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Movie Geek

nytheatre.com review by Gyda Arber
August 15, 2005

The FringeNYC Festival is always full of multimedia pieces, shows that combine theatre with film, yet very few succeed at completely integrating the two. Movie Geek, however, one of this year’s multimedia offerings, quite effectively marries both genres to deliver a fully realized story about a fictional movie mogul who changed the face of Hollywood as we know it.The show begins with a montage of famous movie themes (including ET, Gone with the Wind, and North by Northwest) that transports us back to the days when movies actually had overtures, much like musicals today. With this fitting opening, we are thrust into the world of Movie Geek, whose Citizen Kane–like mysterious last word ("Noseplug") launches us into a series of flashbacks that reveal his life story. Interspersed among the flashbacks, primarily performed live on stage, are filmed interviews with Movie Geek’s biographer, a Liz Smith–type gossip columnist, and several “friends,” celebrity cameos by Kathleen Turner, Bill Cosby, and Henry Winkler (yes, really!). Clips from referenced films are also interspersed throughout.The cast is uniformly good, especially Josh Halloway as the Narrator, Maggie Marion as the love of Movie Geek’s life, Paulette, and writer Dylan Dawson in the title role. Much of the humor in Dawson’s script comes from extensive film quotes, sometimes full scenes, from movies like A Few Good Men and Fatal Attraction. Aaron Maurer’s filmed segments fit perfectly between the live scenes and frequently interact with the onstage action, most successfully in a scene in which our hero tries to hop a freight train.Movie Geek is a humorous addition to this year’s FringeNYC, and a tribute to movie geeks everywhere—the celebrity cameos alone make it worth checking out. Do, however, try to sit in the front; much of the action, on stage and on screen, is close to the stage floor, and it’s nearly impossible to see much of it from the nosebleed seats.