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Tony Frankel
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Theater Review: LA NOUBA (Cirque du Soleil in Walt Disney World Resort, Orlando)
A KINDER, SIMPLER CIRQUE Commedia dell’arte is a form of theatre characterized by masked ’˜types,’ which began in Italy in the mid-1500s. About one hundred years later, Italian troupes (known as Comédie-Italienne) had achieved success in France where Moliére, inspired by the use of stock characters, introduced a lovelorn peasant named Pierrot in the play…
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Theater Review: HAIR (National Tour at Pantages)
MY TIE-DYED DIATRIBE ON THE TRIBE When a 1977 revival of the “American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” Hair opened on Broadway, it received more pans than Julia Childs’ kitchen. The original 1968 Hair had taken the theatre world by storm because it had given a palatable, exuberant and tuneful voice to the contentious counter-culture revolution. (It also helped that a…
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Cabaret Preview: SUTTON FOSTER (Orange County Performing Arts Center’s Samueli Hall)
SUTTON FOSTER IS READY FOR A CABARET CLOSE UP Sutton Foster, one of Broadway’s most loved and talented leading ladies, will make her Orange County Performing Arts Center debut January 6 – 9 in the star-studded Cabaret Series. I first encountered Miss Foster in the titular role of Thoroughly Modern Millie on Broadway; she was…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: JULIA (Pacific Resident Theatre in Venice)
RETURN TO LOVE The inability to eradicate grief can eat away at you like a cancer. Society has come up with a multitude of ways (such as the Catholic confessional) to release the steam from a pressure cooker of heartache. For some people, all of the psychological tools developed to deal with regret are useless;…
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THE FIRST JO-EL – Troubadour Theater Company at the Falcon Theatre – Los Angeles Theater Review
A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO BETHLEHEM When three slapstick wise guys – Gold (Matt Walker), Frankenstein (Morgan Rusler) and Myr (Brandon Breault) – show up in Bethlehem for the arrival of the Prince of Peace, innkeeper Nicholas (Jack McGee) sees gold coins, so he touts his impregnated and unwed daughter Letty (Katie…
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LOST MOON RADIO – Café-Club Fais Do-Do and various clubs around Los Angeles – Ongoing – Los Angeles Theater Review
MOON – LOST; SUBLIME COMEDY – FOUND For those of you who love old time radio variety shows, sketch comedy and great music, you are in for a treat. Lost Moon Radio, a collection of experienced writers, performers and musicians, has assembled to bring us something that has been sorely missing from the world of…
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Tour Theater Review: NEXT TO NORMAL (kick-off of National Tour at the Ahmanson in Los Angeles)
THE NEW TRADITION OF AWARD-WINNING MUSICAL WORKS-IN-PROGRESS In the evolutionary process of the modern Broadway musical,  Next to Normal is still somewhere between ape and man; for all the pioneering and innovative writing, intriguing subject matter, and outstanding performances, the finished product left me  frustrated that it didn’t live up to its own potential. There are…
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Theater review: HYPERBOLE: ORIGINS (Rogue Artists Ensemble at [Inside] the Ford)
ADULT CHILDREN’S THEATRE If Hyperbole: Origins were to be reviewed as a play, I would tell you that I had no idea what the playwright was trying to say; since no writer is credited, we’ll just assume that the Rogue Artists Ensemble is merely musing over the origins of things, such as music, fire, sin…
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TEATRO ZINZANNI: LICENSE TO KISS II, A SWEET CONSPIRACY by Norm Langill – The Pier 29 Spiegeltent on the Embarcadero – San Francisco Theater Review
LOVE, CHAOS AND DINNER There was a moment toward the end of License To Kiss II, A Sweet Conspiracy, Teatro ZinZanni’s latest 3 and ½ hour gastronomic theatricopia (my word) when I thought, “There is nowhere else in the world that I would rather be than right here†– and with good reason. We are…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE SECRET GARDEN, THE MUSICAL (Chance Theater in Anaheim)
BAFFLING MUSICAL GETS THE TREATMENT IT DOESN’T DESERVE What do Miss Saigon, Grand Hotel, City of Angels, Aspects of Love, Will Rogers Follies, and Meet Me in St Louis have in common? They opened during the 1990-91  Broadway season, and all of them (City of Angels  to a lesser degree) are problematic with either awkward scores and/or…
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Theater Review: THE LIMITATIONS OF GENETIC TECHNOLOGY (Theatre of NOTE)
IT’S NOT NICE TO FOOL WITH MOTHER NATURE Tacky commercials for Global Cytodynamics play on large video screens as we enter Theatre of NOTE, advertising improved lifestyles through genetic alteration, including that of learning, memory, pleasure and belief systems. Projection designer Steven Calcote and the always extraordinary sound designer Cricket Myers brilliantly take us into…
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San Francisco Theater Review: OR, (Magic Theatre)
IS THIS A SPARKLING AND CLEVER COMEDIC FARCE’¦OR, WHAT? Thank goodness Oliver Cromwell died when he did: Parliament restored the monarchy to Charles II, and the Restoration took off when, in 1660, William Davenant and Thomas Killigrew were given a royal warrant to form a theatre company, one that abolished the Puritan rule prohibiting women…
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Bay Area Theater Review: LOVELAND (Ann Randolph at The Marsh, Berkeley)
FASTEN YOUR SEAT BELTS Loveland is the solo show that should be the template for all one-person show wannabes. Ann Randolph incorporates creative writing, broad but truthful characters, zaniness balanced with compelling dramatic moments, and, above all, an undeniably convincing story. In fact, you will be wondering if the tale of a woman who is…
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WATSON, THE LAST GREAT TALE OF THE LEGENDARY SHERLOCK HOLMES by Jaime Robledo – Sacred Fools Theater – Los Angeles (Hollywood) Theater Review
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOLMES The world premiere of Watson, The Last Great Tale Of The Legendary Sherlock Holmes, presented by the Sacred Fools Theatre Company, has a lot going for it: side-splitting Vaudevillian-type sight gags, brilliantly inventive direction, comedic acting that harks back to silent film, insanely luminous and flowery dialogue, a cohesive plot,…
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Theater Review INTRíNGULIS (LAByrinth Theater Company in Hollywood)
IF YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT THE TITLE OF THE SHOW MEANS BY THE END OF THE SHOW, THEN SOMETHING AIN’T RIGHT. IntrÃÂngulis is Carlo Albán’s true-life solo show about his family’s move from Ecuador to the U.S. and his life growing up as an illegal alien, even while starring in Sesame Street as a kid….
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San Francisco Theater Review: THE TEMPEST (A Cutting Ball at the Exit Theater)
A TEMPEST OF IMAGINATION Many productions of Shakespeare’s works pass themselves off as inventive merely because the setting is New York instead of Verona, or Renaissance costumes are swapped for Art Deco – rarely do these stylistic changes improve the psychology of the piece. When it came to my attention that The Tempest was to…
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Theater Review: BEAUTY AND THE BEAST (National Tour)
SMALLER PRODUCTION, BIGGER HEART Fans of the stage musical Beauty and the Beast will not be disappointed by the newly re-imagined (read: scaled down) version currently on tour. Original Broadway director Rob Roth has assembled the same team, including Tony-winning costume designer Ann Hould-Ward; what we get, instead of a two-ton castle set, is a…
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San Francisco Theater Review: MARCUS; OR THE SECRET OF SWEET (American Conservatory Theater)
SWEET BEGINNINGS It is thrilling to hear the poetic dialogue of a propitious new American playwright for the first time; one who uses a unique, innovative and visionary arrangement of words that not only awaken your senses, but heighten your hopes that the profligate use of technological blather will not drown out a voice which…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE BUTCHER OF BARABOO (Road Theatre in North Hollywood)
WISCONSIN Â IN SENSURROUND What do you get when you mix the styles of Grand Guignol, farce, and situational comedy with the sensibilities of the Coen Brothers (Fargo) and Frederick Knott (playwright of Dial M For Murder and Wait Until Dark)? One would think a bloody, horrific mess, but The Butcher of Baraboo, at the Lankershim Arts…
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Tales From Hollywood – Odyssey Theatre Ensemble – Los Angeles Theater Review
HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD In the fascinating (and often funny) Tales From Hollywood, playwright Christopher Hampton pays homage to the true-life émigrés from Nazi Germany who took up residence in Los Angeles to write for the movies. Many of them sacrificed their literary legacy to be paid $100 a week, forced to turn out dreck for…
Off-Broadway Review: THE MAIDS (St. Ann’s Warehouse / Brooklyn)
by Gregory Fletcher | May 27, 2026
in New York, TheaterTheater Review: AN ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE (TimeLine Theatre / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | May 27, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterTheater Review: LE BAL (Trap Door Theatre / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | May 26, 2026
in Chicago, Theater
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