Mastermind 2: The Revenge

I've been pretty damn tired lately and Fridays are usually my stay home and watch TV and drink a beer night, but this Friday I promised I would check out Michael Sullivan's latest version of Mastermind which played as part of a series up in Valley Village. I saw the play once before when Michael cast and directed it, so this was an interesting opportunity to see what another director and actors could do with the same material.

I learned a few things, first being that a good script is a good script. People laughed in all the right places and it was still a sobering story and I still felt a little heat coming off the leads. I also learned just how much an actor can alter the perception of character by reading the same lines in a different way.

The play is about a guy with amnesia who thinks he may have been an evil villain before he woke up in the hospital as a John Doe.

In Michael's version, the lead played Mastermind as a genius with a point, if not an overabundance of ego, but he's level-headed enough that when he hovers over the hot female reporter, the audience can just feel the chemistry on stage, of course that might be because the actors were a couple in real life.

In this version, which was still good, the actor chose to play Mastermind as a real whack job, and kind of gay, so the chemistry the other two actors had was not nearly as strong here. I like some of his choices, though. As he gets closer to the memory, this guy starts acting more and more like his old self. I approve of this choice. And the girl in this version was terrific.

I'm a big fan of Michael, and not just because he's my friend. The boy is a born TV writer and I'm so excited that this play has gotten him some attention. That's why I keep writing about it.

Now here's what I didn't appreciate. The play that followed Mastermind was like a bad Renaissance fair act. Like someone who watched way too much Monty Python but had no idea why it was funny. I don't remember the name of the play, but the premise was that this girl leaves her home and wanders around to different towns where people act all crazy and then she discovers that if she just pretends none of the weird shit happened then somehow her life will be better. I don't know, it was weird.

The thing that perplexed the hell out of me was why people were laughing uproariously at this play. I chuckled twice, but the rest of the audience was in freaking hysterics. I leaned over to the Beefcake and whispered in my Homer Simpson voice, "Why are people laughing?" and he whispered "I don't know."

I was so bored we left before the third play. I'm really glad Michael's was first, and I really hope that next time it's performed, the producers pair it with something that doesn't suck.

I liked a play

This is a rare thing for me. This is a post that will lavish unabashed praise on a colleague.

In LA we get a lot of plays in tiny little corner theaters that barely fit 30 people. On any given night you can probably find some little project, a labor of love for a tiny crew of actors with a smattering of credits and their writer/director who just wants to see his or her work performed for an audience.

I've been to a few of these - usually to watch someone I know - and they're not always good. Sometimes you clap hard for your friend, then on your way out the door you turn to your boyfriend and say, "Thank God that's over." I once saw a theater in the park that made A Midsummer Night's Dream into a dreadful mess.

I knew that wouldn't happen Saturday night when I went to see Michael Sullivan's play in Santa Monica. Since the first time Michael ever let me read one of his short film scripts I've known he'd make it. Michael has what it takes to be a professional TV writer. You know how people always say "Talent will out" around this town? That eventually if you're any good, someone will find you? I always think of Michael when they say that.

By now he is really blushing as he reads this.

Usually when you go see a play starring your friend you have this nagging thought in the back of your head warning you to be nice even if it's garbage. But I wasn't worried.

And I was right. Michael's play, Mastermind, was the second of the evening. The first was a cliche-filled dragging piece about a Mafia family that was supposed to be some kind of feminist piece, but just ended up a hot mess thanks largely to the lead actor's inability to deliver lines with any kind of conviction, and her reliance on broad hand gestures to make up the difference.

That made Michael's piece stand out even more. It was essentially a half hour conversation between two people. One, a man with amnesia who thinks he may have been a supervillain before he lost his memories, and the other his girlfriend who tries to convince him to let it go and get out of town before a bomb that very supervillain planted a year ago goes off and kills everyone in the city.

In the process of discussing their next move and his possible latent memories, they each reveal some major truths about the state of their relationship. So the play is about love, personal identity and the nature of good and evil. It flowed smoothly thanks to good casting and the natural chemistry between the leads, who are a real life couple.

As someone who worked with a real life couple on her short film, I gotta tell you that makes things a whole lot easier.

The play was funny, tragic and beautiful. I didn't look at my watch at all. Actually I don't have a watch but if I did I wouldn't have looked at it.

It's just really nice to be able to tell your friend his play was awesome. I don't have to hem and haw and talk about the lighting. I can straight up say, Dude this was good. I think my exact words were "This is not a bad play. This is actually a good play."

Officially this was a one-time thing, but Michael is trying to find ways to get produce it elsewhere. I hope he succeeds.

Closer to the itty bitty stage

I'm officially on vacation but I still have lots of work to do on the yearbook so I'm not really done yet.

Still, I have eight weeks ahead of me with no major obligations so I'll be finishing Not Dead Yet then trying to crank out another script before I have to go back in May.

Last night I went to see Lead Actor perform as Larry in Closer. I really appreciate Lead Actor doing a gig in a theater within walking distance of my house. That was nice of him because it allowed me to drink copious amounts of champagne at the opening night party without fear of consequences.

I found the play to be much better than the film because I felt like the film was trying to justify the camera in a story that really only needs four people and some props. Then again, what do I know. I prefer films where people get shot.

Sometimes in LA you go to a play in a tiny little theater and pray for the end. This was not one of those times. First of all, Lead Actor is the Fucking Shit on stage. At one point the friend sitting next to me said, "Wow. I've never seen him yell before. He's usually so quiet."

"Then you've got to come to the premiere of Game Night. He yells and throws things and threatens people with tiny knives."

He's really good at measuring his emotional swells. During his big emotional eruption scene I was actually craning my neck to try to get closer to the stage. It didn't work very well.

The other actors I'd never seen before, but they were also very good overall. And the director chose to play them a little less sad at the end, a little more hopeful about the future, which I thought was an interesting and effective choice. One of my problems with this story has always been how much you just kind of feel disgusted with these people and their self loathing, but I kind of got a vibe of desperation coming off them last night too. And I mean that in a good way. They're desperate to be loved, desperate to figure out how to live in this world and figure out how to calm their raging emotions.

So if you're looking to see a show over the next month I recommend it. Tickets are available here. Don't watch the trailer though. It makes it look like a melodramatic crying fest, which it is not.

But if you go please don't whine. One lady whined because there was no biography of the playwright in the program. Another lady whined because there were people smoking in the outdoor grotto where they were selling snacks. Suck it up, it's a itty bitty theater in Hollywood. Quit your bitching.

Also, don't steal people's seats. These French people got up during intermission and went outside and two people who came in late and had to stand because the theater was sold out took the French people's seats. When the French people got back there was almost a fight. We were disappointed to see the situation resolve itself peacefully. Dammit, French people, in America you have to start a fight when somebody steals your seat at the theater!

These seats are pretty tightly arranged so if someone needs to sit on the inside please stand up and let them pass. The French lady refused to get up so she made me climb over her, which in turn made me almost faceplant when my boot caught on my coat as I was trying to step over her knobbly knees. Not cool, French lady. Not cool.

Incidentally the French lady was the one who complained about the playwright biography. Maybe the solution here is to just not invite French people to plays.

Anyway, go see this play if you get a chance and tell Lead Actor I sent you. But don't bring any French people.