CULTURE

‘A couple of times people walked out’: how an Anne Frank musical became the hottest theater ticket of the year

Slam Frank, a 2025 off-Broadway musical, reimagines Anne Frank as a pansexual Latina rapper in a satire of identity politics. Its show-within-a-show structure follows a progressive theater company attempting to modernize the Holocaust victim’s story by connecting it with contemporary struggles faced by marginalized people, drawing both fans and detractors across party lines.

Slam Frank is a 2025 off-Broadway musical that reimagines Anne Frank as a pansexual Latina rapper. The production uses a show-within-a-show structure to satirize identity politics.

Within the musical, a progressive theater company tries to modernize the Holocaust victim’s story by paralleling it with contemporary struggles faced by marginalized people. The character based on Frank has a Black mother and a neurodivergent father, and the family is portrayed as immigrants while hiding in Amsterdam.

Creator Andrew Fox said there was “a temptation to categorize it as anti-woke art,” but noted that the production’s fans and detractors come from across the political spectrum. He said the piece aims to grapple with 15 years of cultural and intellectual upheaval while producing comedy.

The source reports that people walked out of the production on a couple of occasions.

THE QUESTIONS THIS EVENT LEAVES BEHIND

What assumptions about adapting historical trauma does the production ask audiences to accept?

Who has the power to define whether satire of identity politics is interpreted as criticism or endorsement?

What conditions might lead some audience members to leave during a performance?

How could presenting Anne Frank through contemporary identity categories affect the story’s reception?

Would the production’s reception change if its show-within-a-show framing were removed?

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26 September 2026 · 10:49 · 1 sources

Sources

Culture — ‘A couple of times people walked out’: how an Anne Frank musical became the hottest theater ticket of the year