Surviving L.A. - Takes an Accomplice!

Many of you may have willingly or unwillingly been involved in a Mystery Dinner Theater show. Admittedly, these events run the gamit on quality - from the actors to the script quality to the other participants. And, lest we forget, the quality of the food.

Taking the basic idea of an interactive story experience out of the rubber chicken circuit is a group of innovators who started on the streets of New York, enlisting participants as active sleuths while guiding them through a series of locations in search of clues hidden in and around businesses in New York leading to the solution to a mystery. I thank my friend Suzanne for giving the thumbs up to the NY experience, prompting L.A. visitors Diana and Otto to suggest we take in the West Coast installment: Accomplice Hollywood.

accomplicetheshow.com

I am not going to give away the plot exactly, but this will have some spoilers in it. So if you think you might ever do this - which I do recommend - you might want to avoid my spoilers below.

The show experience starts a few days prior, when you are asked to watch a video online and you get a call explaining where you should meet to start the experience. We started ours at a famous landmark on Hollywood Boulevard. We had a great group of 8 people, everyone at least semi-willing to participate and work together on the clues.

We moved from clue to clue, taking in different sites on Hollywood Boulevard and meeting some accomplices along the way.

******SPOILER ALERT!!********

You are helped between some of the locations and clues by actors you encounter spread out among the various businesses willing to let the production set up there. Two sites were restaurants in which it was pretty easy to identify our target...they were waiting in a corner with cold beer and water for the group. (Big thumbs up for the refreshment, just wish they would have had wine too!) In other places, it was much more difficult. One of the more hilarious situations was the clue in which we had to find a character in Hollywood Blvd.

This challenge actually ended up being for the actor.

Hollywood Blvd. between Mann's Chinese theater and the Hollywood Highland Center used to be crawling with various people dressed as all manner of movie and TV characters (and some just in really bad Halloween costumes) who, for a suggested $2 tip, will pose with you for your family photo. A few weeks ago, police cracked down on these folks for panhandling. Having a storyline that includes one of these characters suddenly got very, very risky. He also tends to stand out, making him easy to find. But I felt enormously sad for the actor in that heavy costume and mask outfit standing in the sun all weekend, while his co-stars hung out in bars with beer!

By the end of the experience you are starting to look at everyone on the street and wonder if they are part of it. We will never walk on Hollywood Blvd. and see a group of tourists closely examining the words written on the walk in the Hollywood Highland Center and not feel the urge to go over and thrown them off the scent!

*****END OF SPOILERS*****

My only complaint about the production (other than the lack of wine as a beverage option!) was that the story and clues did not have much of a focus on the history of the area. The show could have given us a better tour of the area; I would have appreciated knowing more about the places we visited and walked past.

Otherwise, I had I good enough time I would do the NY show as well (they have multiple options there).

So, we continue to survive Los Angeles - with accomplices to help!