How good is your Johnny Utah?
Point Break Live! invites its audience to try out for the lead role
Since it debuted in Seattle in 2003, Point Break Live!—a stage adaptation of Kathryn Bigelow’s cheesy but revered 1991 action flick—has enjoyed an ongoing run in Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s easy to see why: In addition to re-enacting the best parts of the original, Point Break Live! gets the audience involved by casting one lucky member in the lead role, taking on Keanu Reeves' Johnny Utah character at a moment’s notice. The show shares the same story as the film, of a college football star turned FBI agent investigating a group of surfers who occasionally rob banks wearing masks of former U.S. presidents. The A.V. Club was fortunate enough to crash a dress rehearsal of Point Break Live! earlier this week before the real show's opening night tonight at the New Rock Theater, so we donned our best Keanu Reeves impression to file this minute-by-minute report.
Monday, March 15
5:30pm: In the car on the way to the New Rock Theater, Tracie Dahlke, who plays the Production Assistant, tells me two things essential to playing Johnny Utah: “We will provide you with a wet suit,” and “if I jump on you, fall.”
5:48pm: We finally arrive. New Rock is indistinguishable from the other storefronts on Elston, save for a small sign above the door. PBL! bought the theater when they first arrived months ago, and have managed to turn the cramped space into something that can seat an audience of 100 while still leaving ample room for the cast to run around firing cap guns.
5:50pm: Errol McLendon, who plays Utah’s disgruntled partner Angelo Pappas, shows off his six favorite Hawaiian shirts, quizzing the rest of the cast on what best resembles something Gary Busey might wear.
5:51pm: The cast stretches and does yoga onstage. After, a few review their fight scenes. Cody Evans, the muscle-bound blonde who plays Nathanial, one of the surfers/bank robbers, reminds them: “Don’t forget to make contact when you’re throwing the punch.”
6:15pm: Matt Peck, who plays Bodhi, accidentally slaps Nathanial Card in the face. Card, who plays Roach, another surfer, takes a minute to recover. “It looked really good, though,” Dahlke says cheerfully.
7pm: The show starts. Jay Berger tells the imaginary audience there’s a bar in the theater and hands out kits of sunscreen, fake money, and ponchos. Real audiences should definitely wear the ponchos: They will get wet, and it won't always be water.
7:05pm: Leah Cowen comes onstage as Kathryn Bigelow and says, "I need a new Johnny Utah. Keanu's agent is asking for too much." The A.V. Club gets called onstage with two other people to audition for the role. During the real show, the audience determines who gets to play Utah by applauding the loudest for the one who best captures Reeves' vacant stare, and can best scream, "Are we gonna jump or jerk off?" while doing jumping jacks.
7:06pm: Dahlke, in character as the Production Assistant, takes me backstage. “This is when you’d put on your wetsuit,” she tells me.
7:10pm: Dahlke shows me cue cards whenever Keanu has lines, which happens much more than anticipated. When not talking, I’m kept busy by Cowen—playing Utah’s love-interest/surf instructor—teaching me to surf by pushing me onto a fake surfboard and then tackling me whenever I try to stand on it. Then the rest of the cast slaps my ass a lot. The Utah role shapes up to be perfectly suited for an audience member: Instead of watching an expecting actor get tossed around and tackled for an hour and a half, the audience gets to watch it happen to a hapless volunteer.
7:53pm: Not that the audience gets off easy. Act II begins with a surf scene, and to emulate the ocean, the cast throws cups of water at the audience and shoots at them with water guns. Tonight, they throw water at director Eve Hars. “I think I may be one of the few directors who has to take notes with people throwing water all over me,” she says proudly while shaking out her notebook.
8:08pm: After Bodhi realizes Utah is an undercover agent, he does what any bank robber would do: takes him skydiving with his crew. In the show, this is represented by the group sitting on a small bench, wearing goggle-like sunglasses and backpacks. When they jump in the actual show, Bodhi and Johnny will actually be suspended in air by harnesses.
SLIDESHOW: Point Break Live!
After the cast picks a Johnny Utah from the audience, the Production Assistant sticks by him with cue cards.
8:09pm: Derrek Elstro, who plays another surfer, falls loudly after his skydiving sequence and says, “I ruptured my taint. I’m walking offstage.” There's a lot of ad-libbing throughout the show, so it's hard to tell if this is part of the script, an improvised joke, or if it actually happened.
8:18pm: Pappas gets into an argument with his superior about their progress with the case. It gets personal. "I was in this bureau when you were still popping zits on your funny face and jerking off with the lingerie section of the Sears catalog," he yells, embellishing the movie line with a jerking-off gesture, and then throwing water. In the real show, it’ll be mayonnaise.
8:20:01pm: Pappas gets shot to death during a firefight amid crowd seating.
8:20:05pm: He recovers and continues firing…
8:20:08pm: …And then he gets shot to death again.
8:20:11pm: Pappas recovers and continues firing. By this point the audience will be covered in fake blood.
8:24pm: The sound of waves crashing booms through the theater while lights flash on and off ominously. Or, at least that’s the plan. For now it’s eerily silent, save the sound of feet stomping around the theater while Bodhi prepares for his final surf in Australia. “This we still need to work on a bit,” Hars whispers.
8:30pm: Curtain call. The show’s over.
8:36pm: The cast sits around and listens to the director’s notes. “When you say, ‘Tell us about your balls,’ be more inquisitive,” she tells one of the surfers. Good advice for us all.
PBL! has an open run Fridays and Saturdays through the end of May.
