by Timothy Rutt
Frost was last in town in February to perform her one woman autobiographical play, "Bad Role Models and What I Learned from Them," in the Altadena stables which were actually the scene of much of the action.
Frost writes us that summers in Altadena are more pleasant than summers in New York City, so she's planning to spend several weeks here while she performs her play at Webster's on Sunday afternoons.
"I'll be doing the show weekly on Sundays at 5 PM, starting on Sunday, July 21, and going through August, which the exception of Sunday, July 28."
Why Webster's? Lori Webster says that "Polly and I talked right before she did her show at Desdy's stable in February... we kept the conversation going. She wanted to come back to Altadena during the summer to do her show over a few weeks, so I suggested the Coffee Gallery, She said she'd rather do it at Webster's. I told her we did book signings and had a bit of room, but that we were planning on rearranging things to make even more room, and she decided right then that she wanted to do her play here at WFS. She said that she wanted to do her play in a place that was important to her when she was growing up here, and that nothing else in town was that iconic to her."
Frost, writing to us from Louisville, Kentucky, where she's been performing the piece, says that she's made several improvements to it since she was last here. "I've also been working with a NYC theater director who specializes in one-person shows -- he's worked with Bette Midler, done cabaret at The White House, gets flown out to do Vegas and California shows. He loves my show and was really incredible as a coach. For one thing, he told me that I should never glitz it up, that I should do it intimately. I've done a lot of work on the show."
Jaime Lubin, reviewing the play for The Huffington Post, said "Frost has garnered comparisons to Edith Wharton, but in performance she emits more of a Garrison Keillor vibe. Her Altadena is as perfectly crafted and fully alive as Lake Wobegon -- although there's nothing fictional about Frost's reminiscences -- and her mellifluous voice brings to mind the great radio stars of yore. Like Keillor, Frost invites spectators to think, to laugh, to imagine life's possibilities and endless absurdities."
Tickets are $15, and you can make reservations at by calling Webster's at (626) 797-1135 or Frost's reservation line: (805) 450-9955.
