All stories by Tony Frankel on BroadwayStars

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Preview: THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (Ahmanson Theatre) by Tony Frankel

COME HOME TO THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL The Trip to Bountiful, Horton Foote’s plaintive 1953 teleplay (adapted for Broadway and for the 1985 film with Geraldine Page), paints a picture of rural…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:16PM
Monday, September 22, 2014

Los Angeles Opera Review: TOSCA (Pacific Opera Project at St. James in Pasadena) by Tony Frankel

POP DOES OPERA BIG, INTIMATELY Under Artistic Director Josh Shaw’s hands-on guidance, Pacific Opera Project has become L.A.’s most exciting new opera company. In just three years since …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 09:18PM
Saturday, September 20, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Preview: WHERE’S CHARLEY? (Musical Theater West in Long Beach) by Tony Frankel

HERE’S CHARLEY This Sunday, September 21, Musical Theatre West will begin the Reiner Staged Reading Series fifth anniversary season with a one-time only performance of Where’s Charle…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM
Friday, September 19, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE BEHAVIOR OF BROADUS (Sacred Fools) by Tony Frankel

STRANGE BUT WATCHABLE BEHAVIOR Let’s see if I got this right. A tongue-in-cheek bio-musical and pseudo-adventure tale about John Broadus Watson—wannabe preacher-turned-behavioral scienti…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:57PM
Thursday, September 18, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE SIMPSONS TAKE THE BOWL (Hollywood Bowl) by Tony Frankel

MORE D’OH THAN WOO-HOO The intelligent minds behind The Simpsons already had over 51,000 spectators (over three nights) in the palms of their collective hands before they sat down to write…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:59AM
Sunday, September 14, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE GOAT OR, WHO IS SYLVIA? (Renberg Theatre) by Tony Frankel

ALBEE SEEING YOU AT THE RENBERG On the surface, Edward Albee’s The Goat or, Who Is Sylvia? is about a middle-aged architect, Martin, who has a zoophilic love affair that threatens to destr…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:00AM
Saturday, September 13, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: ANIMALS OUT OF PAPER (East West Players) by Tony Frankel

INTO THE FOLD Recently divorced, and abandoned by her beloved three-legged dog, well-respected origami artist Ilana has fortified herself in her studio. Surrounded by paper, Chinese take-out…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:35PM
Friday, September 12, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: RACE (Kirk Douglas Theatre in Culver City) by Tony Frankel

A FLAT-FOOTED RACE In April 2014, lawyer and LA Clippers owner Donald Sterling was banned from the NBA for life and fined $2.5 million by the league after private recordings of him making ra…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:21PM
Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Preview: COCK (Rogue Machine) by Tony Frankel

THE PERFECT COCK Whether breeding chickens or designing your kitchen with rooster tchotchkes, it can be challenging to find the perfect cock. But if you look to the theater, your search for …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:41PM
Sunday, September 7, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: TRYING (International City Theatre in Long Beach) by Tony Frankel

NOT AS TRYING AS IT COULD HAVE BEEN A slight bio-drama is given heft by larger-than-life performances in this latest outing from International City Theatre in Long Beach. Trying is based on …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:53AM
Saturday, September 6, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: ONE IN THE CHAMBER (Lounge Theater in Hollywood) by Tony Frankel

ONE IN A MILLION Rabid theatergoers who often attend plays are akin to miners panning for gold: The drudgery and disappointment from months of discovering rocks is dissipated when a precious…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:19PM
Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Los Angeles Dance Review: MUSIC + DANCE L.A. II (American Contemporary Ballet) by Tony Frankel

I HAVE SEEN THE FUTURE OF LOS ANGELES BALLET Along with the film industry, one of Los Angeles’ greatest entertainment assets is music. While theater, dance, opera, and other mediums contin…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:41PM
Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Preview: BUSKER ALLEY (Musical Theatre West in Long Beach) by Tony Frankel

ALLEY HIGH There are many reasons why some previously produced Broadway musicals are rarely performed: The sheer size of the show makes it prohibitively expensive (The Most Happy Fella, 1956…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 11:05PM
Sunday, August 10, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE CHERRY ORCHARD (Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice) by Tony Frankel

SOUR CHERRIES It’s been 110 years since The Cherry Orchard premiered. While Chekhov insisted that his play about the fall of Russian aristocracy—and the fallout from the abolition of ser…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:06PM
Monday, August 4, 2014

Los Angeles Dance Preview: FOREVER FLAMENCO! (Ford Amphitheater) by Tony Frankel

FLAMENCO FEVER AT THE FORD AMPHITHEATRE Last year, after the thrilling, fiery, and passionate flamenco dancer Manuel Gutiérrez displayed a crackling tap and pedal pyrotechnics the likes of …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:17AM
Saturday, August 2, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: HAIR (Hollywood Bowl) by Tony Frankel

EVEN WHEN A GENERATION CAN’T HOLD UP, ITS HAIR CAN When Diane Paulus’ revival of Hair swooshed into the Pantages in 2012, it felt more like a cause for nostalgic partying than a recreati…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 04:58PM
Friday, August 1, 2014

Regional Theater Review: THE ART DETECTIVE (The Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, CA) by Tony Frankel

THE PAGEANT OF THE MASTERS IS ON THE CASE On March 18, 1990, two young men dressed as Boston police officers walked unchallenged into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Some 81 minutes lat…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:17PM
Wednesday, July 30, 2014

San Diego Theater Review: ETHER DOME (La Jolla Playhouse) by Tony Frankel

ETHER IS NEITHER/NOR A dramaturgical mess, Elizabeth Egloff’s strangely shapeless historical drama about the mid-19th-century advent of ether as an anesthesia contains a fascinating story …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:35PM

San Diego Theater Review: INTO THE WOODS (Fiasco Theater at The Old Globe) by Tony Frankel

FINDING NEW MOMENTS IN THE WOODS I wondered at the intermission of Fiasco Theater’s production of Into the Woods why they hadn’t cast amazing singers. Up to this point, the ten-member en…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 01:39AM
Tuesday, July 29, 2014

San Diego Theater Preview: QUARTET (The Old Globe) by Tony Frankel

FOUR PLAY The setting for Ronald Harwood’s 1999 play is a retirement home in England for former opera singers. Three of the residents,  Reginald, Cecily, and Wilfred, try to persuade…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 10:59PM
Friday, July 25, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: PATERNUS (Rogue Machine Theatre) by Tony Frankel

FATHERS AND SONS The sensitive, expressive, and pensive son. The emotionally cool, impatient, and badgering father. Together, this family dynamic seen throughout history is so familiar that …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:15AM

Los Angeles Theater Preview: LADY WINDERMERE’S FAN (Chalk Repertory Theatre) by Tony Frankel

L.A.’S BIGGEST FAN It surprises me that Lady Windermere’s Fan isn’t produced as frequently as the ubiquitous The Importance of Being Earnest. Beginning Friday, Chalk Rep is remounting…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 12:09AM
Thursday, July 17, 2014

National Tour Theater Review: WE WILL ROCK YOU (Ahmanson Theatre) by Tony Frankel

WE WILL SCHLOCK YOU A huge West End hit for twelve years (just closing last May), this awful compilation jukebox musical does for Queen what Mamma Mia! did for ABBA, Buddy for Buddy Holly an…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 05:12AM
Friday, July 11, 2014

Los Angeles Dance Review: ROMEO AND JULIET (National Ballet of Canada) by Tony Frankel

I DREAM’D A DREAM TO-NIGHT The National Ballet of Canada (TNBC), which presented its thrilling rendition of Christopher Wheeldon’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland at the Dorothy C…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:40PM
Monday, July 7, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Preview: AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY (L.A. Theatre Works at UCLA) by Tony Frankel

A HOT AUGUST CAST Having witnessed many Broadway hits at the beginning and end of their runs (and the touring companies they spawned), it is fair for me to say that the magic and crackling e…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 06:25PM
Friday, June 27, 2014

Bay Area Theater Preview: THE COMEDY OF ERRORS (California Shakespeare) by Tony Frankel

EXPECT NO ERRORS IN THIS COMEDY One of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, The Comedy of Errors is also his shortest and most farcical. In fact, while scholars argue over the classification of o…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:41PM
Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE CONDUCT OF LIFE (The Vagrancy at Asylum / Hollywood Fringe Festival) by Tony Frankel

DARK SUBJECT MATTER LEAVES US IN THE DARK Inspired by Theater of the Absurd, Cuban expatriate María Irene Fornés (b. 1930) cut her teeth during the Off-Off-Broadway avant-garde movement. S…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:21PM
Tuesday, June 24, 2014

San Francisco Theater Preview: INTO THE WOODS (San Francisco Playhouse) by Tony Frankel

DELIVERING THE GOODS WITH INTO THE WOODS Somewhere between “Once Upon a Time” and “Happily Ever After” there is a very adult world of tests, losses, disappointments, and grief. Despi…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 08:01PM
Friday, June 20, 2014

CD Review: WEST SIDE STORY (San Francisco Symphony, First Ever Complete Concert Performance) by Tony Frankel

I HAVE A LOVE Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony have just released a live recording of the first ever complete concert performances of West Side Story. I wanted …

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 07:46PM

Original Cast CD Review: HERE LIES LOVE (Nonesuch) by Tony Frankel

MEGALOMANIA WAS NEVER SO MUCH FUN Move over Evita, there’s another Queen of Hearts in town. And she likes diamonds too. I’m talking about Imelda Marcos—she of the thousand pairs of sho…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 02:28PM

Los Angeles Theater Review: THE CAVE: A FOLK OPERA (Three Clubs Lounge / Hollywood Fringe) by Tony Frankel

CAVE-IN The press release refers to The Cave as being inspired by Beauty and the Beast and Persephone. In Greek mythology, Persephone was abducted by Hades, the god-king of the Underworld. B…

SOURCE: Stage and Cinema at 03:48AM