Adultery, murder, and the search for self-identity. Lies, deception, and the longing to love and be loved back. As they were portrayed in the films, it was not uncommon for the 1940s generation to use betrayal and cunning wits to get ahead—especially in the Hollywood movie business.
This past weekend, the RPI Players presented City of Angels (directed by Debbie May), a story by Larry Gelbart which examines such lifestyles while blurring the distinction between real life and the movies, even from the opening number. The “Angel City Eight” (Erin Carroll ’10, Michelle Gore, Kat Foley ’10, Maggie McLellan, Tim Hermann, David Love ’09, Allan Pendergrast ’08, and Greg Zabielski) immediately set the mood by incorporating scat vocals with a lively orchestra and voice-overs reminiscent of the older detective movies.
After darkness and distant gunshots, the curtain lifted to reveal movie cast main character Private Eye Stone, played by Bradley Lamoureux ’07—some people may remember his solid performance as Cervantes/Don Quixote in Man of La Mancha. Stone is lying on a hospital gurney after being shot in the shoulder, and others are questioning whether or not he will “make it.” The audience then wonders what the situation is surrounding the shooting. Instead of answering these questions, the play moves back a week to a scene in his office. His genuinely sweet secretary, Oolie (Heather Hewitt), introduced him to the rich, beautiful, and dangerous Alaura Kingsley (Jillian Dion), who initially lies about her name and marital status.
It is then when the movie story starts to reveal itself, as Alaura requests Stone’s assistance in finding her missing stepdaughter Mallory (Laura Tortorici). Although Stone has a bad feeling about this case, he agrees to help out the seductress, and his desperation for income shows. After a few snide remarks between Stone and Oolie, the spotlight moves to the other half of the stage, where a man is in his office tapping away at a typewriter. Seemingly unpleased with the actors’ final comments, he curls his brow and rewrites the scene as he sees fit. The actors even moved and spoke backwards, as if being rewound, a technique that was utilized a few times throughout the show.
It turns out that this man is the movie story’s writer, known only as Stine, who was played by Marc Destefano. Stine, as we later find out, has written a few detective novels starring Stone, and he is now adapting one as his first screenplay. However, the road to the big screen is full of detours—many attributed to Buddy Fidler (Chris Guyon ’10), Stine’s boss and the movie’s producer/director, who tries to re-write everything Stine writes, even if it is a direct line from his original book. But the more Buddy pushes Stine to change his words, the more resistance he faces, and the more the audience learns about each Hollywood character and his or her corresponding movie character.
A few scenes later, Stone is alone in his humble abode, and is threatened by two “hoods” who warn him to drop the Kingsley case. After refusing to comply with their request, Stone is badly beaten up, though the scene was covered by the Jimmy Powers (Michael Flynn ’09) and the Angel City Eight singing, acting as Stone’s radio music, which was turned up to drown out the beating. Ironically, the nine singers are belting out “You Gotta Look Out For Yourself,” but the advice is too late for Stone. He is later rudely awakened by Lieutenant Munoz (Taylor Faulstich ’09), who holds a major grudge on his former LAPD partner.
In another flashback, more is revealed about this grudge and Stone’s unfaithful girlfriend, a lounge singer named Bobbi (Meighan Carivan-Esmond), who is apparently based on Stine’s own wife, Gabby. It seems that Bobbi was more interested in becoming a star than marrying Stone, and she tried to get in the business by sleeping with a producer, obviously based on Buddy’s character. Stone caught the pair in action, which sparked his temper, and two shots were fired into the producer’s chest. The official report, however, stated that the man died of a “heart attack.” Munoz still has not forgiven Stone for essentially getting away with murder, and jumps at any chance to push his buttons or cart him away to jail.
This grudge is not in Stone’s favor, as he is slowly being entangled in a Kingsley family web of deceit, especially after visiting their mansion to withdraw from the case. Stone goes to confront Alaura about the beating, and sees the stepson Peter (Jeff Honan ’09) inappropriately massaging her legs. It appears after this scene that Peter and Alaura have conspired together in some plan, but the suspense grows after Stone is introduced to the Mr. Kingsley (Bob Fishel ’07)—a much older man who made his fortune during the war but is now deathly ill and encased in an iron lung—and his spiritual advisor (Mark Celeste ’09). As each family character is introduced, there are more and more possibilities of conspiracy, and it is unclear who is working with whom. Stone, however, stays on the case, and continues his search for Mallory, accompanied by the Angel City Eight scatting “Ev’rybody’s Gotta Be Somewhere.”
After returning to his bungalow, Stone discovers Mallory waiting naked in his bed, yet resists the urge to give in to his sexual desires. However, she manages to get him in a compromising position, and after a photographer snaps evidence of the encounter, she steals his gun, which is in turn used to murder the spiritual quack. Soon after, Stone finds himself being arrested by Munoz—who rubs it in Stone’s face with the sardonic “All You Have To Do Is Wait,”—for a crime he is being framed for. The scene is actually being dictated by Stine and Buddy, who is trying to remove all vulgar language from the screenplay and alter the fuel behind Munoz’s anger. The crime, though, just raises further questions about what exactly is going on within the Kingsley family.
In the Hollywood life, Stine is steadily finishing the screenplay as Buddy’s mannerisms slowly build anger within him, and he is starting to interact more with his conscience, in this case Stone. An affair with Buddy’s assistant also turns sour, as Stine discovers that she has also been rewriting some of his work. His wife Gabby has also learned of the affair, and though he comes up with a solid excuse, she is sick of hearing his tales. Stine is finding himself alone and both his real and fictitious worlds are falling apart, which leads him to turn bitter.
Back in the movie realm, Stone goes to visit Bobbi at a brothel, where the facts about the producer’s murder come to light. Arguments cannot settle the situation, and the two realize that they may be better off without each other—especially after Stone hears that Peter was a regular customer and knew about the murder. Stone becomes infuriated and demands to know the truth, once and for all. Meanwhile, Oolie has made the breakthrough discovery about Alaura that will help Stone solve the case. It seems that Mrs. Kingsley was previously Mrs. Drexel, and the unfortunate Mr. Drexel was another ailing, rich man, whom she murdered for the money, and planned to do the same after eliminating the rest of the Kingsley family. However, she played them against each other, and even played Stone, who was blinded by her skimpy outfits.
After bringing this to light, Alaura pulls out a gun, and those in the room grapple for her gun. A few shots are fired, and it seems Alaura is dead and Stone is severely wounded—the shots and wound from the beginning of the play. Peter survives, despite being tricked into killing Mallory, but Mr. Kingsley had already been poisoned. However, the mystery of who was behind everything has been solved.
For the finale, which takes place on a movie set, Stine has finally had enough of Buddy’s antics, especially when he sees who will play Stone and that Buddy’s name appears above Stine’s on the screenplay. He gets fired and before being escorted out by security guards, Stone is instead behind the typewriter and giving Stine the courage to fight back. It all turned into a “Hollywood ending” as Gabby returned to forgive everyone, and the cast sang “I’m Nothing Without You.”
Overall, the performance was impressive, and the actors really captured the personality of each character, in both real life and movie. The story was very intriguing, and kept the audience guessing as they not only had to sort out the Kingsley family ordeal but also draw the parallels between real life and movie script. This was a job very well done by all, including the orchestra and crew.
