Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Frank Ferrante Alert!

Speaking of talented people I know...

You're probably sick of me telling you about Frank Ferrante, who miraculously turns himself into everyone's favorite comedian and stars in An Evening with Groucho at theaters around the country. He was in San Bernardino last Friday and in this post, I told all my fellow Angelenos that that was about as close to our city as he ever performed.

Well, I lied. He will be slightly closer to us the evening of Friday, May 7 when he performs at the Fox Performing Arts Center in Riverside, California. That's about a one hour drive from the heart of Los Angeles if there's no traffic. On a Friday late afternoon/early evening, there will be traffic so I don't know how long it'll take...but I think a band of my friends and I are going to go and find out. This is, I've heard, a wonderful old theater that has just undergone a full restoration to become a wonderful new old theater. What's more, Frank's performance will be preceded by a screening of Duck Soup.

Consider the courage of this man. We're going to sit there and watch the real Groucho in (arguably) his best movie and then this Ferrante upstart is going to come out after that and do his whole show, impersonating Groucho Marx, right after we've seen the genuine article. The nerve! The chutzpah! With plenty of chutz! Well, if anybody can go head-to-head with Rufus T. Firefly, it's Frank.

Details and tix can be obtained at this site. At the moment, the page there only says they're running Duck Soup and doesn't say anything about Frank performing after. This (I believe) is because for contractual reasons, Frank couldn't be advertised until after his San Bernardino engagement...so Riverside put up the announcement without him and someone hasn't gotten around yet to updating the page. If you'd like to make a dinner/show evening of it, there's an Old Spaghetti Factory about a half-mile away from the theater and I suspect that's where many of us will be converging beforehand to converse and eat old spaghetti. Then we'll go get a double dose of Groucho.

• Posted at 7:05 PM · LINK

The Music and the Magic

You have often seen me mention my friend Shelly Goldstein on this site. Shelly is a writer, lyricist, producer, performer...there's no end to what this lady can do. When she performs, it is often to sing wonderful songs, some of which are rock classics, others of which are her own (humorous) creations. She is very, very good and my big complaint about her act is that she doesn't do it often enough.

If you live around Southern California, take note: She's doing it Sunday, April 18 at 8:00 PM in the Cabaret room of the world famous Magic Castle, a private club in Hollywood. She calls this particular show, One Fine Day: The Groovy Girls of the 60's and in it, she warbles tunes made famous by the likes of Dusty Springfield, Laura Nyro, Mama Cass, Carole King and Petula Clark, as well as some Broadway faves of the period. I have seen her do this and it is remarkably entertaining.

But that's, as they say in infomercials, not all! If you attend her show, this will gain you admission for the evening to the hallowed Magic Castle. You can (and should) dine in its exquisite, recently-revamped dining room. You can wander about and see the rare exhibits and architecture. You can pop into the many showrooms and see great magicians perform. One that night will be Johnny Ace Palmer, who's about as fine a close-up magician as I've ever seen...and I've seen all the greats of my lifetime.

Info on how to attend is here. And make sure you learn about the Castle's dress code, and also read this page which contains other thing you need to know. Yeah, I know. Putting on a tie is a drag. But I always find it's worth it, and it certainly will be with Shelly there.

• Posted at 5:31 PM · LINK

Miller's Crossing

Boy, that seemed like a funny bit this morning as I was leaving the house...confusing Henry Miller and Arthur Miller. And so far, about twenty of you who've written figured out that I knew the difference. But since 144 of you (so far) have thought I actually made the mistake, I took another look at it and decided the majority was right and I phrased the joke wrong. Yes, I know the difference. Henry Miller is the guy who wrote Sweeney Todd and was married to Marilyn Monroe.

• Posted at 3:26 PM · LINK

Name Game

Frank Buxton writes to tell me something I hadn't realized; that Henry Miller's Theater in New York — the one about to be renamed for S. Sondheim — was not named for Henry Miller the playwright. Sez Frank, it was named for an obscure actor-producer from the early part of the last century. I guess that should have occurred to me since the place was built and named in 1918. Apparently, the guy who wrote Death of a Salesman has gotten a lot of props and recognition just because he had the same name.

• Posted at 9:08 AM · LINK

Late Night Notions

Craig Ferguson apparently does not envision spending the rest of his life as a late-night host. I've been saying here for some time that he was not a slam-dunk to someday replace Letterman and this would seem to endorse that view.

I haven't written much here about the late night situation because I find late night TV doesn't interest me as much as it once did. That will change but maybe not before the folks doing it change or change their acts. Years ago, I wrote what a fan I was of both Leno and Letterman. Lately, their shows rest unwatched for long periods on my TiVo and when I do watch one, I often bail long before Guest #2. Both programs have gotten way too predictable for me and I find myself not liking them as much as I once did. I think they both came through the recent skirmish looking like small men.

Based on the ratings, I may not be the only one who broke the habit. I'd much rather watch Molly the Owl. Her act is a lot fresher.

• Posted at 8:57 AM · LINK

Move On

The Henry Miller's Theatre (that's its name) on West 43rd Street in the Broadway district of New York will soon become The Stephen Sondheim Theatre. That's a great and fitting honor but why that one? Apart from one revue that lasted ten performances, no Sondheim show has ever played in that building. It didn't even house a single musical until 1998, some eighty years after it opened.

• Posted at 12:46 AM · LINK