Frank Ferrante to Celebrate 40th Year Portraying Groucho Marx at Teatro ZinZanni

Laurence Olivier nominated actor, Frank Ferrante, will mark his 40th consecutive year in the role of comedy legend Groucho Marx with a staged performance of An Evening With Groucho at Chicago‘s Teatro ZinZanni tent on June 11. Ferrante has portrayed Marx over 3,500 times in over 500 cities including New York and London.  The filmed version is currently broadcasting on PBS television under the title Frank Ferrante's Groucho.

Playwright and son of Groucho, Arthur Marx, hired Ferrante following the latter's 1985 USC senior class performance. Subsequently, Ferrante went on to perform the Arthur Marx penned off-Broadway show, Groucho: A Life in Revue, earning a New York Theatre World Award and a New York Outer Critics Circle nomination. 
Groucho's grandson, Andy Marx, is expected to attend the Chicago performance. Chief theater critic for the Chicago Tribune, Chris Jones, will conduct a Q&A immediately following. Pianist Gerald Sternbach, who played for Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett and Carrie Fisher accompanies Ferrante. Dreya Weber directs.

Ferrante's Chicago venue is fitting considering the Marx Brothers' connection to the city as long-time residents and perennial touring performers. Ferrante himself has been linked to the Windy City for years not just via performances as Groucho but as master of ceremonies for the cirque spectacle Teatro ZinZanni. Located within a circus tent on the 14th floor of the Cambria Hotel in the Theatre District, Ferrante opened the venue in 2019 as his MC alter ego, The Caesar. Ferrante re-opened the venue in 2021 and was the first actor in Chicago to face an audience off the pandemic. The Chicago Tribune picked Ferrante's performance in ZinZanni as one of the top ten of 2019.

Hal Holbrook, who performed his solo show, Mark Twain Tonight!, holds the record for longest running solo stage show at 62 consecutive years retiring in 2017 at 92. Holbrook, a friend of Ferrante, encouraged him to: “Keep it going.”