“Attack of the Theater People”–Magical Manhattan

Acito, Marc. “Attack of the Theater People”, Broadway Books, 2008.

Magical Manhattan

Amos Lassen

The year is 1986 and Edward Zanni, an aspiring young actor, has just been booted form drama school. Unable to stand the thought of failure, Edward heads for New York City looking for his rainbow. What he finds is a job as a “party motivator”. In other words, it is his job to get shy thirteen year olds to dance at Bar Mitzvahs and to charm businessman as a surprise guest at important corporate events. But there is no silver lining to Edward’s dream of success. By accident he gets caught up in an insider training scheme with a good looking stockbroker named Chad.

Acito gives us quite a ride with his book and I have to admit that I laughed all the way through it. Zanni’s misadventures are amazing and it seems that if he can’t be on the Broadway stage, he might as well have a life like a musical theater piece. I have never read such comedy before. I did not read Acito’s previous book but I have ordered it. I have to know what led Zanni to a situation like this. I must also say that I had once seen “How I Paid for College” (Acito’s first book) but for whatever reason did not pick it up. I suppose hearing the author on NPR opened me to what I have missed. I know now I will not miss anything else that he writes.