Frank Ferrante makes Groucho Marx's anarchistic humor as relevant as ever

“How many of you are actually Marx brothers fans and how many of you were dragged here against your will like I was?”

Frank Ferrante was doing the asking, during the opening night performance of “An Evening With Groucho,” his infectiously funny tribute to one of America’s greatest comedians.  Having played Groucho in more than 3,000 performances in over 500 cities since 1984, Ferrante opened a two-month Milwaukee Repertory Theater run on Sunday night.

More than 80 years after the Marx Brothers’ heyday, not many audience members raised their hands Sunday in response to Ferrante’s query.

But the Marx Brothers’ delightfully anarchistic humor is as needed and relevant as ever – a point Ferrante drove home Sunday by summoning an eight-year-old named Charlie to the stage, for an improvisational riff that included a discussion of “Hamilton.”

Charlie mentioned Lin-Manuel Miranda’s musical as a show he’d recently enjoyed.  “I’m not throwing away this smoke,” Ferrante archly replied – adding that Groucho’s story was also about a talented immigrant who got the job done.  A grease-mustached Charlie loved it, echoing Ferrante’s onstage story of becoming a Marxist at a similarly young age.

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Ferrante’s incredibly physical Groucho can suggest a big kid as he energetically scurries about the stage with Groucho’s trademark stoop and noodle-legged dances, twiddling cigar and twitching eyebrows, darting eyes and impish, greasepaint grin.

This Groucho is a guy who knows how to have fun, whether he’s thumbing his nose at the status quo in “I’m Against It” or channeling his days as a game-show host when bantering with the audience and flirting with its women.

In between, there’s riffs aplenty from the Marxist canon, stretching from an invocation of Harpo’s Rachmaninoff spoof by excellent accompanist Gerald Sternbach at the top of the show to Groucho’s defiant “laugh, clown laugh” from “A Night at the Opera” just before curtain.

Standouts include extended time as Captain Spaulding, a fun version of “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,” and a loving tribute to “terrific straight man” Margaret Dumont, interspersed with numerous Groucho jokes Dumont never got and a rendition of “Show Me a Rose” in which Ferrante manages to spoof and be tender at the same time.

Par for the course in this show, which is smart and pointed without ever being nasty; we’re given Groucho’s sharp, upending humor while feeling the love and passion that drives it.

Along the way, Ferrante provides just enough background and biography about Groucho and his brothers, without letting exposition get in the way of madcap antics.

One need not be a diehard Marxist to spend an enjoyable evening with Groucho.  But be forewarned: like young Charlie – or, long ago, young Ferrante – Groucho’s comic genius is contagious.  As presented by Ferrante, it’s also well worth catching.

“An Evening with Groucho” continues through May 28 at the Stackner Cabaret, 108 E. Wells St.  For tickets, visit www.milwaukeerep.com or call (414) 224-9490.  Read more about this production at TapMilwaukee.com.

Program Notes

Harpo and Chico: In homage to the two brothers joining Groucho as Marx Brothers’ mainstays, Ferrante’s Groucho cuts to the chase.  On Chico: “I think you can safely say there were three things that Chico was always on, a telephone, a racetrack and a dame.”  On Harpo: “Harpo inherited all my mother’s good qualities: kindness, understanding and friendliness.  I got what was left.”

On Wisconsin: Ferrante built a number of Wisconsin references into his act, from an invocation of the Wisconsin fight song to mention of Cudahy, Kenosha and Sheboygan.  There were also plenty of wry references to playing a sleepy Sunday night crowd in Milwaukee, even though the opening night Stackner audience was laughing aplenty and clearly having a good time.  True to the Marx Brothers’ vaudevillian roots, Ferrante’s Groucho is a man who never forgets his years on the road or where he came from, joined to every performer’s awareness that the next gig could be the last and that most of us will be forgotten.

Highbrow: No, I’m not referring to those trademark greasepaint eyebrows, but to Groucho’s abiding sense that the highbrows often didn’t think much of the Marx Brothers’ work.  This Groucho tells us with a touch of rue that he never made it past the sixth grade, while also telling us with a touch of pride that “most of my friends” are writers and that T.S. Eliot was his pen pal.  Ferrante also recites a portion of Eliot’s “Gus: The Theatre Cat” from Eliot’s light-verse collection “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats,” while noting that Eliot was more interested in chatting with Groucho about Marx Brothers films than talking about his own poetry. 

Ferrante conveys the undisguised pride, here, of a man who rightly (and deservedly) wanted to be taken seriously for his cultural contributions.  But as with Groucho’s performance in a televised 1960 production of “The Mikado” – commemorated by Ferrante in a mostly straight-up rendition of KoKo the Lord High Executioner’s “Tit Willow” –  what’s clear is that Groucho was best when sticking to his inimitable role as Groucho, upending often artificial cultural and aesthetic distinctions of a sort that failed to duly acknowledge how great the Marx Brothers are.

“Dr. Hackenbush”: Ferrante’s own favorite song in his show is “Dr. Hackenbush,” in which Groucho sings about what a wonderful doctor he is.  It was cut from the final version of “A Day at the Races”; it’s introduced by Ferrante’s Groucho with a story illustrating the shoddy treatment the Marx Brothers and their films received from this time onward.  In part, Ferrante explains, that’s because MGM titan Irving Thalberg died during production, leaving the Marx Brothers in the less sympathetic hands of Louis B. Mayer.

Gerald Sternbach: As suggested above, Sternbach is excellent in his role, and not just because he can play piano.  Sternbach presents as a cross between the musically gifted Harpo and “You Bet Your Life” announcer and straight man George Fenneman, who introduced Groucho the game-show host as “the one, the only.” Sternbach is integral to this production; he deserved the grateful applause he received from Sunday night’s audience.