If you know Frank O'Hara, it's probably because of 'For Grace, After a Party'. Or maybe 'Meditations in an Emergency'. Or maybe 'Sharing a Coke with You' or 'Lana Turner Has Collapsed'. He was one of the great documenters of zeitgeist, but almost never wrote about anything other than Frank O'Hara.
You’ve also got to remember that the Frank O'Hara in the poems is not the same person as the person writing the poems. The two often get tangled but they are separate, one chastising or reminiscing or reflecting about the other's fantasies, anxieties, and excesses.
Maybe because he never deigned comment on much anything aside from himself (and Rachmaninov - he loved Rachmaninov) his poetry has an easy unpretentiousness that makes it beautiful to read - especially when he read it - and very, very difficult to set to music.
So here I've leaned into the idea of the two Franks, and to mirror that, the singer and pianist each split themselves in two. The singer plays the MC to his own show, but he plays an MC which is a bit less attentive than we'd imagine. And the pianist shuffles between two pianos as they alternate between two types of playing.
With thanks to Andrew Bearden Brown, George Ireland, and Gary Matthewman.