“Delusion: His Crimson Queen” is a haunt for people who will pay for the privilege of being scared, while "Hollywood Premiere Party: The Show" lets movie fans have the red carpet treatment; as rumors swirl about Netflix being sold, the streaming service continues to throw its weight around.
Paying for a red carpet moment at a fake Hollywood movie premiere
"Hollywood Premiere Party – The Show" has 25 characters, which is large by L.A. theater standards. But when your audience is expecting to be immersed in a big-time movie launch, all the performers — from the caterers to the starlets to the fawning media — has to be in on the gag.
Taking its inspiration from "Tony n’ Tina’s Wedding," where members of the audience were guests at a big Italian celebration, "Hollywood Premiere Party" has the audience fill in for the usual premiere party-goers. It’s writer-director Kerry Logan’s long gestating baby. For inspiration he pulls from his decades as an actor, producer and occasional cater-waiter who once had a fur thrown at him by famed hotel heiress Leona Helmsley.
"A lot of areas of my past have culminated for this," Logan says. When asked if it could be called "Revenge of the Cater-Waiters," he can't help but agree.
According to Logan, the audience will get to hang out on the red carpet, mingle during the “party” as things unfold, and ultimately participate in a Q&A with the cast of the fake film.
There’s a main storyline that’s fairly scripted, but there's a lot of audience interaction. And how's this for a meta-experience: real actors are playing actors, directors and producers who — as part of the show — mistake audience members for folks in the industry ... who might actually be folks in the industry.
And because this is a fake premiere party for a non-existent movie called "Love and Waffles," there’s also a fake trailer for the film, which kind of looks real.
“I have had first-hand experience,” says Kelly Russo, who plays dim bulb starlet Hayden Haze. “My character I’ve made fun of for years, and I wanted to do her justice and make her as ridiculous as possible.”
Russo says there were a lot of personal experiences for her and the other performers to draw from: “I witnessed the starlet hanging all over the director, she’s 15 years younger than him, the loud obnoxious agents, the cool writers, and the actors running around. I’m sure I was one of them — Oh, pick me! Pick me!”
Haldane Morris plays ill-mannered British movie star, Mark Madson. “As far as the people coming to see me, they’re in for a real treat," says Morris, who's looking forward to the freedom he’ll have to misbehave. "I’ve been given the green light to do whatever my character would without getting arrested. Imagine combining Leonardo DiCaprio with Al Gore.”
The show seems to be banking on that love-hate relationship people have with fame. No one likes the paparazzi, but someone sure buys those tabloid magazines. And while jaded Hollywood types may also enjoy the “appropriate for ages 13-plus” sendup, Kerry Logan knows the real target he’s trying to hit:
“This is really, really built for tourists and out-of-towners. The goal is to be a staple in L.A., part of the tourism machine. People come, they go to Universal Studios, and they see 'Hollywood Premiere Party' as a regular event. And also, we’d like to open in Vegas.”
"Hollywood Premiere Party" will be staged at The Manor, a Hollywood nightclub on Vine Street, through Nov. 5. Tickets are $99 dollars, but that includes a meal (drinks are extra), a three-hour performance, and as much funny fake celebrity excess — and access — as you and your entourage can possibly handle.
Click the play button at the top of the page to hear the audio version.
'Delusion' is not your father's haunted house
Haunted houses are a staple in October. But, in recent years, the haunts have become more sophisticated than a walk-through maze where someone screams, Boo!
And they’ve become big business. There are reportedly as many as 30 of them happening in Southern California for this year’s Halloween season.
They aren’t cheap, either — to construct or attend. The creator of “Delusion” — Jon Braver — says it cost him nearly $200,000 to mount this year’s version, and the admission price is $75.
“Delusion" is as an immersive theater experience where audiences interact with actors and are forced to participate in the show — even if it involves climbing into a coffin.
The horror play was created by Jon Braver in 2011. Each year, the shows have been staged inside a historic location in Los Angeles, including an old church and an abandoned manor. For this year's edition, “Delusion: His Crimson Queen,” the setting is a dilapidated estate near downtown L.A.
The Frame's John Horn spoke with Braver about how he got the inspiration to create an immersive theater experience, and how audiences have been responding.
INTERVIEW HIGHLIGHTS
On how Braver's childhood experience influenced "Delusion":
I don't even like haunted houses. I never liked them and I still kind of don't. But I loved movies like "The Shining" and "Aliens," and I thought, How cool would it be to be inside one of those movies? It was really the idea of creating a choose-your-own-adventure thing within an actual structure.
I used to do a lot of that stuff with my friends in a botanical garden. We set up treasure hunts and that was the impetuous.
On how running an immersive theater is risky:
This whole thing is kind of crazy to do because I'm trusting the audience to do what they're supposed to do — to really play the part. Half of them do and half of them don't. If you don't, you're just not going to get what I'm trying to give you. You're not going to get the story, you're not going to get that child-like imagination again.
If you're able to really allow yourself to be captured into the moment and the music ... and the actors are spectacular, so you have to play along. We've had people that just don't really know what to do because it's a very unique event and they just stand in the back.
They love it, but if they were to take that one step deeper they would get so much more.
On the most memorable audience reaction to "Delusion":
In 2014, we had one woman who was strapped to a chair by this puppet creature who was eight feet tall, and he would mess with her and puppeteer her arms. Meanwhile, her group is far away and they would come in [the room] in a couple minutes.
So [the puppet creature] would leave at some point, but she didn't want him to because she was enjoying it way too much. She enjoyed it so much that she completed her enjoyment right there in front of the actor.
HORN: This is something you'd see in an Adrian Lyne film? This is a little NC-17 rated?
Well, she made it that [laughs].
On how Braver wants "Delusion" to be more than just scary:
I'm definitely not going in to scare people. That's not my intention. But at the same time, nothing brings people closer together than being through a horrific experience. So my favorite thing about this show is definitely seeing people coming out with strangers and hugging each other and [asking], What did you do? And it just brings people together.
"Delusion: His Crimson Queen" continues in Los Angeles through Dec. 11.