All stories by Tony Frankel on BroadwayStars

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 (Bi…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM
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: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM
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 Hote…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 12:54PM
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 visitor…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 04:07PM
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: stageandcinema.com at 05:34PM
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: stageandcinema.com at 08:14PM
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: stageandcinema.com at 02:50AM
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: stageandcinema.com at 02:51AM
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 Ar…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 09:21PM
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: stageandcinema.com at 02:49PM
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: stageandcinema.com at 02:02AM
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: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM
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 comple…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 11:31AM
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 Broad…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:10PM
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: stageandcinema.com at 06:14PM
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…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM

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: stageandcinema.com at 02:33AM
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: stageandcinema.com at 02:18PM
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 mu…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 07:25PM

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 T…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:38PM

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…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 05:22AM
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 a…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:20PM
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 nation…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 01:58PM
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: stageandcinema.com at 01:11AM
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: stageandcinema.com at 07:47PM
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: stageandcinema.com at 06:05PM
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 stagin…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 06:22PM
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…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM
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: stageandcinema.com at 03:33AM

Dance-Theater Review: MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE (North American Tour) by Tony Frankel

A SHOW THAT SENDS OUT AN S.O.S. Set to 28 songs of pop icon Sting, newly arranged and recorded with Beverley Knight and Lynval Golding (of The Specials), Sadler’s Wells Associate Artist K…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 02:59AM
Tuesday, February 6, 2024

Theater Opening: YBOR CITY (The Actors’ Gang in Culver City) by Tony Frankel

THE ACTORS’ GANG PRESENTS YBOR CITY, A HAUNTINGLY BEAUTIFUL NEW PLAY Ybor City tells the story of overworked Cuban cigar factory immigrants in 1931, who find themselves inspired by the spi…

SOURCE: stageandcinema.com at 01:08PM

All that Chat

2024-2025 BROADWAY SEASON
Jun 05, 2024: Home - Todd Haimes Theatre
Jul 11, 2024: Oh, Mary! - Lyceum Theatre
Jul 30, 2024: Job - Hayes Theater
Sep 12, 2024: The Roommate - Booth Theatre
Nov 14, 2024: Tammy Faye - Palace Theatre
Nov 17, 2024: Elf - Marquis Theatre
Dec 12, 2024: Cult of Love - Hayes Theater
Dec 19, 2024: Gypsy - Majestic Theatre
Mar 17, 2025: Purpose - Hayes Theater
Apr 10, 2025: Smash - Imperial Theatre
TBA: Titanic
TBA: Ragtime