Tony Frankel

YOUR PAL IS COMING TO TOWN Sassy and brassy  Pal Joey  is  a wondrous rouser that spins the tale of a roué gone rotten in Depression-era Chicago. As part of its Reiner Staged Reading Series,  Musical Theatre West  is presenting Rodgers and Hart’s original 1940 version of their masterwork, and I promise  a  glorious revival at CSULB  on Sunday, January 24 at 7.  With…

A CLASSICAL UNFINISHED EMPEROR In a program in which familiarity breeds joy, the Pasadena Symphony begins the New Year with three of the most popular pieces in the repertoire, led by the insanely affable and exuberant Nicholas McGegan: Prokofiev’s short but mighty Classical Symphony, Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5, best known…

GREAT GOOD GRIEF It’s clear that jazz pianist David Benoit has more than an affection for all things Charlie Brown. The pensive character from Charles Schultz’ strip, Peanuts, has certainly inspired many–from  filmmakers and musicians  to the “Average Joe” who contemplates the enormity of just existing–but Benoit presented his charming Christmas concert with a  childlike persona that was…

CROSSFIRE Between religious zealots, especially those who use the word of God to control the populace rather than to create peace, and the liberation of a new world’”gay marriage, Roe v. Wade’”more and more people are leaving organized religion. Especially in America. A recent study indicated that millennials are leaving the church in droves. Some…

ME SO FELIZ A friend mentioned  that three comediennes–a Cuban American from Miami,  a Mexican American from Texas, and the daughter of an “over-dedicated Mexican mother and a compliant Lithuanian father” from Sun Valley, CA–are putting on a show in which they indulge in reminiscences about  their childhood  Navidades (Christmases). He invited me, but I declined, telling my friend…

GET YOUR RACHS OFF I can think of nothing better to do this holiday season then something that has nothing to do with the holidays. It’s not easy to find, but in the midst of the Messiah morass, the Los Angeles Philharmonic is offering an All-Rachmaninoff program this weekend that is sure to bring you…

THE BEST IS YET TO COME ON SINATRA’S BIRTHDAY Frank Sinatra was not only one of the most popular entertainers of the 20th century, but he was arguably the greatest singer as well, recording more than 1,500 songs. His extraordinary interpretative genius and the way he could rescue some songs from obscurity and extend the…

APOLLO EARTHBOUND; SHOSTAKOVICH SOARS Rollicking, mysterious, and adventurous may be  attributes of Britten’s Young Apollo,but these adjectives  also describe the outcome, respectively, of the three pieces that comprised the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s program last night. Britten’s 1939 10-minute work for piano, string quartet, and string orchestra, included a rip-roaring performance by Joanne Pearce Martin; Stravinsky’s 1928 ballet…

DO I FEAR A WALTZ? Musicals are generally “lost” for any one of a number of reasons: the libretto may be filled with once topical socio-political humor now meaningless to contemporary audiences; it’s too expensive to produce; the score may have gone out of fashion; or the show itself is like a machine whose  parts don’t…

NERO MY HEART TO THEE I always have a peculiar mix of excitement and trepidation when seeing a favorite entertainer live for the first time, especially when they are well past retirement years. In the case of Peter Nero, I wondered if my memories of listening to  this astounding pianist would be pushed aside by a…

IF STORYTELLING’S YOUR THING, SKIP SCOTCH French poet and essayist Charles Pierre Péguy wrote, “It is the essence of genius to make use of the simplest ideas.” Yuval Sharon, director and creator of Hopscotch, “the world’s first-ever opera to take place in cars,” is the essence of genius. Only a genius of this kind could…

FALLING IN LOVE WITH LAUGHS AND LEAPS Sadly a review of record, but this experimental, eclectic mash-up from Chicago looks to have a life beyond its short runs in the cities of wind and angels; in fact, The Art of Falling returns next year to the Harris Theater in Chicago where it had its world…

HOW BROWN WAS MY VALLEY? The San Fernando Valley has always creeped me out. My family moved from Anaheim to Canoga Park (now West Hills) in 1971 (two weeks before the earthquake, thank you). For the next 11 years I never felt like I fit in. It was like it was haunted or something. White…

A MILD MENDELSSOHN & A SOARING STRAUSS When scholars speak of the greatest concertos ever written for the violin, certainly the names of Beethoven, Brahms, and Bruch are bandied about. But for out-and-out popularity with audiences you can look to two, both of which’”regardless that they are performed and recorded with alarming regularity’”remain reigning favorites….