Bamboozled, or The Real Reality Show

The hero of the play is a lowly but reliable Postman, whose route runs through Jackson Heights. He has always been very happy with his job, delivering the happiness of birthday cards, news of newborns and the romance of marriage invitations. But this year, there is a terrible change–he is carrying a tsunami of unhappiness with pink slips, layoffs, businesses closings, Medicare terminations, closings of hospitals, firehouses and libraries; teacher terminations and condolences sent to the Japanese. The TV haunts his dreams and corrupts his reality, with its bizarre reality shows and its news of wars in which we’re not really there, but somehow we’re bombing them to pieces.

He experiences a visitation from Diablo Hysterico, the Rock ‘n’ Roll King of the Underworld, who reveals to him our Faustian contract with Nuclear Power. Diablo declares, “You are America! Lord and Master of the World!” Our hero resists the responsibility until he is visited by a fugitive from the future, who screams out what he has seen and pleads not to be sent back. But Diablo sings him away, and the Postman flies with him to see a people-less planet–a silent world, with nothing but grasses and overhanging trees, and little animals scurrying here and there, and the only vestige of Human Civilization…a few Pokemon characters left over from a digital remix.

The operetta shows how a strong young man, slipping quickly towards middle age, can see through the maelstrom of bad news towards a clear vision of a cleaner, more harmonious planet. Our hero fools the Devil and reminds us that a really good postman will ring three times if he has to, and even knock the door down if smoke is billowing from inside the house, and a person is screaming for help, as our planet is now.

Bamboozled, or the Real Reality Show performs in all five boroughs of the city. Click here for a complete list of performances and locations.