If you live in Southern California and have even the slightest love for Dr. Hugo Z. Hackenbush, get your butt down to the Hermosa Beach Playhouse before November 10. Marxmeister Frank Ferrante is holding court in An Evening With Groucho and a wonderful evening it is. Some of you may have seen Ferrante portray The Man in Groucho: A Life in Revue, which ran not long ago on PBS. I thought he captured about 90% of Groucho in that, which would be more than enough to make him worth seeing. To my delight, he has since nailed down pretty much all of the other 10% including — amazingly — a Groucho-quality ability to ad-lib with the audience. That is not easy to do, as many lesser men have proven with inept Groucho impressions.
Most of the show is Frank/Groucho telling anecdotes about the Marx Brothers and singing all the songs you'd expect…plus one inspired, more recent one you wouldn't. (I won't tip the surprise.) Accompanied expertly by Jim Furmston at the piano, Ferrante is in terrific voice throughout. This is particularly impressive since he spends much of the time leaping about the stage and theater, replicating Groucho dances with uncanny stamina. The man even moves like Captain Spaulding and, when bantering with patrons, thinks like him, as well. I cannot imagine a finer, more entertaining re-creation.
Info on tickets to the Hermosa Beach Playhouse can be obtained by visiting this website. And if you don't reside close enough to spend An Evening With Groucho there, check out Frank Ferrante's website and see when he's coming to your neck of the woods. He's all over the place.
As I mentioned here recently, I almost never "buy" those TV-movies where some movie or TV star is played by another actor…but this is something different. For one thing, it's stage, which brings with it a different sense of reality and suspension of disbelief. For another, Frank Ferrante has Groucho down cold. He speaks as himself at the beginning and when he does so again at the end, it's a bit jarring. Because by then, he's made you forget he's not really the guy he's convinced you he is.
Do you get the feeling I really liked this?