimed writer and theatre performer Paul Outlaw presents his latest work BBC (Big …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM[SHARE]
Sunday, June 16, 2024

Theater Review: FOXY LADIES LOVE BOOGIE 70s EXPLOSION! (Three Clubs Stage Room as part of Hollywood Fringe) by Tony Frankel

GET DOWN .. TO THE HOTTEST REVUE IN TOWN Created and directed by Fritz Brekeller, this feminocentric musical revue of 70s hits, Foxy Ladies Love Boogie 70s Explosion!, celebrates an amazing …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM[SHARE]
Thursday, June 13, 2024

BENEFIT: BROADWAY AND BEYOND (REAF's "Help Is on the Way" | Marines' Memorial Theater & Beacon Grand Hotel, July 14) by Tony Frankel

The Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation presents Help is on the Way: 30th Anniversary Concert & Gala on Sunday, July 14, 2024 at the Marines' Memorial Theater (concert) and Beacon Grand Hotel …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:54PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, June 11, 2024

Off-Broadway Closing: SLEEP NO MORE (Punchdrunk at McKittrick Hotel; Final Performance September 29, 2024) by Tony Frankel

SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY GOES When this megahit closed during COVID, and then came roaring back, I wrote "No plague can kill a great show." Now, having welcomed over two million visitors in…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:07PM[SHARE]
Saturday, June 8, 2024

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED Jazz Concert: SAMARA JOY (McCallum Theatre in Palm Springs) by Tony Frankel

A JOY TO BEHOLD COMES TO MCCALLUM ONE NIGHT ONLY, SATURDAY JUNE 15 AT 8 The jazz world has been abuzz about the 24-year-old New Yorker Samara Joy since she won the Sarah Vaughan Internationa…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:34PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Theater Announcement: SUGAR DADDY (Sam Morrison at The Wallis in Beverly Hills and Broadway) by Tony Frankel

Sugar Daddy, a new production of comedian and actor Sam Morrison's hilariously funny, unexpectedly moving one-man show, will play the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts in Be…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:14PM[SHARE]
Sunday, May 19, 2024

Theater Review: TURRET (A Red Orchid at Chopin Theatre) by Tony Frankel

MICHAEL SHANNON STARS IN A TANTALIZING TURRET If you had to define the word turret, what would an easy definition be? Well, I love castles, so I know a turret was often the corner where a gu…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:50AM[SHARE]
Friday, May 10, 2024

Theater Review: TWELFTH NIGHT (Actors Co-op) by Tony Frankel

A TWIN-TWIN PRODUCTION In Elizabethan England the entertainments that closed the Christmas season (the Twelfth day) completed the festivities with a topsy-turvy role reversal, peasants prete…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:51AM[SHARE]
Thursday, May 2, 2024

Recommended Theater: MY WHITE HUSBAND (Moving Arts) by Tony Frankel

World Premiere at Moving Arts Theatre  The world-premiere of Leviticus Jelks' debut play, My White Husband, directed by Melissa Coleman-Reed, opens May 18 in Los Angeles at the Moving …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:21PM[SHARE]
Sunday, April 28, 2024

Theater Review: HITLER'S TASTERS (Rogue Machine) by Tony Frankel

MEAN GIRLS MEETS THE THIRD REICH Three teenage girls sit at a table in a bunker of some kind bored out of their minds tasting food three times a day before it is sent off to Hitler. They hav…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:49PM[SHARE]
Saturday, April 20, 2024

Theater Review: GUN & POWDER (Paper Mill Playhouse) by Tony Frankel

ONCE ON THIS PRAIRIE Developed at Signature Theatre in Virginia, the new musical Gun & Powder has stormed into Paper Mill Playhouse with enough energy to light the Manhattan skyline. The…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:02AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Off-Broadway Review: TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE (Sea Dog Theater at St. George's Episcopal Church) by Tony Frankel

A COLOSSAL LEN CARIOU MAKES ANY DAY A GOOD DAY FOR TUESDAYS I have seen many a famous performer hit the stage in their senior years with a cabaret or theater performance, something I usually…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, April 9, 2024

Highly Recommended Cabaret Theater: TIERGARTEN (Death of Classical at the Great Hall under St. Mary's Church) by Tony Frankel

WEIMAR, YOU ASK? HERE'S THE ANSWER Cabaret the musical, opening on Broadway in a transformed theater, may sound exciting, but here's a highly recommended event for those who crave complete i…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:31AM[SHARE]
Monday, March 18, 2024

Highly Recommended Theater: HANGMEN (by Martin McDonagh West Coast premiere at San Jose Stage Company) by Tony Frankel

A DO-NOT-MISS REGIONAL PREMIERE Martin McDonagh's Hangmen at San Jose Stage Company I was lucky enough to catch the limited run of Martin McDonagh's tense and very funny Hangmen on Broadway,…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:10PM[SHARE]
Sunday, March 10, 2024

Concert Review: BERNADETTE PETERS (Tour at Luckman) by Tony Frankel

SAINT BERNADETTE After she hung up her late-Victorian hat after taking over for Bette Midler in Hello, Dolly! on Broadway, the inimitable Bernadette Peters made her West End debut in Stephen…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:14PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Theater Review: THE BIRTHDAY PARTY: A THEATRICAL CATASTROPHE (Henry Murray Stage at the Matrix Theatre) by Tony Frankel

LOOK AT WHAT THE CATASTROPHE DRAGGED IN He's funny. He's avuncular. He's unpretentious. He's loveable. He's dry and urbane. And, he's a decent person. But Nick Ullett is an actor by trade, s…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM[SHARE]

Theater Review: REDWOOD (La Jolla Playhouse World Premiere Starring Idina Menzel) by Tony Frankel

THE TALLEST LIVING THING ON EARTH INSPIRES A MUSICAL ACORN As one who has hiked many times deep in the ancient Redwood groves, those which have been relatively untouched for thousands of yea…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:33AM[SHARE]
Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Highly Recommended Jazz Music: BIRDLAND JAZZ CLUB AND THEATER (March, 2024) by Tony Frankel

WHERE THE RHYTHM SWOOPS AND SWIRLS, THIS REALLY IS THE JAZZ CORNER OF THE WORLD From bands like The Hot Sardines, Hot Club of Cowtown and Maria Schneider Orchestra to cabaret stalwarts such …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:18PM[SHARE]
Friday, March 1, 2024

Theater Film Release: HERE WE ARE (Stephen Sondheim's final musical at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts) by Tony Frankel

STEPHEN SONDHEIM'S FINAL MUSICAL NOW AVAILABLE AT THE NEW YORK LIBRARY FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS' THEATRE ON FILM AND TAPE ARCHIVE The wworld premiere production of Here We Are, the new musica…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:25PM[SHARE]

Highly Recommended Album: SONDHEIM IN THE CITY (Melissa Errico on Concord Theatricals) by Tony Frankel

Sondheim In The City, a new album by Tony-nominated actress, singer and author Melissa Errico, is now available to buy, DL, or stream HERE. Errico has also announced a special Sondheim In…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:38PM[SHARE]

Theater Review: ARROWHEAD (IAMA Theatre Company at Atwater Village Theatre) by Tony Frankel

THERE'S GOLD IN THE HILLS OF ARROWHEAD Move over, Bluefish Cove, you've had your last summer. Now, a modern-day retreat of lesbians is here, only this one isn't by the ocean, it's by a lake.…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:22AM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 28, 2024

Theater Recommendation: GUN & POWDER (New Musical at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey) by Tony Frankel

PAPER MILL PLAYHOUSE ANNOUNCESFULL CAST & CREATIVE TEAM FORGUN & POWDER The full cast and creative team has been announced for the new musical Gun & Powder, which " with book and…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:20PM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 24, 2024

Highly Recommended Event & Streaming: TONY KUSHNER (The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures by Tony Frankel

The Center for Fiction, a 200-year-old literary nonprofit that has created an immersive home for readers and writers in downtown Brooklyn, and Theatre Communications Group (TCG), the nati…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:58PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 21, 2024

Recommended Theater: SHAKESPEARE'S R&J (PrideArts at Pride Arts Center in Chicago) by Tony Frankel

REIMAGINING THE REIMAGINED AT PRIDEARTS Four young female prep school students, tired of going through the usual drill of conjugating Latin and other tedious school routines, decide to vary …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:11AM[SHARE]
Thursday, February 15, 2024

Theatre Recommendation: FESTIVAL 2024 PRODUCTIONS (Chichester Festival Theatre, UK) by Tony Frankel

Festival 2024 includes seven world premieres, a spectacular summer musical, and modern masterpieces. Here are the 2024 productions Priority booking for Friends of Chichester Festival Theatre…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:47PM[SHARE]
Wednesday, February 14, 2024

Highly Recommended Theater: MACK & MABEL IN CONCERT (All Roads Theatre Company at El Portal in North Hollywood) by Tony Frankel

LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO MACK & MABEL Rare, fully staged and choreographed presentation comes to El Portal with a 40-member cast and an 18-piece orchestra, Feb. 16-18, 2024 Some of the most…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:05PM[SHARE]
Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Highly Recommended Theater: ULYSSES (Elevator Repair Service at The Fisher Center at Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY) by Tony Frankel

ELEVATOR REPAIR SERVICE'S ULYSSES, A WORLD PREMIERE, IS PART OF SUMMERSCAPE 2024 AT FISHER CENTER (JUNE 20 " AUGUST 18, 2024) Elevator Repair Service (ERS) has mastered the art of staging mo…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:22PM[SHARE]
Saturday, February 10, 2024

Dance Review: COMMON GROUND(S) / THE RITE OF SPRING (Pina Bausch International Tour at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion) by Tony Frankel

RITE ON! As part of an international tour, the weekend-long dance program that opened at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion on Thursday " an extra-added night due to ticket demand " gave us a tas…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM[SHARE]
Friday, February 9, 2024

Highly Recommended Off-Broadway: BECOMES A WOMAN (Streaming Free from Mint Theater Feb 19-March17, 2024) by Tony Frankel

Mint Theater Company will continue its hybrid programming of live performances along with the FREE on-demand streaming of acclaimed previous productions. Beginning Monday February 19, 2024 (…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:33AM[SHARE]

All that Chat

2025-2026 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 12, 2025: Call Me Izzy - Studio 54
Sep 16, 2025: Art - Music Box Theatre
Oct 08, 2025: Beetlejuice - Palace Theatre
Nov 13, 2025: Oedipus - Studio 54
Nov 16, 2025: Chess - Imperial Theatre
Mar 23, 2026: Giant - Music Box Theatre
Apr 06, 2026: Becky Shaw - Hayes Theater
Apr 16, 2026: Proof - Booth Theatre
Apr 26, 2026: Drama Desk Cut-Off