by
Awards
and Honors for KILLING DANTE . . .
McLaren
Memorial Comedy Competition
One
of four Winning Finalists.
Chosen
for New England Academy of Theatre New Works Series, Special Edition
Chosen
for New England Actors Theatre
New Play Reading Series
Chosen
for The Attic Ensemble Theatre
Original Play Search Summer Reading Series
Beverly Hills Theatre Guild – Semi-Finalist
Fortune 500 business tycoon ROGER CABOT has given up his power and possessions for a bohemian life in a loft in New York City to become the artist he always wanted to be. But not everyone is happy with Roger’s new lifestyle. RICHARD BORMAN (Roger’s business protégé) is convinced that Roger’s surreal, erotic paintings, his frolics with female models, his cultivation of a Zen rock garden, and, worse, his development of a strange ability to see sounds amounts to evidence of insanity. Persuaded by Richard, REBECCA (Roger’s only child and Richard’s fiancée) agrees to a scheme designed to return Roger to the man he once was.
Richard calls upon, DR. JASON STEWART, a pioneering neurosurgeon, to cure Roger with his latest experimental technique. To get Roger to talk with him, Jason pretends to be DANTE, an art gallery owner who is interested in Roger’s paintings. ABIGAIL EVANS, a wisecracking reporter who is ghost writing Jason’s new book, poses as Dante’s fiancée.
The Dante pretense is blown when Jason’s real fiancée, AVIS HARPINGER, a lawyer, arrives. Left alone together, Roger and Jason develop a bond when Roger coaxes Jason into revealing his secret life.
Meanwhile,
a gay SoHo art dealer, THOMAS THOMAS, mistakes Richard for the artist Roger.
Richard concocts a scheme to sell Roger’s paintings as his own -- under
his “real” name --- DANTE RUSE.
When the operation turns Roger into a ruthless businessman who orders Richard to dress up like a woman to entrap a rival in a sex scandal, and then, later, to kill the same rival, Richard soon regrets his plan. Unbeknownst to anyone except Jason and Roger is that Roger never went through with the operation. However, Roger's own scheming interferes with his attempt to woo Abigail as well as with Jason's and Rebecca's growing attraction for each other.
Complicating things further for Richard is news that Roger’s paintings have become the darling of the New York art world. Richard reluctantly turns out more versions of Roger’s nudes. While frantically juggling his secret life as an artist with giving the appearance of carrying out Roger’s questionable orders, Richard’s lies quickly unravel. Roger learns someone named Dante Ruse has been selling his paintings as his own. He puts out a hit on the mysterious Dante -- and assigns Richard the role of hit man. In the meantime, Avis calculates a cunning move concerning Dante Ruse that will ensure Jason and Rebecca will never get together.
In the end, schemes and dreams are revealed, and everyone gets what they deserve in this farcical comedy that is fast and furious and great fun along the way.
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