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Tony Frankel
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Theater Review: YOGA PLAY (Laguna Playhouse)
THE CORE IS THERE, BUT THE POSE IS OFF Not only is yoga a gentle exercise and a Hindu spiritual discipline, it’s also an $83 billion international industry. Meet Joan (Susi Damilano), a new marketing director of Jojomon, a yoga merchandise conglomerate. She actually could care less about yoga; she’s going for numbers and new…
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Jazz Review: CHICK COREA TRILOGY W/ CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE & BRIAN BLADE (CAP UCLA at Royce Hall)
TRILLIANT The first time I saw Chick Corea play was at Disneyland on the Tomorrowland Stage in the mid-1970s. I was entranced watching the solo pianist with brown afro and mustache, as he was offering a type of jazz I had never heard before. My upbringing consisted of mostly big band and swing, so when…
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Jazz & Concert Review: 62ND MONTEREY JAZZ FESTIVAL 2019
OH, WHAT A WEEKEND! A good friend who invited me to join him at this year’s Monterey Jazz Festival bailed at the last minute, citing that the line-up just wasn’t that exciting. Since he was to be the planner, and this was my first MJF, I felt a little awkward as to choosing which of…
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Bay Area Theater Review: THE GREAT WAVE (Berkeley Repertory Theatre)
A TINY DROP Given the storyline, it’s remarkable how the urgency is more than diluted in The Great Wave, Francis Turnly’s play about a teenage Japanese girl who disappears one night when she is presumably washed out to sea by an enormous wave. Sadly, Mr. Turnly compounds his story with hackneyed dialogue, American vernacular (“my…
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Theater Review: TOP GIRLS (A.C.T. in San Francisco)
YOU’RE THE TOP, GIRLS For the most part, Joyce, a working class Englishwoman in Ipswich is not a sympathetic or likeable person: She is annoyed by her teenage daughter Angie (who admittedly is belligerent and daft), and begrudging toward her sister, Marlene, whom she views as a ball-busting, career-driven, selfish, soulless abandoner (not that there…
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Opera Review: ROMEO AND JULIET {ROMÉO ET JULIETTE} (San Francisco Opera)
VERONA: FAIR; ROMEO AND JULIET: KILLER First performed in its inaugural season of 1923, San Francisco Opera begins its 97th season with a production new to SFO of Charles Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette (Romeo and Juliet), an adaptation of Shakespeare’s timeless tale. One of the French composer’s finest works, and an excellent example of French…
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Opera Review: LA BOHÈME (LA Opera)
A LOW RENT BOHÈME It’s hard to go wrong (in general) with Giacomo Puccini’s 1896 opera—a relatively light tragedy buoyed with easy-to-love characters, provocative music, and a lot of humor. The latest production that opened LA Opera’s 2019/2020 season manages somehow to offer a production that left me dry-eyed at the end, which never happened…
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San Francisco Music Preview: DANIIL TRIFONOV & MTT: RACHMANINOFF 4 (San Francisco Symphony)
RACH ON Daniil Trifonov is continuing his journey to honor and emulate his hero, the great Rachmaninov, by joining the San Francisco Symphony this weekend to perform the Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, a golden opportunity since it’s rarely played often in concert halls. Preceding The Fourth, Michael Tilson Thomas — in his…
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Los Angeles Theater Review: THE SOLID LIFE OF SUGAR WATER (Deaf West Theatre at Inner-City Arts)
A PRODUCTION WITH SOLID LIFE Phil and Alice are in love, the kind of messy, well-known, commonplace love that many couples are familiar with. They meet cute in a post office when a package full of sex toys meant for his brother bursts apart. But don’t think you are in for a romantic comedy. This…
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Theater Preview: CAROLINE, OR CHANGE (Ray of Light at Victoria Theatre in San Francisco)
CHANGE IS NOW We hear that that the only thing constant is change, yet we struggle against change, we fight against change, and some are even willing to succumb to the unyielding stress of determined apathy rather than change. We live in a world that must change the way it consumes and change the way…
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Concert Review: BARRY MANILOW (Hollywood Bowl)
BARRY ME BACK TO THE SEVENTIES You know when glowsticks have been placed on each seat of the Hollywood Bowl prior to Barry Manilow’s extremely well-sold concert that there would be heart-wrenching numbers ahead. And there obviously were. Easy-listening, high-charting, orchestral pop tunes “Even Now,” “Weekend in New England,” and “Mandy” among them, backed up…
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Theater Review: LATIN HISTORY FOR MORONS (Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles)
MORON THAT NOW One-man stage phenom John Leguizamo, who has popularized the stories of his Columbian/Puerto Rican/Bronx Ghetto peeps and their culture in semi-autobiographical shows Mambo Mouth, Freak, Spic-O-Rama, and Ghetto Klown, returns with lefty, sobering, highly entertaining monologue that brings home the tragic 3000-year history of Latino Americans. While the show is titled Latin History for…
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Cabaret Preview: ONE NIGHT ONLY CABARET WITH THE CAST OF HAMILTON (Marines’ Memorial Theatre in San Francisco)
YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION In 1994, the groundbreaking decision was made to cast openly gay, HIV-positive Cuban-American Pedro Zamora as part of MTV’s The Real World: San Francisco. Zamora’s time in the Real World house on Lombard Street brought a face to the AIDS crisis. The darkly handsome, funny, surprising, and in-your-face activist…
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Theater Review: WITCH (Geffen Playhouse)
A PITCH FOR THIS RICH WITCH Written by Jen Silverman and directed by Marti Lyons, Witch is inspired by William Rowley’s Jacobian 1621 play Witch of Edmonton. The classic story follows Elizabeth Sawyer, a woman forced to the outskirts of society who finds revenge on her bullying neighbors by selling her soul to the devil. Well,…
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Theater Review: SHREK (3-D Theatricals in Cerritos)
SHREK IS A SHRUG OF A MUSICAL; BUT THIS PRODUCTION IS SURE AND SHARP Shrek The Musical is a mystifying experience. The whole thing is rather inane, versus the sophisticated silliness of Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. The first time I saw the show was the final performance of the National…
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Theater Review: SCRAPS (Matrix Theatre Company)
GIVE US A SECOND ACT WE DESERVE; ALL WE END UP WITH IS SCRAPS The angry young man syndrome is nothing new — think Protestant reformer Martin Luther! — but it sure found a home in the theater when British playwright John Osborne wrote the seminal Look Back in Anger in 1956. Jimmy, the uptight,…
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Theater Review: WEST SIDE STORY (5-Star Theatricals in Thousand Oaks)
A RESONATING STORY It rarely happens. “The Broadway Chill” I call it. That moment when an already amazing show is given the perfect and unexpected staging which heightens emotion, inducing moist eyes and gooseflesh as only can happen in the theater. Having seen West Side Story staged many times, I can say that rare is…
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Theater Review: INTO THE WOODS (Hollywood Bowl)
THRIVING WOODS Somewhere between “Once Upon a Time” and “Happily Ever After” there is a very adult world of tests, losses, disappointments, and grief. Despite this, we assert our agency; or as a baker’s wife sings in Into the Woods, “If you know what you want, then you go and you find it, and you get…
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Theater Review: ANOTHER ROLL OF THE DICE (North Coast Rep in San Diego)
LESSER LOESSER Well, here’s a jukebox musical just bursting at the seams with promise. And North Coast Rep’s production of Another Roll of the Dice is definitely kinda cute, a far cry from the overblown, disappointing jukeboxers we’re forced to endure. It may get a life at regional theaters with subscription audiences who thrive on…
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Theater Review: MISS SAIGON (National Tour)
IT USED TO BE A MISS; NOW, THE HEAT IS ON IN SAIGON Infinitely stronger than the original Broadway outing, this national tour of Miss Saigon overcomes a still strangely muddled plot, some awkward sophomoric lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr. and Alain Boublil, and a few scenes and songs that could be cut with no…
Theater Review: ST. NICHOLAS (Black Button Eyes / City Lit / Chicago)
by Croydon Fernandes | July 3, 2026
in Chicago, TheaterFAST PAYOUT CASINOS USA 2026 — 5 BEST INSTANT WITHDRAWAL CASINOS RANKED
by Michael Carr | July 3, 2026
in ExtrasTheater Review: MEN OF SOUL (Black Ensemble Theater / Chicago)
by Mitchell Oldham | July 1, 2026
in Chicago, Theater
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