Tony Frankel

FAR FROM FABULOUS A young gay man named Charlie has had a breakup. Feeling despondent, he enters an empty theater and performs a ritual aided by a copy of Witchcraft for Dummies. He conjures an erstwhile college professor, Armand, to be his guide to the other world. Armand summons five older archetypal gay men (the…

LINDEN HOPS Based on the lyrics of Van Morrison’s “Linden Arden Stole the Highlights,” Colin Mitchell’s one-man play of the same name may have a sketchy narrative, but a combination of genuine acting by the author and Christian Levatino’s knowing and unobtrusive direction make this 1-hour first-person account of a San-Francisco-drug-dealer-turned-Scotland-recluse a persuasive event. It’s…

CANDY MAN Yes, this is a superficial “And then I…” retelling of Anthony Newley’s life, but Jon Peterson’s one-man outing at the Hollywood Fringe Festival is fun, escapist fare. In addition, audiences unfamiliar with the composer, actor, and one-time husband of Joan Collins should be flabbergasted by the gorgeous standards Newley left us (especially the…

WHEN A BELT DOESN’T HOLD UP AN ACT There was a time when American cabaret singers simply sang songs’”no social commentary, no motifs, and no directors were necessary because the audience was accustomed to great songs treated with unique vocal stylings by distinctive entertainers. Even when cabaret began to decline in the 1960s, headline singers’”whether…

MTG BRINGS ANGELS TO LOS ANGELES The angels of concert-staged-reading productions come winging into town this week with a production of City of Angels, the 1989 musical spoof and homage to hard-boiled detective fiction, 1940s film noir genre, and the men who made both. This rarely produced gem was a huge hit, playing 879 performances…

MERRY-GO-ROUND PLAYWRITING More of a writing exercise than a fleshed-out drama, Rajiv Joseph’s Gruesome Playground Injuries begins with an intriguing premise, but sputters to a halt when we realize that this much-hyped “Pulitzer-finalist” has written himself into a corner. Flip-flopping throughout a 30-year time span, the play is constructed as a series of meetings between…

DON’T MIZ IT Unlike most of the characters in the blockbuster sung-through musical Les Misérables, the show itself will never die. Consistently presented either on Broadway, national tours, and/or globally since the English-language version opened on the West End in 1985, audiences can’t get enough of Victor Hugo’s story about ex-con and do-gooder Jean Valjean…

MORE LANG FOR YOUR BUCK While Jessica Lang has made a name for herself in the dance world as an independent choreographer, dance patrons in Los Angeles may find this dancemaker difficult to place. Because the majority of troupes that visit here offer programs by the company’s namesake (Paul Taylor, Lar Lubovitch, Bill T. Jones),…