![]() ![]() "I was taught by nuns, so there were a lot of rules, and I was in fear constantly," the actor jokingly recalled. It was that bold, brash sense of freedom that captured Ferrante’s imagination when he first discovered Groucho, watching "A Day at the Races" on the television as a 9-year-old growing up in Sierra Madre, California. In those movies, he’s saying the things we want to say and doing the things we want to do." "Groucho was always that voice of madness, but I always refer to him as a truth-teller. Their humor is Depression-era humor, where everyone needed that. "We all feel like outsiders, and he was the ultimate bad boy outsider, along with his brothers Harpo and Chico, knocking things over. "He was insulting people in the positions of power in those movies – professors, lawyers, politicians, the wealthy and the empowered – and we all identified with him as outsiders," Ferrante explained. The premise of the show, according to Ferrante, is simple: What if Groucho Marx gave a one-man show during 1934 in between the shooting of "Duck Soup" and "A Night at the Opera," arguably the golden age of the Marx Brothers comedy act, not only tapping into a nation’s funny bone but also its anxieties. ![]() The show – which Ferrante also wrote – has seen London, New York City, Australia, and now it’s in the Milwaukee Rep’s intimate Stackner Cabaret, opening this weekend and running through May 28. The solution was "An Evening with Groucho," a 90-minute cavalcade of comedy featuring everything that made the lead Marx brother one of entertainment’s most electric livewire performers – songs, stories, riffing off the audience or whatever serves a suitable springboard for wild, occasionally wicked and always witty jokes. My job is to make it resonate whether you know who Groucho Marx and the Marx Brothers are or not." "My job is how do I engage people whether they know him or not," Ferrante said, "and there are plenty of people who don’t know who he is necessarily, because he’s been gone for 40 years. And proving that still-vibrant pulse has been actor Frank Ferrante’s mission for more than three decades and over 3,000 performances, trekking across the globe performing as the brothers’ mustachioed frontman Groucho and interpreting his life on stage. The expiration date on the classic comedic stylings of the Marx Brothers, however, remains far off in the distance, the sounds of laughter still echoing from their century-old vaudeville origins and on-screen heyday during the Great Depression to today. One minute, you’re the toast of the town the next minute, you’re #problematic – or, worse yet, a punchline. Or that guy who still quotes Austin Powers. Ask the kids behind the "Damn Daniel!" meme. Comedy can have a brutally short shelf life. ![]()
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January 2023
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