My overall impression
Playwright Will Manus is slowly becoming recognized as a local treasure in L.A. His plays are shown in venues throughout the city, and he seems to specialize in hour-long pieces that hold the audience’s attention to the end. Frank and Ava is no exception. As someone who has met Ava Gardner, and just completed a book of Conversations that I did with her in 1988, I knew a lot of her stories about Frank Sinatra. Will Manus has got it right. Theirs was a tumultuous relationship that couldn’t work because they were too similar in temperament. Sinatra was at a low point in his career, and hers was at its zenith. The actors capture the events in their lives accurately, and as the play warms up, so do they. It’s tough to try to portray such iconic figures, but the actors are up to it. Kudos all around to a play worth seeing.
