The Wick Theatre in Boca Raton has just kicked off its 11th season with a praiseworthy comic production – a side splitting one-man show that lets audiences re-experience the feisty spirit, delightful mirth and wild merriment of the funnyman we called “the one, the only – Groucho.”
Of course, we all know that Julius Henry “Groucho” Marx – the unforgettable comedian, actor, writer and singer from film, TV, radio and stage — has joined the other Marx brothers in comedy heaven. But that doesn’t mean his cavorting style and quick-witted barbs are history.
The Wick rolls out An Evening with Groucho, a fast-paced, ad-lib-festooned, laugh-a-minute performance featuring award-winning actor, Frank Ferrante, who steps into the Groucho role with ease – a task he’s been repeating on stages around the globe for years. In addition to his excellent singing and storytelling, he wrote and directed the show.
Ferrante, aka Groucho, “takes audiences on a whirlwind journey through the life and times of the legendary comedian, offering his most memorable one-liners, stories and songs,” said Marilynn A. Wick, managing executive producer at the Wick. “His uncanny ability to channel Groucho’s wit and charm will have you laughing from start to finish.”
Ferrante, an award-winning actor in his own right, has performed this stage show 3,000 times during the past 40 years, winning awards and earning accolades from Broadway to London’s West End. He visited more than 500 cities before he arrived at Marilynn Wick’s performance center in Boca Raton to inaugurate the 2024-25 season.
At the Wick, he opens the show by transforming himself from Ferrante, the man, to Groucho, the icon, on stage, in front of the audience. While bantering at length with those in the gallery, he dons transition makeup – an exaggerated, grease painted-on mustache that combines with fake eyeglasses. He adds heavy, painted-on eyebrows that flip with sly waggishness, then a cigar and – voila! — the actor disappears — and Groucho takes over.
And what a job he does. The gallery literally becomes part of the show as Ferrante/ Groucho continues the back-and-forth chatter that accompanies his frequent trips to cavort with the audience in what becomes a rapid-fire hilarity exchange.
He zeroes in on certain people in the seats, lovingly joking with them for supposedly nodding off, commenting on their choice of wardrobe, choice of partners and particularly length of marriages.
What takes place on the Wick stage is an amalgam of the madcap foolery and craziness that Groucho fashioned over the years – and has been recrafted by Ferrante and his fertile imagination to bring the best of the legendary performer to new audiences.
The two-act, one-intermission laugh fests consists of the best Groucho one-liners, anecdotes and lots of songs, including “Hooray for Captain Spalding” (the tune from “Animal Crackers” about a famous African explorer that became the theme song of his ‘50s quiz show, “You Bet Your Life”). That song is particularly important because, in the film, it kicks off an array of comic (and sometimes groan worthy) one-liners. Example: “I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I’ll never know.”
He also sings of “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,” a woman whose anatomy is festooned with designs of historic and remarkable nature that make her a walking reference text. Hence, the lyric, “Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclopedia…”
Ferrante is joined on stage by pianist Mark Rabe, who opens the show with a medley of Marx Brothers film tunes on the keyboard and accompanies Ferrante on all other songs.
Actually, Rabe is much more than an accompanist. Ferrante uses him as a straight man, jumping onto the piano and even playing the 88’s with his feet, elbows and backside, much to Rabe’s manufactured astonishment — and the audience’s obvious amusement.
Groucho always had a straight man for his verbal and physical craziness. In the films, a “wonderful woman” named Margaret Dumont was Groucho’s frequent foil. “It was always her job to look confused” – which she developed to a T.
During the show, Ferrante glowingly talks of the Marx family – including Groucho’s siblings, Harpo, Chico, Zeppo and Gummo. The Marx Brothers, he said, were successful in vaudeville, on Broadway, and in 14 motion pictures from 1905 to 1949, at which point Groucho left to perform solo on radio and TV.
