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Can I Be Frank?

No matter what medium you’re looking at, you’re going to find people writing and talking about others throughout history.  This is evident in so many ways, from biographies to homages.  Something that’s wonderful about history is that there are so many historical figures that are absolutely fascinating.  And these can be translated into any form.  It’s how we get things like Hamilton…Lin Manuel Miranda read a biography and made it into one of the most influential and popular musicals of all time.  So yeah, there are books and plays and musicals about all of this, and it’s super cool.  You learn a lot about history from this sort of thing.


Going in to Can I Be Frank?, I had no idea who Frank Maya was, aside from what I had read on the blurb on the Wilma’s website.  That’s okay.  I don’t know who a lot of people are.  And just because I’m queer doesn’t mean I know every queer person who lived.  But it was okay, because early enough into the show, Morgan Bassichis, the actor bringing this show to life, tells us that they didn’t know who Frank Maya was either.  But they learned about this queer artist, and became completely obsessed with him.  And you know what?  I’m glad they became obsessed with him, because we got a damn cool play out of it.


I’m a huge fan of one person shows.  I know I’ve written about that before.  Watching one person shows is intense.  An actor has only themself to rely on to keep the show going.  Of course, they’re going to play off the audience as well, but they’re alone onstage and have to completely keep it driven on their own.  Honestly, I don’t think I’ve seen a one person show in awhile now, so I was definitely excited for that aspect of Can I Be Frank?, even though I had very little idea of what I was getting into.


It ended up what I was getting into was about an hour and a half of the extremely talented Morgan Bassichis giving us a show that wouldn’t be leaving anyone’s head anytime soon.  They so beautifully told us about Frank Maya, a queer comedian, musician, and performance artist from the 80s.  But we didn’t just learn about Maya, we learned about Bassichis.  I don’t just mean information on themself.  I think what I really mean is their relationship with this long gone person from history.  We saw how important Maya was to Bassichis, how they related to him, and how he shaped them into the person they are now.


The show was a beautiful blend of material straight from Frank Maya and Morgan Bassichis’s own material.  Bassichis pulled monologues and jokes from Maya, but they also brought in so much of their own work.  We were treated to things like audience interaction- Bassichis providing comments and questions for audience members to ask them.  They read us letters from dead people, something Maya had done in his shows, but included a letter from Maya to themself.


There were times where I didn’t know where Maya’s work ended and Bassichis’ began…and vice versa.  And I absolutely loved that.  I think it takes a lot of talent to pull something like that off…it definitely involves studying someone and their style, but also being able to create things on your own.  I was completely wowed by the way the material was so well woven.  I loved what I was watching…it was entertaining and fun, but there was so much deeper material that was really eye opening.


Frank Maya was a gay comedian that got pretty far for who and what he was.  He died of complications from AIDS shortly after turning 45.  Bassichis didn’t just present the comedic stuff to us…they talked about Maya’s work with this, and recited monologues about AIDS related things.  They opened the whole show with a bit about Liberace.  I think most people are aware of AIDS relating to the world, in that time period, but it’s not always addressed the way it should be.  Bassichis didn’t shy away from this aspect of that time period or Maya’s life with it.  I thought that was really incredible.  It’s easy to just sweep it under the rug, but Bassichis actually brought it up.  It was shameless, and it was beautiful.


I can’t even begin to imagine the work Bassichis put into this piece.  Their passion for Frank Maya and his legacy are absolutely inspiring.  They truly found someone who changed their world, and changed their life, and made that into something new, fresh, and extremely fun to watch.  I went in to this show having no clue about anything about Frank Maya, and walked out having learned about a new historical person, a queer historical person, who rocked the world in his own way, and I actually really cared about this person.  And I cared about him because of Morgan Bassichis.  I think if there’s any way to maintain a legacy, Bassichis has discovered it.


This is a show I could happily watch again.  I’m very sure it changes from show to show, with different audiences and the mood Bassichis finds themselves in.  And I’ve got to say, there’s not a ton of shows I could say that about.  Can I Be Frank? was something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before, and I’m so grateful I got the chance to experience it.

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