Tony Frankel

RUMINATING ON RUMINANTS As a way to heal from recent tragedies, Alice (Erin Pineda), a big-city photographer, visits June (Virginia Newcomb), a reclusive artist on a small farm in Alabaster, Alabama. June has answered Alice’s call for externally scarred women willing to be photographed for an upcoming project (not a coffee table book, she insists)….

THE SHOW WITH A BEAT TO A PULP You walk in, and boom! You’re hit with this electric vibe, like stepping into a Tarantino flick—one minute, you’re feeling cool, the next minute, you’re questioning if you’ve just stepped into a fever dream. It’s sleek, it’s gritty, and it’s dripping with style. The show you’re gonna…

WHAT PRODUCTION, FRIENDS, IS THIS? After a ship wreck, Viola and her twin, Sebastian, land on different shores, each fearing the other has perished (consider them separated at surf). And by the time they are reunited, love, pranks and much romantic confusion will have played out in Shakespeare’s fleet comedy about passions, mistaken identities and…

FURFECT Peter Pan never grew up. Likewise Alice in Wonderland, the Hardy Boys, Freddy the Pig, Nancy Drew, or Huck Finn. It’s a pity that people do: Why must grown-ups leave behind innocence and imagination after we mistakenly blunder into adulthood? You can take it with you—when it’s Avenue Q. This 2003 musical is, of…

GET READY TO ENBOY YOURSELF Jersey Boys has been around long enough that you might assume it’s just another jukebox musical, cranking out hits for an easy nostalgia trip. But that’s never been the case. Since its Broadway debut in 2005, the show has stood out by weaving a real, sometimes messy, behind-the-music story into…

WHAT A RELIEF: OKLAHOMA! IS OK WITH VOPA The real stars of Oklahoma!, presented for two weekends only by Valley Opera and Performing Arts (VOPA) at the El Portal Theatre, are—no surprise—Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein. Hammerstein’s 1943 book remains solidly funny and sweet, avoiding the pitfalls of age with its lack of overt sentimentality,…

ONE COULD GO ON AND ON, EVEN THOUGH IT’S A LITTLE OFF Ah, Noises Off, the ever-reliable theatrical farce that’s been delighting us for decades with its impeccable timing, pratfalls, and, of course, an ungodly number of sardines. Presented at L.A.’s Geffen Playhouse in cahoots with Steppenwolf Theatre—where Geffen’s new Artistic Director Tarell Alvin McCraney…

ARTHUR MILLER’S CLASSIC DONE TO DEATH AT THE COLONY THEATRE What cachet Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic Death of a Salesman has in terms of power and artistry, nuance, subtlety and insight, is buried by Mark Blanchard’s ineffectual staging currently on display at the Colony Theatre. Neither the director nor most of the cast demonstrate anything…