I was able to sit in on a tech rehearsal of “Little Women” earlier this week at Jamestown Community Theatre. While the actors worked hard on stage, sound and light technicians were busy adjusting their respective bits of technology. Keri Boisclair, the show’s director, divided her time between the actors and the technicians. “I chose […]
Frank O'Donnell
Frank O’Donnell has worn many different hats. As an actor, he’s performed in three professional theatrical productions and countless community theater productions. He’s written, produced and directed four holiday-themed shows and once helmed the Notfanuttin’ Players, specializing in audience-participation dinner shows. He’s been performing as a stand-up comedian since 1982 and has been inducted into the RI Comedy Hall of Fame. He’s written comedy for other performers, like Bob Hope, Jay Leno and Joe Piscopo. He’s opened for performers as diverse as the Judds, Michael Bolton, Chicago, David Brenner, Gilbert Gottfried and more. He’s been writing reviews and features about theater in Rhode Island for better than two decades. His work to help save the monarch butterfly has been chronicled on NBC Nightly News and he is president of the Keri Anne O’Donnell Memorial Fund. A native of Providence and long-time resident of North Providence, Frank now calls Jamestown home. He and his wife Karen – who he met when both were students at Classical High School – have four children, and recently became grandparents.
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Theater Review: ‘Tootsie’ laugh out loud funny at PPAC
My review of “Tootsie” can be put into four words. Laugh out loud funny. Those who know me will tell you I do not laugh easily. It’s an occupational hazard of being a performer. It’s very hard to surprise me, and laughter depends on that surprise. Not so with “Tootsie,” now on stage at the […]
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What’s Up Interview: Drew Becker, star of ‘Tootsie,’ playing PPAC through Sunday Oct. 30
Drew Becker is just the third person to play Michael Dorsey and Dorothy Michaels. He’s the lead actor in “Tootsie,” the musical playing at the Providence Performing Arts Center this week. Dustin Hoffman originated the role in the 1982 film. Santino Fontana originated the role in the Broadway musical, earning a Tony Award in 2019 […]
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The Community Players start 101st Season
Rhode Island has a lot of history. That’s a given. But it’s amazing to say that Rhode Island is home to two community theater groups that are over 100 years old. The oldest is the Barker Players in Providence – founded in 1909, and about to start their 114th season. Just 13 years younger is […]
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What’s Up Interview: Eden Casteel – ‘Kahn Artist’
Eden Casteel has been a performer pretty much her whole life. “I was a piano player at the age of four,” she said recently, “and I started voice lessons at the age of 12.” She trained to be an opera singer. “If you haven’t noticed, there’s not a lot of demand for opera singers these […]
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What’s Up Interview: Piff the Magic Dragon coming to The Vets September 29
Piff the Magic Dragon’s genesis was strictly accidental. “I was a close-up magician,” said the comic magician during a recent phone interview. “I did parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, but I kept getting fired. I looked too grumpy. I’m not really grumpy, it’s just my face.” Then one day, he was invited to a costume party. […]
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Theater Review: ‘TINA: The Tina Turner Musical’ powerful at PPAC
The Providence Performing Arts Center kicked off its 2022/2023 this week with a powerhouse presentation of “TINA – The Tina Turner Musical.” Press night was Wednesday, but because the national tour is launching from Providence, the show opened on Sunday. By Wednesday, there was already significant buzz on social media outlets praising the show. And […]
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Behind the Scenes at PPAC with TINA: The Tina Turner Musical
Larry Smiglewski is working 24/7. “We’re in tech [rehearsal], so basically an all-hours thing.” Smiglewski is the production stage manager for “TINA: The Tina Turner Musical.” The show’s national tour is launching this week from the Providence Performing Arts Center. This is the 21st show to use PPAC as its launch pad for a national […]
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What’s Up Interview: The Mulhern Brothers, leading voices on RI radio
Maintaining a long-term career in Rhode Island radio isn’t easy. It’s even more unusual to consider that siblings can do it. Consider this. Brian Mulhern, current co-host of the morning show at Cat Country 98.1FM, and Kevin Mulhern, producer of the Paul & Al morning show at 94 HJY, have been “doing” radio off and […]
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RI Shakespeare Rep to present ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ at John Brown House in Providence Aug. 12-14
Covid presented a lot of challenges for area actors. Take Christin Goff. She’d been coaching some actors in monologues in the spring of 2022 and was planning a class for the summer. “We had to shift to online, both for coaching and classes,” said Goff recently. “From there, we expanded and began to do readings […]
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What’s Up Interview: Actor John O’Hurley, coming to Theatre by the Sea in Wakefield August 1
John O’Hurley tells about a call he got from famed producer Michael Feinstein. “He asked, do you have a one-man show,” said O’Hurley in our recent phone call. “And I said, well of course I do.” He didn’t, but he wasn’t about to say no. Feinstein then asked if O’Hurley would perform that show at […]
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What’s Up Interview: Rus Anderson, starring in ‘The Rocket Man Show’ at PPAC Saturday July 16
Rus Anderson didn’t set out to perform a tribute concert to Elton John. And yet, here he is. Anderson came to the United States in 2003 to attend college. The Scottish musician found there was a lot of work in and around Clearwater, Florida. “I played the piano bars, trolled the beach bars, playing Top […]
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What’s Up Interview: Al Ducharme, to be inducted in the Rhode Island Comedy Hall of Fame
When I caught up with Al Ducharme, he was on a cruise ship docked at a private island in the Caribbean. He was on board working as a comedian. “I travel more now than I want to,” he said. Covid has taken away a lot of stand-up performance options. Ducharme’s been a working comedian since […]
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What’s Up Interview: Seth Rudetsky, coming to Theatre by the Sea Monday July 11
Sirius Radio’s Seth Rudetsky, one of the hosts on the Broadway Channel, brings his “Big Fat Broadway Show” to Theatre by the Sea on Monday, July 11. If you’ve heard him on Sirius, you know how quick-witted and talented he is. If you haven’t heard him, tune in. He’s a wealth of behind-the-scenes stories about […]
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Kelly Bates is home – WUN’s Frank O’Donnell joins the popular meteorologist as she returns to ABC6
It’s 4:30 on an absolutely perfect Saturday afternoon. I’m sitting in the ABC 6 Storm Tracker Center on Orms Street, watching meteorologist Kelly Bates prep for her first news broadcast in nine months. “I’ve been up since 4 AM, I’m so excited,” says Kelly. Animated is a good word to describe her at this moment. […]
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Theater Review: ‘Million Dollar Quartet’ opens the season at Theatre-by-the-Sea
December 4, 1956. Something momentous occurred. No, it wasn’t a celebration of my 64th day on the planet. Far away from Providence, a recording studio in Memphis hosted an impromptu jam session featuring Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. All four artists got their start at Sun Records, owned and operated […]
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Theater Preview: ‘The Voice of Gertrude Stein’ coming to Contemporary Theater
If you’re like me, when you hear “opera,” you think belting soloists, foreign languages, and works that are several centuries old. “Opera is not what people think,” says Rachel Hanauer. “Opera is still being composed. Today’s opera is very close in style to musical theater.” Hanauer is co-producing “The Voice of Gertrude Stein” at the […]
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Frank O’Donnell: High Drama at the Gamm – Cast resilient after Covid delay
It’s Wednesday evening. Cast and crew of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” are gathered again on the stage at the Gamm Theatre in Warwick. Tony Estrella had just finished explaining that another cast member tested positive for Covid. Tonight’s show had been canceled. We were there for a put-in rehearsal. Another actor, Steve Kidd, has been […]
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West Bay Community Theater to open new space in Wickford
There’s a new theater company in the southern part of the state. West Bay Community Theater is getting ready to move into a new space in the heart of Wickford. “When Academy Players left East Greenwich and the North Kingstown Players folded, the West Bay was left without a community theater,” says Terry Shea, president […]
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Frank O’Donnell: Gamm Theatre pauses performances of ‘Midsummer’… an actor’s perspective
It’s not the way we wanted to spend our opening weekend. I’m paraphrasing Tony Estrella, artistic director of the Gamm Theatre in Warwick. It’s Sunday afternoon, Mother’s Day. We had just wrapped up a brush-up rehearsal of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,’ wearing our street clothes, and we’re about to head home for the day. We […]
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Rhode Island Comedy Hall of Fame & The Comedy Park coming to Cranston
Looking for some laughs? There’s a new comedy club in town that you’ll want to check out. “The Comedy Park is the culmination of a lifelong dream,” says Billy Simas, the stand-up comic who’ll be managing the club. “This is exactly what I wanted to build for comics and the community.” The club is part […]
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Rehearsing Shakespeare: Actor Frank O’Donnell’s first-hand account of preparing for ‘Midsummer’
It’s Easter Sunday. While others are enjoying egg hunts and ham dinners, 18 actors, a director, a stage manager and several crew members are rehearsing A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM at the Gamm Theatre in Warwick in a second-floor rehearsal room. I am fortunate to have been cast in the show as Tom Snout, one of […]
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What’s Up Interview: Theresa Caputo, coming to The Vets April 10
“What I do is absolutely crazy,” says Theresa Caputo. “It’s insane. I sense, feel, say things to people that freak me out.” We chatted on the phone recently, in advance of the Long Island Medium’s show on April 10 at the Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Providence. Caputo is arguably America’s best-known medium. “I can connect […]
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Theater Review: ‘Oklahoma!’ fails to impress at PPAC
Here’s what you need to know about the touring production of Oklahoma! at the Providence Performing Arts Center running through Sunday. First, a good number of people did not return after the intermission. This is never a good sign. Second, on the way out, the question most often overheard was, “What the heck did I […]
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Theater Review: ‘Ironbound’ features powerful performances
Set at a bus stop in front of a concrete wall – highway overpass, maybe – in a dangerous neighborhood in a rundown New Jersey town, “Ironbound” is bleak. While the latest production at the Gamm Theatre paints a pretty gray picture, there is some light too. We meet Darja (Donnla Hughes) at the bus […]