Joe DiPietro Brings His Deadly New Show to La Jolla Playhouse

There's a dead body, a debaucherous lifestyle, and a detective on the case. The roaring twenties have never felt as alive and wild as they do in playwright Joe DiPietro's newest noir whodunnit Hollywood. Taking place in 1922 Hollywood, DiPietro's play tells the story of William Desmond Taylor's famous, unsolved murder. Directed by Christopher Ashley, Hollywood takes audiences on a journey through the aftermath of one of the most discussed crimes of the '20s. Previews for the show begin tonight at the La Jolla Playhouse, with opening night set for Wednesday, May 18th. 

A La Jolla Playhouse veteran, DiPietro is best known for his work on the Tony-award winning musical Memphis, as well as I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Returning to the La Jolla Playhouse for the third time, Joe DiPietro spoke with FINE magazine about his writing career, his new show, and the untimely death of William Desmond Taylor.

Can you tell me a little about your background and how you began writing for theater?

I always loved theater. I grew up in New Jersey, so not very far from New York City, and my folks took us to New York to see plays when we were growing up. I had a love of theater right away, and I always loved to write. From an early age, I got interested in narrative as a form of writing and writing dialogue, and I also (for whatever reason) was very interested in old black and white movies when I was a teenager. This was the 1970s, so this was an unusual thing for a teenager in the 'burbs of New Jersey to suddenly be watching Betty Davis movies and Jimmy Cagney movies. I think it instilled in me a love of really great dialogue. I love the dialogue in those movies; they’re so adult and literate and sharp and witty, and I think this play Hollywood is very much inspired by my love of old movies.

This is the second historic drama you’ve written, right?  

Yeah, it is. I actually just had another one premier last season called The Second Mrs. Wilson, which was about Woodrow Wilson’s second wife. It premiered at Long Wharf Theatre and then at George Street Playhouse in last spring and last fall. I seem to be in a historical drama phase. So that was a political drama. [Hollywood] is very much a Hollywood mystery which deals with the politics of Hollywood, the politics of gender, and the politics of stardom. There is a very different tone in the sense that it’s a probably a lighter subject.

What draws you to the historic drama genre? Why are you going through this phase?

You know, I’m a political buff and a history buff. The musicals I’ve written have taken place at different time periods in history, so I always did a lot of research for them, and I’m a voracious reader so I think I just sort of like getting in touch with a time period. It’s always fascinating to write about history because you realize that the more things change, the more they stay the same. People and our actions are similar in that even though the times change and our social norms change, people don’t change, our human behavior doesn’t change. It’s always fascinating to look back and see what’s similar and what we’ve advanced from, and the many ways in which we haven’t. 

You mentioned that this is perhaps lighter than The Second Mrs. Wilson. How would you describe this show in terms of tone and characters for the uninitiated?

It’s very much larger than life people who came to Hollywood. Larger than life personas, I should say. I view it as the first taste of modern celebrity scandal that this country ever had. This was the first time that there were huge movie stars involved and a huge movie director involved in a murder. This was at the dawn of silent films when for the first time there were these national celebrities in people’s homes - you know they saw them on these giant screens which had never existed before. So it’s very much both a law mystery and a satire on Hollywood – it’s very much a look at what it was like, especially for the three women who are the main characters of this piece. [These were] powerful, smart, true women in a world of men. [Hollywood] is very much these three women making their way in this extraordinary place under these extraordinary circumstances of the murder of William Desmond Taylor.

So how soon after the murder do we come into the story?

We actually start on the last day of William Desmond Taylor’s life, so we get to see him and his relationship with the other characters in the story (all of whom become suspects). Then it deals with probably the next month or so of the investigation which was run by the Los Angeles Police Department and the ever escalating public and media hysteria about the case and the suspects. The play shows how [the drama] ruined lives and created all sorts of rumors because the public was outraged at all of the sin and degradation that was suddenly coming to the floor.

William Desmond Taylor’s murder is officially unsolved even though there have been lots of rumors and speculation over the years. How close to history does Hollywood adhere?

It’s not a documentary, as I like to say. It’s an artistic interpretation of the times because in this time period, the documentation wasn’t nearly as thorough as it is today. A lot of the accounts we take were from newspaper articles, many of which were just made up. It’s such a sensational case and the reporters quickly learned that the more outlandish the stories, the [more] newspapers were sold. So even if someone wasn’t a suspect, they said that she was so they could sell the newspapers.

The one real theatrical license I took is I inserted Will Hays, who had just come to Hollywood at that time from Washington. The studios had hired him to essentially clean up their image. Because suddenly, their image was that everyone in Hollywood was decadent, and drinking, and taking drugs, and having orgies. This was not going well with the country, who was religious at the time. Their box office numbers were going down, so Will Hays was brought in to clean up Hollywood. Then he wound up taking a lot of power. Still, I gave him more power in the story than he would have had at that time because I thought it was symbolic.

What was also fun for me with [Hollywood] was that the case was never solved because the police didn’t want it solved. There was a cover-up going on. The fact that [the murder] wasn’t solved is also very appealing to a dramatist because I can solve it in a way that is satisfying. And you have to use your imagination to fill in the blanks because there are a lot of blanks in the story.

So do you solve the murder?

Oh yes, we sure do! We solve it in a hopefully theatrical way… We want the mystery, but we also want to satisfy the two hour murder mystery that people are coming to see. There are suspects and clues. The detective at the time thought it was one of two people, so I went back to there. Generally, in a crime like this, the police have a sense early on of who’s guilty, and it’s about figuring out how [they did it]. But the detective’s first instinct is usually right about what’s happened. Every book about the William Desmond Taylor murder settles [the mystery] differently, but at the end of the day, all of the evidence was thrown out and the major suspects were never properly questioned, or even questioned. So you could never really solve this case.

Finally, this is a world premiere show. Are you nervous for its first showing?

As a writer, I’m always nervous. I’m nervous for the second show! I hope we can make people care about this time period and care about these characters. I think the show will certainly be very entertaining on many levels. 

For more information about Hollywood, visit the La Jolla Playhouse website.