For the night owls, insomniacs, radio aficionados and air-wave sensualists of this world, Joe Frank needs no introduction. For years now, the NPR radio personality, author and provocative verbal magician/performance artist has hypnotized listeners with an hour of storytelling that is broadcast Sunday nights at 11 p.m. on WBEZ, 91.5 FM in Chicago. His unique blend of the erotic and neurotic, and the philosophical and religious (Judaism, Buddhism and more), is laced with a rueful, sardonic edge that plays on the disconnect and angst of contemporary urban life and relationships.
Frank, who drew full houses to his two previous live performances at Stepppenwolf Theatre (“Just An Ordinary Man,” performed here in 2010, and “Too Close to Home” in 2011), will return for one night only — March 1 — with his new show, “Murdered by the Mind.” Directed by ensemble member Terry Kinney, it will feature musicians Danny Frankel (on percussion) and David Ralicke (saxophone and keyboards).
Frank, who began his radio career in 1977 at WBAI in New York, and served as co-anchor of NPR’s “All Things Considered” in 1978, has produced more than 200 radio programs over the past three decades for California’s KCRW and National Public Radio. He has been a Guggenheim Fellow and been honored with the George Foster Peabody Award, two Major Armstrong Awards and two Corporation for Public Broadcasting Awards for Radio Drama.
Tickets ($28; $15 students) for the performance on the Steppenwolf mainstage, 1650 N. Halsted, will go on sale Jan. 10 at 11 a.m. Call (312) 335-1650 or visit www.steppenwolf.org.
