Tony Frankel

THANKS FOR THE MEMORY Occasionally, I attend theater with no intention of reviewing a show, but afterwards my spirit is so refreshed by an uplifting and inspiring experience that an urgent plea for your attendance is my only priority. It was at the Ruskin Theatre that my need for ensemble acting of the highest order…

NO TROUBLE HERE Although the run of Pacific Opera Project’s Trouble in Tahiti was two days long, I had to check out this new company whose mission it is to use local talent and bring affordable opera to Los Angeles. With only one piano accompanying five singers in the overheated Santa Monica Playhouse, there were…

NEVER FORGET Writer/performer Tom Dugan’s solo show Nazi Hunter – Simon Wiesenthal capitalizes on the strengths of the famous Nazi hunter – his resilience, tenacity and humor – but largely overlooks his checkered results and disputed claims that he flushed out nearly 1,100 war criminals. Dugan has crafted a show in which the retiring Wiesenthal…

MARK ME DOWN AS MILD ABOUT HARRY What’s a critic to do when he desperately wishes to support Los Angeles theatre, but also desires to hold theatre to a higher level? During the intermission of I’m Just Wild About Harry at Crown City Theatre, one patron’s comment summed up this critic’s complex condition perfectly: “You…

I’M IN THE NUDE FOR LOVE The main reason that the Groundlings company remains L.A.’s number one improv training and performance space is their emphasis on character work. When actors come to the Groundlings, they begin a series of classes in which proven methods are used to teach improvisational and sketch writing technique, ultimately creating…

LOW PLATELETS In his vision of a new translation of Frederico Garcia Lorca’s Blood Wedding, director Jon Lawrence Rivera offers a diverse cast and updates the original 1933 setting in Spain to 1952 in Central California. But neither decision has helped to shed new light on either the playwright or his play about a bride…

A TERRIFIC STORY AND EVEN BETTER MAGIC SHOW; BUT THE TRICK IS BEING ABLE TO SEE IT Suave and debonair Guy Hollingworth is not only a full-time British barrister (specializing in intellectual property law) but a card conjuror of renown. When a friend had to back out of an appearance at the Edinburgh Fringe, Hollingworth…

WHEN GOOD ENOUGH IS NOT ENOUGH The Los Angeles Times needs to be a player on the world stage and therefore assigns Critic-at-Large Charles McNulty to review plays in NYC and London. While this may exasperate the local theatre community (which desperately needs and deserves coverage), McNulty’s reviews and recent commentary on the ladies of…

HOLLYWOOD FRINGE FESTIVAL REVIEWS 2011 [Editor’s Note:   Our (either) amazing or insane (you decide) theater correspondent Tony Frankel saw somewhere in the area of 40 Fringe shows during its ten-day festival; we’re pretty sure no one else exceeded that.   Although the Fringe is now over, some of the shows that were featured have kept going…

THEY’VE GOT MAGIC TO DO It simply cannot be avoided: with Fun Family Festival of Tragedy, L’Enfant Terrible, a startlingly brilliant new theatre company, is poised and ready to take over the theatre world. Founded by director Justin Zsebe, writer Angela Berliner and producer Seth Compton, this group is dedicated to the art of storytelling….

YOU WILL LIKE IT VERY MUCH INDEED Credit adapter and director Tony Tanner for As You Like It – The Musical; he freely adapted Shakespeare’s Forest of Arden comedy into a text that contains the meat of the play with the Bard’s best lines while tossing in some modern references. By doing so, Tanner makes…

A PLAY THAT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN VISITED IN THE FIRST PLACE I was actively  angry after the opening of Revisiting Wildfire at the Odyssey Theatre (bad theatre will do that to you). I had to tell myself myself over and over, “No, no. Calm down. No one got hurt. It was just a bad play.”…