In 2013, there was an uproar when Justin Bieber visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and wrote in the guest book, “Anne was a great girl. Hopefully, she would have been a belieber,” or a fan of his. Was Bieber, then 19, perhaps a bit arrogant? Sure. Did he do something terrible? Not at all.
With rising antisemitism and little Holocaust education in America, it is understandable that people would be furious and consider any satire involving Anne Frank an attack on Judaism. When you get punched in the face so many times, it makes sense to have your guard up. But one must see the actual work and then judge.
I’ve interviewed about 50 Holocaust survivors, have written about antisemitism, interviewed Jews beaten on the streets of New York for being Jewish and have seen or reviewed nearly every Holocaust-related film.
Here is a good litmus test to do on yourself: Did you refuse to see “The Producers” because it’s a comedy that includes a singing Hitler? When Larry David, on “Saturday Night Live,” wondered aloud whether or not he would have a good pickup line if he was in a concentration camp, were you infuriated? Lastly, if you saw the Israeli sketch comedy show “Eretz Nehederet” which jokes about Yahya Sinwar, the late Hamas leader and architect of the Oct.7 attacks, was it too much for you? If so, “Slam Frank” is not for you.
In an online interview, Andrew Fox, the musical’s composer and lyricist, said that the catalyst for the show was his disbelief when reading the viral tweet: “Did Anne Frank acknowledge her white privilege?” Of course, Frank didn’t have much privilege; she died in a concentration camp because she was Jewish.
The show’s website includes the explanation: “Our musical satire imagines what happens when a progressive community theater company decides, you know what, maybe now is not the time for us to center these privileged, straight, white European Jews (who spent three years in an attic, hiding from Nazis). And so, in an effort to make our world a better place, this heroic fictional theater troupe transforms Anne Frank’s true story into an intersectional, multiethnic, genderqueer, decolonized, anti-capitalist, hyper-empowering Afro-Latin hip-hop musical.”
The show begins with a land acknowledgment of a native American tribe, likely poking fun at people who claim other nations stole land without mentioning America took land by force and that you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in 2025 who will give their home to someone who may have owned the land a generation ago.
The show, which borrows from the hip-hop style of “Hamilton,” is well cast. In the lead role, Olivia Bernábe is a fantastic whirlwind of energy as Anita Franco, the play within a play’s version of Anne. As her father, Rocky Paterra is by far the best vocalist of this talented ensemble. Austen Horne, who plays Anna’s mother, is a powerhouse with great stage presence and comedic timing. My favorite performance is Anya van Hoogstraten, as Anita’s sister, as well as her abuela, or grandmother. When her character takes a surprising turn, she fearlessly goes all in. It is not insignificant that she correctly recites a Hebrew blessing. Jaz Zepatos brings a great silliness as Mrs. Van Daan, while the curly-haired Alex Lewis a perfect frantic and neurotic Peter, Anna’s crush. Fox is unforgettable playing the director of the play-within-a-play.
Each song is more absurd than the next, with the first being a high-energy romp about Anita writing in her diary. It’s well done and will make you feel uncomfortable and wonder what is going on.
While most of the jokes land, a recurrent one about whether they are talking about 1945 or 2025 becomes a bit tiresome. The show ends on an extremely controversial note; at the performance I attended, one person walked out.
Fox has shrewdly stated in interviews with the press that if he were to say he was politically right-wing or left-wing, people would make conclusions about the play that may not be correct.
Some may think that “Slam Frank” is simply a joke with no purpose or meaning meant to offend every group possible. I don’t think so. This satire has meaning. One commentary is that most often, when there are many groups arguing, no one side is 100% correct at every moment. Unless, of course, you are a Nazi, in which case you are evil. The show counters what many college students have been taught: that everything must be viewed from the lens of the oppressor/oppressed mentality. Whites and Jews can never be victims under this teaching, and other minority groups can never be perpetrators. Through the absurdity of the play, Fox, and Joel Sinensky, who wrote the book, demonstrate the much-needed lesson that people should be judged by their actions and their merits, rather than their identities.
Another element I took from the show is that having gone through violent persecution years ago and now, Jews should not be expected to commit suicide.
If they attended the show, the majority of the people who signed the petition to cancel the “Slam Frank” would find that the musical actually mocks antisemitism. Just as a play about a murderer doesn’t mean the creators condone murder, a satire of Anne Frank doesn’t mean the creators think she was not a serious and important figure in history. Just as Rod Serling taught moral lessons through “The Twilight Zone” and fooled people by saying he was not doing that and it was simply sci-fi fun, Fox and Sinensky weave a brilliantly performed and wild show that may subconsciously affect people.
In “Borat,” when Sacha Baron Cohen sang “Throw the Jews down the well” his act was not antisemitic, he was warning against it by showing that Americans in a bar would freely sing along with his hateful lyrics, thinking he was serious. “Slam Frank” also mocks some slogans protesters have used.
I hope the person who wrote the notorious tweet attends the show and feels like a fool. Seeing “Slam Frank” not long after the last 20 living hostages were released from Gaza and returned to Israel, I could not help but wonder if someone wrote online that the hostages had some sort of white privilege, despite many having darker skin.
“Slam Frank” at Asylum NYC in Manhattan is insanely provocative and is one of the rare shows that will make you laugh, perhaps cover your eyes at one moment, stare widely the next and think about how crazy the real world is. The entire point of satire is to show the foolishness of real society who cling to groupthink, virtue signal and end up hurting society.
While some artists use shock value simply to be controversial, that is not the case here in a show that is electrifying.
