THEATER / JAN HERMAN : Groucho Impersonator Looks Beyond the Cigar

As the quintessential Groucho Marx impersonator, Frank Ferrante has many fans, but none more convinced of his talent for mimicry than the late, great comedian’s daughter, Miriam Marx Allen.

“I don’t think Frank just plays my father,” she said. “I think he becomes him.”

That’s why she’ll be attending Ferrante’s affectionate tribute, “An Evening With Groucho,” tonight at Orange Coast College’s Robert B. Moore Theatre in Costa Mesa.

“I’ve seen so many people imitate my father badly,” added Allen, a resident of San Clemente. “They think all it takes is smoking a big cigar, painting on a black mustache and wiggling their eyebrows.”

So what does it take besides the stogie and the makeup and the eye-rolling leer?

“I think I understand the man,” said Ferrante, a 30-year-old performer who began playing Groucho at USC in 1986 for a senior-year theater project. “He was a paradox, a driven guy who had many sides. Most people who try to imitate him don’t delve beyond the surface image.”

Not that Ferrante intends to do any deep probing in a show meant strictly as entertainment. But he likes to point out that he considers himself more of an actor than an impersonator.

“I know that’s the first thing anybody will say,” he said. “But I really do approach Groucho as an actor. In this show, for instance, I ad-lib a lot. You have to know the character so well to feel comfortable ad-libbing in his style.”

During the OCC performance, which is being recorded for a BBC radio broadcast, Ferrante also tells Hollywood anecdotes and sings a dozen comical songs that Groucho sang. (He is accompanied by pianist Gus Pappelis, who serves in addition as a foil for much good-natured verbal abuse throughout the evening.) Among the tunes are “Lydia, the Tattooed Lady,” “Dr. Hackenbush,” which was cut from the Marx Brothers’ movie “A Day at the Races,” and “Omaha, Nebraska,” which Groucho wrote.

Allen, 66, who was close to her father until his death in 1977, said the show is bound to kindle warm personal memories. She saw it in its maiden outing at USC but hasn’t seen it since.

She has seen Ferrante many times, however, in the title role of “Groucho: A Life in Revue.” That play, written by her brother, Arthur Marx, and Robert Fisher, had productions in Los Angeles, New York and London and has toured extensively.

“Frank only gets better,” Allen insisted. “I was so impressed when I saw him that first time at USC I wrote him a fan letter. I think my father would have appreciated him.”

Despite Groucho’s offstage reputation as a moody curmudgeon, she said he didn’t harbor professional jealousy toward fellow comedians. Favorites included Fred Allen, W.C. Fields, Charlie Chaplin, Jack Benny, George Burns and Bob Hope.

Among later comics, she said, “He liked Woody Allen very much, and I believe if he were around today he would like Jerry Seinfeld. He might very well have enjoyed David Letterman, but I know he wouldn’t have stayed up that late.”

Did Groucho have any favorite women comedians?

“He was kind of sexist,” said Allen, who published a collection of his letters to her called “Love, Groucho” in 1992. “I don’t think he liked any women comedians.

“But he did admire Shirley MacLaine as an all-around actress. He once said to me, ‘She’s the white Sammy Davis.’ He really liked Sammy Davis.”

* Frank Ferrante appears in “An Evening With Groucho” tonight at 8, for one performance, at Orange Coast College’s Robert B. Moore Theatre, 2701 Fairview Road, Costa Mesa. $6 to $12. (714) 432-5880. *

BARD RECHARGE: If Thomas F. Bradac seems to be glowing, blame it on London. To be more precise, blame it on Stratford-on-Avon.

Bradac, founding producer of Shakespeare Orange County, recently spent a few days soaking up theater and atmosphere in the Bard’s hometown. He came away more impressed than ever.

“I hadn’t been back to Stratford in 15 years,” Bradac said. “Shakespeare is a much bigger deal there now than it was then. The town was bursting with tourists from all over England, even though it was cold and rainy. And the theater was packed. Going there felt like a renewal.”

What especially recharged him, he said, was the chance to see two major Royal Shakespeare Co. productions done back-to-back in true repertory fashion: “King Lear” in the afternoon and “The Merchant of Venice” in the evening.

“It was fabulous to see the quality of the work and the execution of the directorial ideas,” Bradac said. “You saw two wonderful, completely different productions.”

After a traditional, four-hour “Lear,” he went to dinner, then returned to the theater two hours later for a modern-dress “Merchant,” which looked very New Age and was set as if in a three-story office building.

“The whole experience was stunning,” Bradac said.

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At the same time, Stratford and its surroundings called to mind the settings for such plays as “The Merry Wives of Windsor” and “As You Like It.” The aura of the town “just gives you the impression that it’s the place where Shakespeare got his inspiration for those plays,” Bradac said.

The visit did leave him a little envious, though.

“We can’t do here what they do there,” he said. “Parliament doesn’t back us. But it sure shows you what government support of the arts can do.”