Thomas Hampton Reviews ABOVE THE LINE at Bootleg/ Indecent Exposure

“The world is a bright and shiny apple that’s mine, all MINE.”
Frank Sinatra, Pocketfull of Miracles

Playwright Susan Rubin continues her trilogy (that started with BITCH a couple of years ago,) with ABOVE THE LINE (Below the Belt: A Comic Play About the Making of a Hollywood Movie) presented by Indecent Exposure at Bootleg.  Ms. Rubin has once again partnered with director Mark Bringelson to bring us a Hollywood tale dealing mostly with the pre-production of a movie musical, “TEA!” yet sharply focused on the sexual lives and gamesmanship of the players behind the scenes.

For anyone “making it” in Hollywood, or struggling while trying (or struggling whilst making it, even making it while struggling,) it is always a wonderful schadenfreude-istic experience to see your worst fears/ firsthand knowledge of the duplicity and dunce-ocracy that is the sausage grinder of the “real work” of the producers who get pictures green lit and thrown up on the screen- with their names attached, of course.

It is easy to feel contempt for Jeremy, the mama’s boy producer who epitomizes the worst of a never-ending nepotistic line of Hollywood royalty, and Angela, the studio exec frantically swimming up river to keep her job and social station while barely able to juggle her once a month custodial weekend with the only remnant of a failed marriage.  Neither are familiar with the events of, or leading to, the Boston Tea Party.  Each exude ignorance by equating all of Silverlake to a Homeless Shelter, and mistaking the underlying tenets of Judo for Kung Fu.

The inside baseball Hollywood dramedy is nothing new.  Perhaps best brought to life on film by Altman’s The Player, sometimes these stories don’t have much resonance outside of our LA bubble, or even East of La Brea.  Does anyone remember what became of Action, on Fox?  Fortunately for the team behind and in ABOVE THE LINE, they are playing to a crowd who enjoys seeing their own foibles laid bare on stage (or at least those of their bosses.)

What truly lies at the core of ABOVE THE LINE, however, are sexual politics and power plays.  Even though they may seem to be powerful players in the business, and acclaimed successes in their chosen professions, the uber producers and A-list screenwriter are not satisfied to merely be in charge.  They have to dominate, emasculate, and completely eviscerate the intellect and challenging natures of anyone before they jump in to bed with them (literally or figuratively.)  And in this town, it is this ability to lord over others, to fulfill wishes and crush dreams, that creates the opiate like lull of invincibility that drives each of Rubin’s characters to their ultimate comeuppance.

Like an episode of Law & Order, the plot moves, the performances are steady and worthwhile, and the audience is afforded it’s fair share of red herrings.   ABOVE THE LINE, as whole, does not disappoint… that is if it is your cup of tea.

Thematic content includes:  Sex, Singing, Humor, Violence, Love

ABOVE THE LINE runs from 3/19 to 4/24
Th,F,S 8pm $12 to $20
Map of Bootleg
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