After seeing the hilarious hip-hop musical Slam Frank with a friend, one of the first things she said was “All of the talented people in Slam Frank remind me of why people choose to live in New York City.” This is it, in a nutshell. The Slam Frank cast is remarkably talented and all clearly enjoy what they do in a way that’s truly infectious.
Jaz Zepatos as Mrs. Van Daan, Olivia Bernábe as Anne/Anita, and Austen Horne as Edith
The impetus for the off-Broadway show occurred to Andrew Fox and Joel Sinensky after a Twitter post in 2022 about Anne Frank’s “white privilege” went viral. The Tweet was “Did Anne Frank ever acknowledge her white privilege?” This question was actually debated in a massive thread, and so… Slam Frank was created. The show’s premise is absurd: when a progressive community theater company decides to improve our world through inclusivity, they recast Anne Frank’s Holocaust story into an intersectional, multiethnic, genderqueer, decolonized, anti-capitalist, hyper-empowering Afro-Latin hip-hop musical. Without being a spoiler and revealing too much about the show’s wild and unpredictable plot twists, it’s safe to say Slam Frank offers a fresh spin on Anne Frank and her famous diary, along with music so good you would want to listen to it as a playlist. Slam Frank features a score by show creator Andrew Fox (orchestrator/arranger of Starkid: Homecoming, SONDHEIM, In The Style Of… ) and a book by Joel Sinensky (Daisy Jones & The Six, Roadies), directed by Sam LaFrage.
It’s rife with contrasts: while underscoring the benefits of diversity, equity, and inclusion (who doesn’t want people to truly be who they are?), it also satirizes the ways we embrace these concepts to the point of hilarity. In a way, the show is very meta and provocatively multi-faceted because even as it skewers diversity’s absurdity, it’s comprised of a diverse cast working together to create something successful in the world.
Rocky Paterra as Otto, Austen Horne as Edith, and Alex Lewis as Peter
Slam Frank makes creative use of a small stage with very little props and a screen as the audience is immersed in a nighttime jungle, an attic, a family crossing a river, and other settings. When the show was extended, the actor originally playing the role of Mr. Van Daan wasn’t available, so Andrew Fox stepped in to brilliantly play him – so not only did Fox write this full-length hip-hop musical, but he plays a lead in it too, which further infuses it with an authentic vision.
Anya van Hoogstraten as Margot
Some of the disorienting questions you may ask yourself after watching Slam Frank are: who should be narrating a group’s collective history, are groups a monolith, can history be reconfigured for modern times, can different people from different eras who share similar tribulations be grouped together, does art ever cross the line and is there a line to cross, what is my personal line, and is humor a potent weapon or a way to minimize a group’s suffering (as in: did I just laugh at Anne Frank?).
You will laugh at Anne Frank, and you will likely have even more questions, which renders this show so richly engrossing. I love that show posts “Content Warning: Everything.”
Austen Horne as Edith
The Asylum Theater is small enough to feel intimate, and with everyone seated near the stage, the result is a show that is deeply engaging, both musically and intellectually. Somehow I think Anne Frank would approve of Slam Frank… but maybe that’s just me projecting my modern viewer privilege.
See it soon while you still can in December (before it possibly heads to Broadway).
The ASYLUM
123 East 24th Street
New York, NY 10010
Tickets: HERE ($68 – $134)
About the Cast:
The production stars Olivia Bernábe as Anita, Alex Lewis as Peter, Anya van Hoogstraten as Margot, Austen Horne as Edith, Rocky Paterra as Otto, Andrew Fox as Mr. Van Daan, Jaz Zepatos as Mrs. Van Daan, and Walker Stovall as Assistant Stage Manager. The creative team also includes Director Sam LaFrage, Associate Director Emily Abrams, Music Director Alex Harrington, Choreographer Nico DeJesus, Assistant Choreographer Arianne Meneses, Costume Designer Sarah Lockwood, Set and Props Designer CJ Howard, Lighting and Live Video Streaming Designer Zach Lobel, and Projections Designer Nicholas Ferrari. Nikita Chernin serves as Production Stage Manager. Marketing and publicity by Katie Rosin, Kampfire. The band features Mike Pettry (keyboards/guitar), Jared Decker (percussion), and Joseph Wallace (bass).
Andrew Fox welcoming the cast to the first Slam Frank rehearsal.
