Tony Frankel

THIS WAY TO THE AMERICAN DREAM– MIND THE TRAP DOORS Kafka’s story still needs an ending, but Open Fist delivers a wildly inventive Amerika If you think America is in an existential crisis right now, you either don’t know your U.S. history, or you aren’t familiar with Franz Kafka’s Amerika or, The Man Who Disappeared—which, in Dietrich…

SWEET, CHARMING, AND BRIMMING WITH LIFE, HELLO, DOLLY! IS MUSICAL COMEDY HEAVEN It’s always extraordinary to hear a live orchestra in a musical these days — a rare and exhilarating luxury that immediately elevates the experience. Under the crisp and buoyant baton of Dennis Castellano, Musical Theatre West’s Hello, Dolly! fills the Carpenter Performing Arts…

WHEN INTROSPECTION FLATLINES: DAVID ROUSSEVE’S BECOMING DADDY AF IS MORE LIKE WTF After more than twenty years away from full-length solo work, choreographer and storyteller David Roussève returns with Becoming Daddy AF, a 90-minute self-portrait presented by CAP UCLA that promises introspection but rarely delivers the emotional punch it’s built around. The premise is compelling…

A GHOST STORY THAT EXPLAINS ITSELF TO DEATH It’s 2012 in Sherman Oaks, CA, when Thai-American life-insurance salesman Max (David Huynh) begins sleepwalking and violently lashes out at his pregnant wife Bincy (Christine Corpuz), prompting her protective Thai-born father Somboon (Alberto Isaac) to spirit her away and attempt a homespun exorcism. Max survives a second-story…

WEST SIDE SNORING Astoundingly unsatisfying, LA Opera’s many-headed Hydra production of West Side Story, directed with no sense of urgency by Francesca Zambello, opened tonight to a crowd largely made up of donors and subscribers dressed to the nines. Oddly cast, oddly acted, and oddly staged, my head was reeling at the amount of money…

Ragtime is the epic musical by Terrence McNally (book), with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens (based on the novel by E.L. Doctorow). It weaves together stories of a Jewish immigrant, a Harlem pianist, an upper-class white woman, and historical figures — all pursuing the American Dream amidst societal change, prejudice, and…

THE PLAY THAT COULD BE KING ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ ✦ Once upon a time, Mark Twain wrote the short story A Medieval Romance, in which a girl is secretly raised as a boy for the purpose of inheriting the King’s throne from her uncle, the King. The Girl is sent…