Director Stan Zimmerman’s high-concept, Latinx-cast The Diary Of Anne Frank scores points for its thought-provoking premise. In execution, however, it proves a mixed bag at best.

Inspired by a CNN report on the safe house created for an undocumented Latina and her two children by a local Jewish woman, Zimmerman’s what-if scenario imagines a reading of the 1955 Broadway hit by a group of similarly harbored Hispanic men and women, a concept not unlike the way the legend of Don Quixote is brought to life in Man Of La Mancha.

Unlike La Mancha’s political prisoners almost immediately transformed into the characters they are playing, however, it takes nearly forty minutes for the Anne Frank cast to get “off-book,” a distractingly script-in-hand opening sequence so extended that audience members can be excused for wondering if this intimate revival ought to have been called a staged reading.

 Thankfully, scripts do eventually vanish, if a good half-hour too late, allowing actors to act, lighting and sound designers to design, and post-intermission, scenic and costumes designers to create a more literal set and give each character something to wear other than the black sweats worn rather curiously throughout the “reading” phase.

Having Latinx actors play Dutch Jews may be a hard concept for some to swallow, but for this reviewer at least, it proves a powerful reminder that what happened then can happen again.

Laudable too are the acting opportunities this Diary Of Anne Frank provides a cast likely to draw audiences who have never seen, or might never think to see Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett’s play as adapted by Wendy Kesselman for the 1997 Natalie Portman Broadway revival.

The year is 1942, the Nazis occupy the Netherlands, and two Jewish-Dutch families, the Franks and the Van Daans, have taken refuge in a couple of rooms hidden behind a bookcase in the bookshop owned by Otto Frank (Emiliano Torres) and still run by trusted friends Mr. Kraler (Keith Coogan) and Miep Gies (Heather Olt), the families forced to remain mum during business hours, after which voices can be raised and Kraler and Miep can deliver supplies and news.

 Tough as it is to live in such cramped quarters, Otto, his wife Edith (Tasha Dixon), their daughters Margot (Teddi Shaffer), 16, and Anne (Genesis Ochoa), 13, Mr. and Mrs. Van Daan (Robert C. Raicch and Raquenel) and their 16-year-old son Peter (David Gurrola), and later arrival Mr. Dussel (Raymond Abel), manage to coexist, though not without tensions, tiffs, and tears, month after month after month until …

The best Anne Frank revivals feature a perfectly-cast ensemble of seasoned stage vets, a couple of equally talented younger actors, and above all a gifted young leading lady capable of revealing the title character’s joy, heart, curiosity, and most importantly, wisdom far beyond her thirteen years.

 Ochoa’s pep would serve her well as Pollyanna or Anne Of Green Gables, but it’s not enough for Anne Frank, and the cast that surround her are for the most part no better than okay, with the exception of Elon University grad Shaffer, who in her brief scenes as Margot reveals the performance that might have been had the role of Anne been hers.

Lack of dramatic stage credits appear to hamper a number of cast members, Abel is miscast as middle-aged fussbudget Dussel, and Spanish-language soap diva Raquenel’s heavily accented, Sofia Vergara-like Mrs. Van Daan suffers from telenovela-style acting in a second language.

Torres does get to deliver a powerful final monolog added to the ’97 revival, but its impact is quickly diluted by exit-music gangsta rap.

Casting is by Julie Gale. Bernard Bullin, Aris Alvarado, Elvira Barjau, Andrew Burton, Grace Campos, Charlie Farrell, and Tracey Roone are understudies.

The Diary Of Anne Frank is produced for Pop-Up Playhouse by Anne Kathryn Parma. Rooney is consulting producer.

Rebecca Asquino is assistant director. Caitlin Rucker is stage manager and technical designer.

Ultimately, despite high intentions, a thought-provoking concept, and the draw it will likely prove to new audiences, The Diary Of Anne Frank ends up doing insufficient justice to the girl whose diary gave The Holocaust the most heartbreakingly personal of faces.

Dorie Theatre @ The Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles.
https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3521718

–Steven Stanley
September 7, 2018
Photos: Elvira Barjau

Tags: Anne Frank, Los Angeles Theater Review, Pop Up Playhouse, The Dorie Theatre