Skip to main content Skip to footer site map
Review: A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY at Zephyr Theatre

Review: A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY at Zephyr Theatre

An E-Ticket Dark Ride Into The Soul Of Walt Disney

The title of Lucas Hnath's 2013 play is unwieldy. In fact, if it weren't in italics, we weren't sure whether it was a play title or a press release description. A Public Reading of an Unproduced Screenplay About the Death of Walt Disney succinctly describes the premise, but once we got past the revelation that this was the actual title of the play, we had an idea what to expect, especially after entering the Zephyr Theatre, one of a myriad of tiny black boxes in Hollywood, located on Melrose Avenue. The play completed a limited, two-weekend run on January 28.

Staged as an immersive production, audience members are seated before eight resin folding tables formed in a square upon which have been placed the trappings of a script reading session: coffee mugs stuffed with pens and pencils, lip balm, dispensers of Purell, tissue boxes, yellow pads, and assorted mints and snacks. With no stage, the expectation was that the four cast members listed in the program would be seated along with the audience at the reading tables and it became a game trying to figure out who they were. I suspected that one was sitting next to me: a young man wearing a letterman's jacket, a kerchief wrapped around his head, with a looseleaf binder on the table in front of him and chatting amiably with the guest to his right.

Review: A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY at Zephyr Theatre

Everleigh Brenner as Walt Disney

When the doors to the theatre were closed, a young woman enters and sits at the far table. She introduces herself. "I'm Walt Disney. This is a screenplay I wrote. It's about me." Mixed gender casting is nothing new in Hollywood, and although one expects the actor playing Disney to be the kindly 65-year-old mogul familiar to his fans, the appearance of an attractive young woman in a halter top proclaiming herself as Disney is a little unnerving. That is until Everleigh Brenner begins her performance. Brenner is astonishingly good in the part and as the play progresses, we instantly forget the incongruity of the casting. Hnath's Disney is the Walt the public was never supposed to see: a megalomaniac dying of lung cancer who wants to retain control of his empire and his legacy at all costs. Brenner proceeds to read stage directions from the script, which flow seamlessly without vocal inflection, as if it's a first read by the cast. It becomes a relentless, rhythmic, almost musical patter that takes on its own momentum after one of the "guests" sitting at the tables turns out to be Disney's older brother Roy (played by Sasan Ahmed, disguised wearing a Biden-Harris Team jacket). Walt and Roy finish each other's sentences, punctuated by Walt reading stage directions, with Walt interrupting by repeatedly snapping "cut to" when he hears something he'd rather not hear.

Review: A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY at Zephyr Theatre

Daniel Stonewall rises from the audience to portray Disney son-in-law Ron Miller. Everleigh Brenner is on the far left.

The suspected cast member sitting next to me turned out to be Daniel Stonewall, who plays Ron Miller, Disney's oafish son-in-law, a former professional football player groomed by Disney to become a producer. Shortly after, Maya Valenciano emerges from another table, revealing herself as Disney's unnamed daughter (actually Diane Disney), Miller's wife, who is resentful of her father's cruel and manipulative personality. Stonewall, Valenciano, and Ahmed are all excellent, but this is Brenner's showcase and her shattering performance as Disney is remarkable.

Walt and Roy begin arguing about current projects Walt is working on: nature documentaries, including one about lemmings and a utopian city Walt is planning to build in Florida. His dreamed-of city (which would become EPCOT, whose acronym stands for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow) is designated to be a place "where people can live forever." Walt rails against attempts by Disney employees to unionize, something that actually occurred in 1941, and begins expressing interest in cryonics, the low-temperature freezing of human remains. When he starts coughing up blood into tissues, we realize he recognizes he is dying and that his intentions are to live forever and we begin to understand his desperation and mountainous ego. "You don't live well with people," his daughter tells him. "You're like a god."

As Disney, Brenner berates the other three family members, gulping pills, swigging from a whiskey bottle, swearing incessantly, and behaving totally unlike the avuncular image he has cultivated since becoming the wünderkind of the movie industry in the 1920s. The play is unnerving and cynical, but totally engrossing thanks to Brenner's superlative performance. When Walt boasts about famous personalities saying nice things about him, including President Franklin Roosevelt, scientist Werner von Braun, and actress Doris Day, we start to get an idea of his monstrous ego. Then when he starts praising the likes of Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, who had said Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs was his favorite film, we cannot help but think of Donald Trump's own raging narcissism, and Disney's monstrous agenda becomes apparent. In fact, his sense of self-importance is so out of control that he sees the world not surviving his impending death.

Despite the morose and cynical tone of the play, Hnath injects dark humor throughout the script. Disney has become a cartoon character unto itself, as Hnath takes the worst elements of the various tell-all confessionals about Disney's life and explodes them, mixing fact with speculation in creating a Frankensteinian mad scientist who has let unmitigated success go to his head. The effect is both disturbing and hilarious at the same time.

Review: A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY at Zephyr Theatre

Eveleigh Brenner in the play's shattering final scene

Producer Sidne Phillips and director Brian Eckert effectively use immersive staging to bring the audience into the boardroom. We are aghast, just as are Roy, Ron, and Diane, at Disney's unraveling before our eyes. Some audience members appear petrified that he might target them too, and the effect is as disconcerting as it is entertaining and thought provoking. The play makes us think about how the public Disney persona masked an authoritarian dark side that actually existed to some degree, although not necessarily in the raging fashion portrayed by Hnath in his play. But certainly the next time people who see this play venture again into "The Happiest Place on Earth," they might ponder about how its atmosphere of magic and fantasy was merely a facade for a darker side to the multiple layers of Disney's personality, which represents what happens when overwhelming success is threatened by mortality.



Gay Mens Chorus of Los Angeles Presents Disney PRIDE In Concert At Walt Disney Concert Hal Photo
Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles will celebrate LGBT Pride Month with the Los Angeles premiere of Disney PRIDE in Concert, a show that features 200 Chorus members performing nearly 50 classic Disney songs with a 25-piece orchestra and stunning video projections.

Fine Arts Theatre Beverly Hills Celebrates 86th Anniversary With 1937 Ticket Prices Photo
The Fine Arts Theatre Beverly Hills with celebrate the 86th Anniversary of the historic theatre with retro 1937 ticket prices of twenty-five cents per movie ticket and fifty cents for Double Features during a month-long celebration screening of 11 classic films from April 2 – 30, 2023.

Interview: Fight Choreographer Jen Albert Absolutely Up For The BATTLESONG OF BOUDICA Photo
Originally premiering at last year’s Hollywood Fringe, The School of Night reprises their award-winning production of Battlesong of Boudica April 9, 2023 at The Hudson Backstage. Co-founder and writer Christopher William Johnson directs the cast of Jen Albert, Daniel Adomian, Tom Block, Colin A Borden, Payton Cella, Sara Gorsky, Brad C. Light, Chloe Madriaga, Christopher Neiman, Tristan Rewald, Lacey  Rosewall, Lucy  Schmidt, Allegra  Rodriguez Shivers, Jack TenBarge, Jesse James Thomas, Frank Tirimacco and Dan Wingard. I got to throw out some questions to Jen, who’s playing the titular role of Boudica. And she punched back her answers directly on target.

Homegrown Collective to Play Hotel Cafe This Month Photo
On Thursday, March 30th from 8-10pm, Homegrown Collective will perform at Hotel Cafe Second Stage. The Homegrown Collective artists featured at this perormance are Alena Bernardi, Mina Bloom, Carl Biehn, Ty Mauro, Danny Fitch, Catriona Fray, Gage Getz, Isaac Mailach, Danny Pravder, Bella Hicks, Jason Masoud, Richard Miller, Vanessa Falabella, Manoela Wunder, David Ghesser. The concert will be hosted by Daniel Segura. 


From This Author - Cary Ginell


Interview: Mary Beth Webber of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts PlazaInterview: Mary Beth Webber of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza
March 10, 2023

The classic 1964 musical Fiddler On the Roof arrives in Thousand Oaks on Thursday, March 9 and prior to opening we had a chat with Mary Beth Webber, who plays the part of Yente in the show. Mary Beth is jubilant and honored to join this amazing cast and crew as she makes her national tour debut. Her favorite roles include M'Lynn (Steel Magnolias), Elsa (The Sound of Music), and Mama Noah (Children of Eden), however, her most important role to date is Mom to her seven daughters.

Previews: THE NAMELESS STAR at Conejo Players TheatrePreviews: THE NAMELESS STAR at Conejo Players Theatre
February 27, 2023

On Sunday, March 5, the Conejo Players Theatre will be presenting a staged reading of The Nameless Star, a 1942 play written by Romanian playwright Mihail Sebastian about a chance encounter at a remote train station between a modest astronomy professor at a local girls' school and a glamorous young woman, a stowaway who finds herself stranded after being tossed off an express train for not having the necessary fare. Producer Elena Mills recalled the play from her childhood and has spent years wanting to bring it to the stage, which has resulted in this special theatrical 'experiment.'

Review: A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY at Zephyr TheatreReview: A PUBLIC READING OF AN UNPRODUCED SCREENPLAY ABOUT THE DEATH OF WALT DISNEY at Zephyr Theatre
January 30, 2023

Immersive 'stage reading' of Disney's account of his last days on earth is both frightening and hilarious.

Review: PROMISES, PROMISES at Lonny Chapman TheatreReview: PROMISES, PROMISES at Lonny Chapman Theatre
December 12, 2022

What did our critic think of PROMISES, PROMISES at Lonny Chapman Theatre? Excellent leads and good singing highlight this attractive show.

Interview: Cary Ginell of CAREFULLY TAUGHT (BOOK) atInterview: Cary Ginell of CAREFULLY TAUGHT (BOOK) at
December 5, 2022

Cary Ginell's insightful new book, 'Carefully Taught' looks at 40 musicals, both on Broadway and off, that deal with events and personages in American history. A fun read, educational and highly entertaining. Shows include '1776,' 'Hamilton,' 'Shenandoah,' 'Parade,' 'Hair,' 'Assassins,' and many more.