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Tony Frankel
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Highly Recommended: THE BROTHERS SIZE (Geffen Playhouse)
SIZING UP THE BROTHERS SIZE IS JUST PART OF ITS APPEAL When I first saw a play by Tarell Alvin McCraney, I wrote, “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…
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Theater Review: THE BEST MAN SHOW (Hollywood and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals)
THE WORST BEST MAN MAKES THE BEST MAN SHOW A GUARANTEED WINNER We’re attending a wedding. Every viewer in the audience is an attendee. The vows have already been exchanged, and now it’s time for the groom’s brother — his best man — to give the customary speech. Charming and truthful but filled with toxicity…
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Theater Review: THE ANTI YOGI (part of the Hollywood Fringe)
Mayuri Bhandari, an unenthusiastic gorgeous yoga instructor, has something to get off her chest. She’s miffed at how Western folks have commercialized the practice and teaching of yoga, turning an ancient, sacred practice into a commodity. In The Anti Yogi, which I caught at a packed encore performance at The Zephyr Theatre on July 10,…
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Highly Recommended Dance: SMUIN CONTEMPORARY BALLET (The Joyce in NYC)
SMUIN IS A SHOO-IN Celebrating its 30th anniversary, San Francisco-based Smuin Contemporary Ballet returns to The Joyce with a triple bill of original commissions each making their New York premiere through Sunday. The engagement will be the Company’s ninth at the Joyce and first since 2012. The program will include the New York premiere of Val Caniparoli’s…
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Recommended Off-Broadway: LA MUERTE Y LA DONCELLA and LA PASIÓN SEGÚN ANTÍGONA PÉREZ (Repertorio Español)
One of my favorite places to see plays in NYC is also NYC’s most prominent Latino theatre companies: Repertorio Español. Performed in Spanish with easy-to-read supertitles in English, the plays are always original and thrilling. This summer, two contemporary productions will be staged at the iconic Repertorio stage at 138 E 27th St by two young…
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Regional & Off-Broadway Theater: MEDEA: RE-VERSED (Red Bull Theater, Bedlam, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival)
“There’s more to her than anyone could ever infer – You can kick my words to the curb. I think it’s time that we heard from her.” An ice-cold, high-octane adaptation of Euripides’ play written in battle rap verse, this brand-new electrifying hip-hop version of the ancient classic Medea by Luis Quintero, co-conceived and directed…
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Highly Recommended Reading: THE PEOPLE vs. LENNY BRUCE (Garry Marshall Theatre in Burbank)
The People vs. Lenny Bruce, presented by Cause Célèbre Productions and Henderson Productions, is the third segment of All The Court’s A Stage, a series of plays that are based on seven of Martin Garbus‘s cases. With a dramatic adaptation by Susan Charlotte from the 1964 obscenity case, and directed by Antony Marsellis, it will make its Los Angeles…
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Theater Review: EXPATRIATED (The Broadwater Second Stage as Part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
A NICE EXPAT ON THE HEAD Now, here’s a fascinating show. Two former lawyers (the best kind I say) and whip-smart writers, Dominique Roberts and Candace Leung, wrote and starred in Expatriated at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. In a dizzying series of vignettes, we meet a white lawyer sent to Hong Kong and a Hong…
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Theater Review: THERE’S SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH CYRUS: HOW I WENT FROM A HOT MESS TO A HOT BITCH (Zephyr Theatre as part of the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
THERE MAY BE SOMETHING WRONG WITH CYRUS, BUT NOT SO MUCH HIS SHOW Meet Cyrus Deboo. An adult actor who, against all the odds and ends of a traditional Persian upbringing, blossomed into an out gay man in a loving relationship, and with the eventual acceptance from his dad. In There’s Something Seriously Wrong with…
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Highly Recommended Art Exhibit: WOMEN ARTISTS OF THE BALLETS RUSSES: DESIGNING THE LEGACY (McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX)
WHO WERE THE WOMEN OF BALLET RUSSES? The McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, TX is turning to its esteemed Tobin Collection of Theatre Arts to re-contextualize Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Women Artists of the Ballets Russes: Designing the Legacy, on view Oct. 10, 2024-Jan. 12, 2025. I discovered the McNay last year, and it’s…
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Theater Review: CHESS (Jaxx Theatricals)
ALL THE RIGHT MOVES I’m rather certain that most folks in the U.S.A. have no idea that Chicago is one of the best theater towns in the world. The reason for this is storefront theaters, which have given birth to amazing companies such as Steppenwolf. Los Angeles used to have these but, especially with Equity…
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Recommended Event: CLIP JOINT: POLLY BERGEN (Rex Reed and Will Friedwald at The Triad)
POLLY: WANT A TRIBUTE? Journalists Rex Reed and Will Friedwald will celebrate Polly Bergen with the newest edition of Clip Joint, featuring rare video clips of the late show business legendon July 15, 2024 at 7 at The Triad. The dynamic duo will reminisce over Bergen’s iconic career, illuminating her remarkable life with personal anecdotes and rare footage from a wide range…
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Off-Broadway Opening: EMPIRE: A NEW MUSICAL (New World Stages)
A MUSICAL THAT REACHES FOR NEW HEIGHTS Built during the Depression between 1930 and 1931, the Empire State Building became the world’s tallest office building’”surpassing the Chrysler Building by a whopping 204 feet. The design of the building changed 16 times during planning and construction, but 3,000 workers completed the building’s construction in record time:…
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Theater Review: REEFER MADNESS (The Whitley in Hollywood)
AN EVENT TO MAKE YOU HIGH No doubt spurred by William Randolph Hearst’s yellow-journalism against pot (he invested in wood-pulp newsprint because he didn’t want paper made from hemp), a church group in 1936 sponsored a film aimed at warning young people about the dangers of marijuana. One of the worst films ever made, Reefer…
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Theater Review: FEMMINA SUPER (Broadwater Main Stage at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
SUPER FEMMINA SUPER To say that I was fascinated with Femmina Super is an understatement. The show is subtitled, “A New Opera,” which normally has me running in the other direction, as newer operas tend to be atonal and opaque and pretentious. Writer-composer-performer Bethany Hill offers just the opposite. I fear that subtitle may scare…
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Theater Review: SUCK MY TONGUE (Catharsis Theatre Collective at the Hollywood Fringe Festival)
A PREMISE THAT DOESN’T SUCK I have dealt with PR firms for 15 years now, both in (mostly) and out of the arts world. Some may say that public relations is a strategic communication practice that builds mutually beneficial relationships between businesses or individuals and their audience. Sounds good, but advisors, pollsters and media consultants,…
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Highly Recommended Theater: BBC – BIG BLACK COCKROACH (REDCAT)
What Happens When a Right-Wing White Woman Wakes up Trapped in the Body of a Black Man? LA’s beloved and acclaimed writer and theatre performer Paul Outlaw presents his latest work BBC (Big Black Cockroach) at REDCAT in downtown Los Angeles. This outrageous and provocative world premiere begins tomorrow June 20 and runs through June 22,…
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Theater Review: FOXY LADIES LOVE BOOGIE 70s EXPLOSION! (Three Clubs Stage Room as part of Hollywood Fringe)
GET DOWN … TO THE HOTTEST REVUE IN TOWN Created and directed by Fritz Brekeller, this feminocentric musical revue of 70s hits, Foxy Ladies Love Boogie 70s Explosion!, celebrates an amazing array of songs from the smiley face decade, but does so with a tilt towards feminist empowerment. Using entire songs, themes (disco) and medleys…
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BENEFIT: BROADWAY AND BEYOND (REAF’s “Help Is on the Way” | Marines’ Memorial Theater & Beacon Grand Hotel, July 14)
The Richmond/Ermet Aid Foundation presents Help is on the Way: 30th Anniversary Concert & Gala on Sunday, July 14, 2024 at the Marines’ Memorial Theater (concert) and Beacon Grand Hotel (VIP after party with the cast). This show will feature cast members for the Broadway touring cast of Mrs. Doubtfire with the lead actor, Rob…
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Off-Broadway Closing: SLEEP NO MORE (Punchdrunk at McKittrick Hotel; Final Performance January 5, 2025)
SOMETHING WICKED THAT WAY GOES When this megahit closed during COVID, and then came roaring back, I wrote “No plague can kill a great show.” Now, having welcomed over two million visitors in thirteen years, Sleep No More, the site-specific, immersive experience that introduced an entirely new art form to — and forever changed —…
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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