Slam Frank Musical Premieres Off-Broadway After Sold-Out Run — SkimNews
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- Slam Frank, a 2025 musical reimagining Anne Frank as a pansexual Latina whose family is Black and neurodivergent, premieres off-Broadway at the Orpheum theatre on 4 October after a sold-out run at Asylum NYC
- Creators Andrew Fox and Joel Sinensky built the show around a 2022 tweet about Frank's 'alleged white privilege,' saying they were 'tired of didactic theater' and aiming for work that resists a single ideological reading
- Former NYT theater critic Ben Brantley posted on X that the show 'may be the most important new show around,' and Patti LuPone visited backstage at Asylum NYC to tell director Sam LaFrage how moved she'd been
- The musical was ejected from a BMI workshop over its 'non-binary coming out song,' which was then embraced as a favorite when new non-binary members joined the following year
- Non-binary actor Olivia Bernábe, who plays Anita, says 'a couple of times people walked out,' attributing exits to viewers who 'forget that it's satire' rather than to mockery of the identities themselves
- The show's final 20 minutes feature what Fox calls 'a truly audacious plot twist' that cast member Walker Stovall initially resisted before recognizing its importance to the satirical mission
Why it matters: For the New York theater scene, Slam Frank's sold-out workshop run and endorsement from Brantley — plus a backstage visit from LuPone — signal mainstream appetite for provocative satire after a decade of politically cautious work. The polarized reactions (audience walkouts alongside praise, contradictory labels from pro-Zionist to antisemitic) show creators are finding commercial traction by refusing a single ideological framing, with a run extending through 30 November at the Orpheum.
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