Tony Frankel

‘TIS FOLLY TO OVERPRAISE FOLLIES The buzz in the lobby of Chicago Shakespeare Theater (CST) on opening night of Stephen Sondheim’s landmark 1971 musical Follies was palpable; people from around the world were clamoring to see this rarely produced work – and for good reason. The original Broadway production is legendary: people lucky enough to…

TWO PLAYS IN ONE What is the purpose of theater? Some say that it is to reflect reality while being entertaining, enlightening, and/or educating. Yet when Shakespeare wrote that theatre is designed to “hold, as ’twere, the mirror up to Nature,” his character of Hamlet actually used theatre to shape reality, not merely reflect it….

THE SHADOW OF A GREAT PLAY The birth of the Irish Republic occurred around Dublin in 1916. Aiming to end British rule, Irish Volunteers staged an insurrection known as the Easter Rising, a rebellion many Irishmen did not support. However, after quelling the week-long insurrection, the British Government’s hostile reaction – including conscription (compulsory enlistment)…

WHO IS TO SAY WHAT IS REAL? Tom Stoppard is the thinking person’s playwright. Ever since his breakout hit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead in 1967, the erudite scribe has been earmarked an absurdist, one whose work concentrates on the futility of man’s search for meaning in a meaningless existence. As with all Theatre of…

WHAT WE FIND IN THIS ATTIC IS A CASE OF THE CUTES It was a privilege to witness Snapshots: A Musical Scrapbook at Northlight Theatre, for this reviewer has never seen anything like it before. An omnibus of previously published Stephen Schwartz songs (not trunk songs, mind you, but songs taken from formerly produced shows)…

LITERATURE NOT MEANT TO BE STAGED Halfway through the first act of Brand at Red Tape theatre, it occurred to me that I had no idea what was going on. First of all, it can be argued that Henrik Ibsen’s 1866 dramatic poem (some call it a Verse-Drama) was not written to be staged. The…

THIS MUSICAL IS MURDER Dear Drury Lane Theatre: Since your production of Sweeney Todd is closing this week, please allow me to write a love letter to you for giving me the privilege of witnessing the finest production of Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece that this critic has ever seen. My first time was the original Broadway…

A PALE SHADE OF RED The closing stage picture in John Logan’s 2010 Tony-winning Red at the Goodman is about as thrilling and breathtaking as theater gets: as Abstract Expressionist painter Mark Rothko (Edward Gero) examines one of his paintings commissioned by an upscale restaurant in New York, the spectacular lighting (Keith Parham) and set…

FORGIVE AND FORGET The Amish people of Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania, taught the world a sobering lesson in 2006 when they instantly forgave the man who murdered five girls in their one-room schoolhouse. They offered condolences to – and even shared donations meant for the victims’ families – with the murderer’s widow. Here was a man…