Erik Champney

Hollywood, 1964: Clayton Boyd is America’s favorite movie star and the symbol of family values. For years, studio moguls have maintained an aggressive publicity campaign to promote the unstoppable power of Clayton’s masculinity. They’ve even provided him with the perfect wife, cherished television icon Carol Hayes. Behind the scenes, Clayton is nurturing a wild love affair with Jack Halpon, a former Mouseketeer with radical politics and big ideas. This flock of celebrity royals is kept on a tight leash by talent agent Henry Willson, whose methods of control are becoming frighteningly draconian. Clayton, Carol, and Jack have sold their souls for a prison, and Henry would sooner summon a bloodbath before releasing them from it. Time is running out, and their defiance is stirring up ample friction to light a fuse that could galvanize an explosion hot enough to melt the silver off every screen in Tinseltown. A mouthwatering soufflé, served with razor blades, Sparkler uncovers the corrupt dynasty of a tyrannical studio system, guarded by structures of tarnished metal once known as The Golden Age of Hollywood.

• Industry Reading, featuring Stephanie Styles, Daniel Mitura, Cameron Forster, Michael J. Burg.; dir. Ryan Dobrin. New York, NY.

• Rehearsed Reading, featuring Stephanie Styles, Chad Ryan, Marrick Smith, Michael Gnat; dir. Erik Champney. New York, NY.

• Industry Reading, presented by Kierstead Productions & Broadway Factor; feat. Alan Cumming, Erich Bergen, Christy Altomare, Garrett Clayton; dir. Sheryl Kaller. New York, NY.

• Reading, dir. Sheryl Kaller. New York, NY.

• Reading, dir. Leigh Silverman. New York, NY.

• Workshop of the Original Half-Hour Version, Paradise Factory; dir. Janet Bentley. New York, NY.