Often on this blog, I plug the appearances of my pal Frank Ferrante, who tours America with his show in which he portrays Julius Henry Marx, otherwise known as Groucho. One reason I do this is that every time he appears somewhere, I get at least one message like this one from my pal Roger Stern, who is one of the better comic book writer-editors around…
Friday, October 5th, Carmela and I — and our friend Jeff Hetzel — piled into my car and drove for three and half hours to reach Fredonia, New York. There we sat in the front row of the Fredonia Opera House, where we enjoyed — most thoroughly — An Evening with Groucho. It was everything you said and more.
I knew from your past blog postings that Frank Ferrante would first come on stage as himself and start the show by talking about Mr. Marx. But watching him apply the greasepaint and transform into Groucho before my eyes was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen.
For the next couple of hours, he looked like Groucho, he talked and sang like Groucho, and he moved like Groucho in his prime. The height of the stage in the Opera House necessitated feats of Marxian acrobatics as he scrambled down — and back up again — for the half-dozen or so times he came down into the house to interact with the audience. (During the intermission, Carmela overheard one of the Fredonian college students seated in the row behind us say, "I'm exhausted just watching him do that!")
And the audience interaction was just part of the improvisation. Groucho — for he truly was Groucho at that point — had some amazing interactions with his pianist Alex Rybeck.
At one point, Groucho leapt onto the Baby Grand Piano that Alex was playing, and it turned out that someone had neglected to lock the piano's wheels. There ensued an hilarious tug-of-war with the piano between Groucho and Alex, that ended with the piano far to the back of the stage. Groucho then stood to one side and grinned to the audience, "Let's see how long it takes him to wrestle it back into place."
Another time, Groucho was finishing a lovely rendition of "Everyone Says I Love You," which was supposed to end with Alex blowing on a duck call. Except that Alex had inadvertently gotten the duck call turned around, so that nothing came out. Groucho stopped, looked at his accompanist and sighed, "There were just three times when you have to be funny." Then, as Alex looked at the duck call, Groucho continued, "It has only two ends. You had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right." (When we spoke with Alex after the show, he confirmed that both bits had been unplanned.)
Let's see…there was comedy, singing, dancing, improvisation…oh, and something I hadn't expected, pathos. There was love and affection in his voice when Groucho talked about his brothers. There was a moment of regret, when he spoke of how he had never finished school. By the end of the evening, we truly felt as though we'd met Groucho Marx. He never dropped character until the very end, when, again as Frank, he related a story of meeting George Fenneman.
And meeting Frank afterwards was just as wonderful. He stuck around in the lobby to autograph programs and photos, and graciously posed for pictures until the last of the audience had gone home. We also had an opportunity to chat with Alex, who was equally gracious, and deeply touched that we wanted his autograph, as well as Frank's. We, of course, tendered our thanks to Frank for a great evening and told him that "Mark had sent us." Carmela asked Frank about what his workout routine must be, to which he replied, "I think you just saw it."
Anyway, we wanted to thank *you* for all of your previous stories about Frank, and links to his performances. Once again, sir, we are in your debt.
You most certainly are and we accept all major credit cards.
Hey, I should I mention that Frank does other things besides impersonate Groucho. January 15 thru March 3 of next year, he'll be in Philadelphia at the historic Walnut Street Theater, directing and starring in a production of the Ken Ludwig farce, Comedy of Tenors. If you're not familiar with the play, it's kind of like Room Service if Room Service had been set in Paris in the thirties, with a lot of On the Twentieth Century thrown in. Get tickets here — and you might also note that Frank will be doing his Groucho show in that theater on February 25.
Then! For years now, when Frank hasn't been Grouchoing, he's been Caesaring. Caesar is another Ferrante characterization, most often seen as the host and star of Teatro ZinZanni. Those of you wondering what the heck Teatro ZinZanni is didn't read this description that appeared on this blog long ago…
Imagine a grand tent inside of which you find a swanky restaurant that serves a gourmet meal as a bevy of wonderful food servers and performers put on a show all around you. There are singers, dancers, comedians, acrobats in the style of (the comparison is unavoidable) Cirque du Soleil and artists whose skills are awesome but utterly unidentifiable. This all transpires not on a faraway stage but up close and personal. The aerial acts are practically over your head in the intimate theater. The dancers are sometimes performing not just near your table but actually on it, skillfully not stepping in the fine soup you have just been served.
This is a fine description but I need to explain more. It is sometimes difficult to tell where the attractive wait staff leaves off and the equally attractive cast takes over. Some of each serve you. Some of each entertain you. The performers roam about in character, chatting you up and entertaining you while you dine. That's when they aren't dancing…or hustling you up out of your seat to dance with them. The show is quite interactive…and did I mention the sensational live five-piece band? The compleat ZinZanni experience runs about three hours. They serve you the first course. They perform for a while. Then they serve you the second course and perform while you eat it…and so on. You leave quite well-fed and, of course, utterly entertained.
At the time I wrote that (10/30/10), there were two outlets of Teatro ZinZanni. There was the one in San Francisco (at which I had just had a great evening) and the one in Seattle. Since then, lease problems forced both to close for a time. The Seattle production reopens in a new location next week and if you want to know all about it, go to this page.
The San Francisco presence is awaiting the construction of its new home and is expected to reopen late next year. In the meantime though, a new branch of Teatro ZinZanni opens April 5 of next year in Chicago with its star/host Caesar, aka Frank! He'll be there for many months and I'm determined to get back there to see him and what I'm sure will be a wonderful show. Here's a link to the webpage for it but there isn't much there yet. Tickets will go on sale about a month from now. It's one of those things you just have to experience.