Researching Adelfia Bari with Frank Ferrante

This is a fun two part interview with Frank Ferrante. The first half we talk about Frank’s Italian Roots. In the second half we talk about his career in acting specifically his one man show, “An Evening With Groucho.”

FRANK FERRANTE (Actor/Writer) is the recipient of New York’s Theatre World Award for ‘Outstanding Debut,’ a New York Outer Critics Circle nomination, London’s Laurence Olivier Award nomination for ‘Comedy Performance of the Year,’ Washington D.C.’s Helen Hayes nomination and two Connecticut Critics Circle Awards. He was picked a ‘top ten’ theater performance by the Wall Street Journal in 2017 and in 2019 the Chicago Tribune picked him as a ‘top ten’ stage performance for his role in cirque’s Teatro ZinZanni. His New York, London and PBS performances in the title role in Groucho: A Life in Revue received not only acclaim from critics and audiences but from the Marx family.

Ferrante was discovered by Groucho Marx’s son playwright Arthur Marx as a 22 year old drama student at USC performing An Evening With Groucho for a 1985 senior project. Arthur subsequently cast Frank to portray Groucho Marx for the heralded 1986-87 production of Arthur’s Groucho: A Life in Revue that played Off-Broadway at the Lucille Lortel Theatre for 254 performances. Ferrante, who was 23 at the time, portrayed legendary Groucho from age 15 to 85. Morrie Ryskind who co-wrote the Marx Brothers classic films Animal Crackers and A Night at the Opera and attended Ferrante’s USC show said, “Frank is the only actor aside from Groucho who delivered my lines as they were intended.”

An Evening With Groucho Website

An Evening With Groucho On Demand

Also, you can check you local PBS schedule for An Evening With Groucho

You can see Frank live in Chicago in Cabaret Zazou