Can You Keanu?

The lights fade to black as the strains of “Welcome to the Jungle” build to a roar. And then he appears, standing in a lone spotlight at centre stage.

Keanu Reeves.

Well, it’s not exactly Keanu Reeves.

Tonight it’s Mozhan Marnó, a 29-year-old actress from Los Angeles. Last Friday, it was Steven Randolph, an architect from San Diego.

Whoever it is, it’s his or her job to channel Keanu Reeves for the next 90 minutes in Point Break Live – a show currently playing in Los Angeles.

Point Break Live  is exactly what it sounds like – a staged version of the 1991 surfer action film Point Break.” The catch is that each night, an audience member is elected by the crowd to play Johnny Utah, the role played by Reeves in the film.

“With each new Keanu, I have a whole new personality to work with,” said Christi Waldon, one of the show’s ten cast members. “It’s a challenge, but it’s exciting.” Waldon plays the part of the Production Assistant. It’s her job each night to guide Johnny Utah through the production, helping him find his mark and feeding him his lines on cue cards. It’s not always perfect, but that’s sort of the point.

“Sometimes the crowd will elect a really fat guy who can’t fit into the costumes or somebody who doesn’t speak any English,” said George Spiel Vogel, who plays ‘Pappas’ and is one of the show’s producers. “It doesn’t matter who it is. As long as they’re screwing up, it’s hysterical.”

 Point Break Live debuted in Seattle, Washington three years ago for what was supposed to be just a two month’s engagement. But high demand for tickets and great buzz eventually lead to productions in Minneapolis, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Las Vegas, and now, Los Angeles.

The production is a wild one, gunfights, car chases, sky diving, beach football, and of course, surfing, are all performed in pastiche by an able and enthusiastic cast. Patrons are offered plastic rain ponchos on the way in, but they provide little cover for the water, fake blood, suntan lotion, and beer that inevitably finds its way onto the crowd.

Adding to the chaos is that fact that the production is staged in a bar, with both the cast and its audience enjoying the spirits on offer as the night wears on.

“A lot of shit goes wrong,” said Mitch Eakins, who plays one of the surfers. “I’ve fallen on people, broken chairs. One night I smashed my head into a pole so hard I thought I was going to blackout. I just played it off as part of the show.”

With traditional theatre struggling to find an audience in the current recession, the cast of “Point Break Live” feels that it’s exactly their in-your-face interaction with the audience that makes the production so distinctive.

“If you’re going to go out to the theatre and spend money, you want something unique,” said Spiel Vogel. “Interactive theatre is the future.”

While ticket sales in Los Angeles are still good after a year and a half, the show’s producers are preparing for the future.

“We’re thinking about going to London,” said Thomas Blake, who, like Spiel Vogel, is both a cast member and a producer. “We think it would play well there. The English have a great sense of humor, and the movie  Hot Fuzz  introduced  Point Break  to a large audience over there.”

While nothing is set in stone yet, one thing is certain:

Johnny Utah would sound pretty sweet with an English accent.