Accomplice: Hollywood Provides Surprises for Tourists and Locals

There’s a new game in town. Accomplice: Hollywood mixes elements of mystery dinner theater (minus the fromage factor), scavenger hunts and improv to make for an afternoon of surprises dotted throughout Hollywood Boulevard.

Created by Tom Salamon and co-produced by Salamon and Neil Patrick Harris, the Hollywood version is a spinoff from the originals in New York (Downtown Manhattan, Greenwich Village).

In this edition, Hollywood Boulevard becomes the stage. You never know exactly who’s in the production, and that’s the best part--being kept in the dark. In fact, even when tickets are purchased, you’re not told where the show begins. But we’ll tell you this much: It begins with a telephone call.

All we were told--by a highly caffeinated assistant on the other end of the line--was that her boss, a Hollywood starlet, has been kidnapped. It was up to our team to find her. We needed to meet her at Hollywood & Highland the following day (which yes, is kind of a pain, but at least it wasn’t CityWalk!) where she would explain it all.

We met with the java junkie the following day, and after a quick debrief, she handed us a few slips of paper and her phone number and left our small group of four to its own devices. After figuring out the first few clues, we headed onto Hollywood Boulevard, which was packed with throngs of weekend tourists. But that’s when Accomplice got really interesting.

Is this tourist in on the Accomplice? | Photo by Christine N. Ziemba for LAist.
Our group was given names of people to find or places to go, but not much else. Other times, really random people find you. You just never know who’s in the game. Is the Batman with the lace cape on the Boulevard part of the game? What about that Midwestern family of tourists? What about the bartender at the cafe? Maybe. But maybe not. You might end up asking people things who haven't a clue about what the hell you’re talking about. Might as well have asked if they’ve seen Keyser Söze sipping martinis at Musso and Frank.

Sure, some of the stops during the game could have been a little shorter, but everyone in our group--all locals--were just amazed at how much you re-learn by walking along the Boulevard. (Oh that’s where LACE is? I saw Mortified at King King. Where exactly have all the hookers gone?)

We can’t give too much else away, but trust us, even at the end of our three-hour walking production, Accomplice: Hollywood managed to save some of the best surprises for the end.

The details:

Accomplice: Hollywood
Tickets are $65 (includes a few drinks and light appetizers during the approximately 2.5 hour show)
Groups of 10 begin every half hour from 1 pm to 5 pm, Saturdays and Sundays