'BARBARA AND FRANK -THE CONCERT THAT NEVER WAS'

by Ed Bruce edbrucevegas@yahoo.com

TOO LATE TOO LOUD TOO DARK ......they got all three of the big negatives....only 6 minutes late....only slightly too loud with canned music and no spotlight for a show that groped for one !

The premise here with Frank and Barbara and their music is very solid but the script unlike the pet show I saw this afternoon was weak and wrong. Each of the singers could have just came out and sang but the script called for grabass, jokes, interplay and audience pictures....none of which I needed. I never like impersonators screwing up the lyrics and imposing their music into each other....that is what we did tonight. A giggling piano player added nothing, nor did the set of drums on stage ........with no drummer!

There was some nice black and white history photos of the performers and with the songbooks at hand we wasted a lot of the 72 minutes......the local paper said "the two create theatrical characterizations to the point of having the two icons banter at the piano and trade casual versions of standards"......exactly right. THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER WITH SIMPLICITY AND SOLO SINGING THE NEEDED CORRECTIONS. Too bad both were fine singers...... it was the script.

B 84