Star Stuff

The 40 Plus Stage Company is proud to present Star Stuff, a play written by Mark Pirolo and Jackson Mattek. Sir Harrison Shaw, a luminary on both sides of the Atlantic for his benchmark performances in the iconic roles of the classical repertoire, is, at seventy-three, witnessing the nadir of his career due to debilitating illness. “Being onstage was my life,” he complains, “Having that taken from me leaves me with what? Hours of playing solitaire and thumbing through scrapbooks?” His friend and agent, Marion Silberman, suggests the remedy for Harrison’s malaise is to tutor her most successful client, rock star Jonah Hardt, for whom she has secured the lead role in a new Broadway musical.

Having reached the pinnacle of success as a pop star, why shouldn’t he try acting? Sinatra, Presley, and Streisand did it, the only problem is, Jonah can’t act. Marion prevails upon Harrison, against his better judgment, to coach her high maintenance client and host him in the guesthouse of his spacious Westport, Connecticut home. However, when Jonah arrives for the tutoring to begin he, unexpectedly, has his boyfriend Connor Corrigan in tow, a development which only further serves to re-enforce Harrison’s belief that he has made a grievous error in agreeing to Marion’s plan.  Hope is high that the instruction will go well, despite Jonah’s nearly impenetrable self-involvement and his tenuously highhanded relationship with Connor who Harrison comes to find genuine, eager to learn, and surprisingly talented.

Will Jonah realize his career and his relationship with Connor are at stake and begin to take his studies seriously? As Harrison becomes ever fonder of Conner and more and more impressed with the depth of his talent, can he help him find his own path to success? Will Conner and Jonah’s relationship survive Conner’s coming into his own and starting his own career? And will Harrison’s long-standing friendship with Marion and his unlikely rapport with Connor survive the chaos of the situation and the increasing complications of his health? Playwrights Pirolo and Mattek give us an engaging, complex comedic drama with thoroughly credible characters as each is confronted with the need to change in order to find personal fulfillment.