Previews are running on 2nd Avenue and the official opening is set for October 4. Slam Frank, the Anne Frank hip-hop satire that made its name downtown last season, is booked at the Orpheum Theatre through November 30.
Previews for Slam Frank began at the Orpheum Theatre, 126 2nd Avenue, on September 17. Opening night is October 4 and the run is booked through November 30. Press performances are set for September 30 and October 1, 2 and 3.
The show started with an argument on the internet. A 2022 thread on Twitter asked whether Anne Frank had ever acknowledged her white privilege, and it was not a joke. Andrew Fox and Joel Sinensky built a musical out of what might happen if a progressive theater company took the question seriously and set about remaking The Diary of a Young Girl as an intersectional, multiethnic, genderqueer, anti-capitalist Afro-Latin hip-hop show. Fox wrote the music and lyrics, and the two share the book.
It ran at Asylum NYC last season and did not stay quiet. Ben Brantley, formerly chief theater critic of The New York Times, wrote on X that the musical "may be the most important new show around" — the line the production has since trimmed to four words for its posters. Zachary Stewart of TheaterMania put it another way: "If you love the theater and want it to once again be a safe space for dangerous thought, the best thing you can do is buy a ticket to Slam Frank and laugh your ass off."
Most of the originating company has moved with it. Olivia Bernábe plays Anita, the ensemble’s Anne; Alex Lewis is Peter, Austen Horne is Edith and Rocky Paterra is Otto. John Anker Bow and Jaz Zepatos play Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan, and Walker Stovall is the Assistant Stage Manager. Amelia Louise Barr joins the company as Margot.
Sam LaFrage directs, with choreography by Esosa Oviasu and music direction by Alex Harrington. Scenic design is by Adam Koch, costumes by Sarah Lockwood and lighting by Jamie Roderick. Gage Baker is the sound designer and Zack Lobel the video designer, with Nicholas Ferarri as associate video designer, Devin Orr on props and Nikita Chernin as stage manager.
The Orpheum staging is a bigger room than the developmental run had: a graffitied box with a pitched attic frame overhead, strings of bulbs and a bank of television sets down either side. The production is selling on-stage seating inside it.
Performances run Wednesday through Monday at 7pm, with 2pm matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. The running time is 110 minutes and the show is recommended for ages 16 and over. Tickets for the Orpheum run are $50 to $140.
