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When the political activist, comedian, and performance artist Morgan Bassichis debuted their brilliantly humorous show “Can I Be Frank?” in New York last summer, they were already envisioning a magnificent comeback. Dragging a shabby prop staircase painstakingly across the diminutive club stage at La MaMa, Bassichis assured us that the show had something grand to offer. After all, “Frank”’s director was the skilled Sam Pinkleton, who was, at that moment, in the process of guiding Cole Escola’s “Oh, Mary!” to the heights of Broadway. Bassichis confidently and comically assured us that when their production eventually made it to Broadway, the budget would be astonishing. “We’ll fly this in,” I heard them say, gesturing toward the stairs clumsily trailing behind them.
Illustration by Harrison Freeman
Well, the production’s glorious return is indeed to the postage-stamp-sized SoHo Playhouse (running through Sept. 13), but Bassichis will undoubtedly dismiss such trivialities with grace. (Bassichis’s stage persona embodies both a diva in grand style and a nervous, rod-and-felt Muppet.) The “Frank” of the title is the revolutionary, albeit now lesser-known, comic Frank Maya, who passed away young in 1995 due to AIDS complications after achieving fame in both avant-garde venues downtown and on Comedy Central. Bassichis channels Maya, re-creating—and continuously interrupting their own re-creation of—one of Maya’s frenetic “rants,” a stand-up aria touching on themes of sex and death, a dynamic approach that harmonizes beautifully with Bassichis’s own restless, often romantic energy.
Incredibly, the successful Pinkleton is concurrently directing another production by a tall, dark-haired, chaotic comedian just a few blocks away: “ta-da!,” by Josh Sharp, at the Greenwich House Theatre (through Aug. 23). Sharp, like Bassichis, fluctuates between chaos and profound emotion: he co-wrote and co-starred in the queer absurdist film “Dicks: The Musical,” and at Greenwich House, Sharp’s monologue incorporates an effort to memorize two thousand PowerPoint slides into his narrative of coming out. Pinkleton joined the project after witnessing a rendition he described as an “idiotic feat of theatrical wizardry”—at this point, I would watch anything that captures Pinkleton’s interest; certainly, there is no better assurance of sharp silliness honed to a fine edge.—Helen Shaw
About Town
Movies
Following closely on the heels of the new “Superman” comes “The Fantastic Four: First Steps,” which shares a similar sentimental tone and surprisingly many of its themes, including an unwelcoming public, a colossal threat, and the rescue of an infant. In this case, the baby belongs to Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal) and Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), who team up with their allies, the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), to shield the child from Silver Surfer (Julia Garner)
Sourse: newyorker.com