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PRESS Coverage of "What's My Line? - Live On Stage"
 March 25, 2008
What's My Line? -- Live on Stage
By A.J. Mell
At first, the thought of bringing this long-deceased pop-culture artifact to the stage seems like a classic case of "What were they thinking?" Are people really clamoring for a live resurrection of an innocuous TV game show that debuted during the Truman administration and hasn't been produced since 1975? Well, apparently they are -- and if not, they should be.
Maybe it's due to the glut of increasingly mercenary game shows and mean-spirited reality TV that has clotted the airwaves recently, but What's My Line? -- Live on Stage, which ran for three years in Los Angeles, feels like a refreshing blast from a more genteel past. It is an idea whose time, strangely enough, has come.
The original show, which featured a panel of four semi-celebrities trying to guess a contestant's occupation by asking questions that can only have yes or no for an answer, ran for an incredible 25 years, beginning in 1950. Producer and host J. Keith van Straaten has kept the original format -- including the formal evening wear -- and resisted any temptation to camp up the proceedings. The result is an agreeable, often surprising evening of sophisticated silliness, a glamorized version of the sorts of games adults used to play at parties not so very long ago.
The opening-night panelists were Barry Saltzman, stage actor and veteran of the L.A. production; New York Post theatre columnist Michael Riedel; Avenue Q star Stephanie D'Abruzzo; and original I've Got a Secret and What's My Line? panelist Betsy Palmer, 81 years old and cute as a button. (Things may get peculiar in subsequent weeks, with such random entities as the Amazing Kreskin and cult actor Mink Stole scheduled to appear.)
Van Straaten and director Jim Newman concocted an idiosyncratically New York show this time around; contestants included an oboist with the New York Philharmonic who graced the audience with a solo and a baker at Brooklyn's legendary Junior's who provided free cheesecake for everyone. The hands-down highlight was the first contestant, a former hat-check girl at the Stork Club -- and, touchingly, the first contestant on the debut episode of the original series. The evening concluded with the panelists donning blindfolds and trying to guess the identity of a celebrity mystery guest -- in this case, George Wendt of Cheers and, currently, Hairspray fame. Everyone had an unforced good time, and van Straaten dispatched his hostly duties with aplomb.
Presented by van Straaten Entertainment
at the Barrow Street Theatre, 27 Barrow St., NYC.
March 24- April 28. Mon., 8 p.m.
(212) 239-6200 or (800) 432-7250 or www.telecharge.com.
 March 19-25, 2008
Funny games
An L.A. personality resurrects a ’50s game show.
LEADING THE BLIND Van Straaten’s hoodwinked contestans think hard.
By Raven Snook
J. Keith van Straaten is always hustling. While waiting for a table at a New York eatery, he slips the owner his business card, inviting him to be a guest on a game show. The restaurateur won’t actually be able to win prizes or see himself on the tube. Instead, he’d appear onstage in a live incarnation of the long-running TV staple What’s My Line?, in which four panelists attempt to guess a person’s profession by posing yes-or-no questions. Due to the unscripted nature of the show—and the guests’ often offbeat jobs—the results are wry, unexpected and hilarious.
Best known as the host of Comedy Central’s Beat the Geeks and a frequent pop-culture pundit on VH1 and E!, the 36-year-old comedian launched “the classic TV game show without the TV,” as he puts it, in 2004 in his native Los Angeles. “I’d been watching reruns on the Game Show Network,” Van Straaten says. “I kept thinking that somebody ought to be doing it again. Then I thought, Why not me?”
With the help of director-coproducer Jim Newman, Van Straaten booked a theater and started reaching out to potential panelists and guests. “Initially, some people were confused,” Van Straaten recalls. “They’d say things like, ‘So I have to do improv games like Wayne Brady?’ or ‘Is this the one where I tell a lie and someone else tells the truth?’” But other invitees remembered the show fondly and were thrilled that it was making a comeback, in any form. “There’s a real affection for What’s My Line?,” Van Straaten says. “I think its fans sense that we’re really good stewards of the brand.”
Although the stage version isn’t officially set in its namesake’s ’50s heyday, Van Straaten insists that his panelists and guests adhere to that era’s sense of style. “We’re trying to do the show as if it never went off the air,” he says. “Men wear suits and ties, women wear gowns. There’s no cursing, no controversy. The edgiest guest we’ve ever had was a mohel. The thing we love about the show is its sophistication. If anything naughty ever comes up, it’s because of innuendo.”
After producing 74 episodes in L.A., where typical guests included a saw player and a girdle tester, and mystery guests included Melvin Van Peebles, Larry King and Shirley Jones, Van Straaten is excited to bring his project to the city where the TV show originated. But while interests are piqued—the day the press release went out, he was inundated with e-mails from wanna-be guests and panelists—there has been some drama. Specifically, a competing stage version of What’s My Line?, which has been playing downtown since 2006.
“I found out about the other show because one of the producers e-mailed me to say he was doing one too,” Van Straaten says. “I admit I’m disappointed. We’ve worked very hard to make our show into what it is. But I don’t think their show will impact our success or failure.” (See Around Town for info on this and other live game shows in New York.)
Now that he’s in New York, Van Straaten’s feverishly tracking down original What’s My Line? guests, many of whom were locals, to invite them. “That’s one of our favorite things to do,” he says. “After their segment, we show a decades-old clip of them on the TV show. Some had never seen their appearances before.”
He’s also booking original panelists, including octogenarian actor Betsy Palmer, who also appeared in the L.A. version. “It’s a great excuse for me to throw on my Bob Mackie dress,” she says.
But as much as Van Straaten pays tribute to the original, his main objective is to present a fun night out, whether or not you’re familiar with the TV show. “The entire evening is real. It’s spontaneous, so you never know what’s going to happen,” he says. “I don’t want people to think it’s a trip to Grandma’s attic.”
What’s My Line? opens Mar 24, 2008, at the Barrow Street Theatre.
 February 1, 2006
7 DAYS IN LA
MYSTERIA LINE
By Dr. Rebecca Epstein
What’s more fun than a mystery guest? Not much, especially when they’re part of a comedy show, and of award-winning caliber. Ed Asner, Mr. Blackwell, Tara Lipinski, Wink Martindale – who will be the surprise MG in this week’s presentation of What’s My Line: Live on Stage at the ACME Comedy Theatre? Every Wednesday, get yer yuks at this live version of the classic TV game show, in which four blindfolded celebrity panelists try to guess the occupation of a regular Joe or Jill. Somewhere in this unscripted mix the mystery guest arrives, begetting more kooky queries. J. Keith van Straaten, of Comedy Central’s Beat the Geeks, hosts. $15. 8 p.m. 135 N. La Brea Ave., L.A., (323) 525-0202. Acmecomedy.com.
 June 10, 2005
La Vida
HE-E-E-E-RE’S FUNNY!
Going to a comedy club is risky business — but fear not, we’re there for you
by LIBBY MOLYNEAUX
The show: J. Keith van Straaten’s What’s My Line? Mr. van Straaten, in his crisp suit, hosts this respectful restaging of the popular ’60s game show. A celebrity panel — recently Marty Ingels, April Winchell, Jack Riley, Debra Wilson — tries to guess the occupation of regular folks.
Where/when: ACME Comedy Theater, 135 N. La Brea Ave., Hlywd. No booze. All ages. (323) 525-0202; every Wed., 8 p.m.
...
Best-case scenario: Surprise mystery guests like Dick Van Patten, Sean Young, Andy Dick.
Worst-case scenario: Absolutely none; the show flies by, and the
theater’s cool and comfortable. Take your out-of-town guests — this should be
an L.A. institution.
 February 17, 2005
A dose of reality, 1950s style
'What's My Line?' stays true to its TV show roots at the Acme Comedy Theatre.
By Liane Bonin, Special to The Times
It's enough to make a network programmer burst into tears. With none of the partial nudity, vicious backstabbing and vermin consumption that fuels its small-screen counterparts, the Acme Comedy Theatre has pulled in a capacity crowd of hipsters on a Wednesday night to watch — gasp! — a low-tech, PG-rated reality show.
"It's sort of our motto: Nobody gets voted off, nobody gets fired and nobody eats bugs," explains host and co-producer J. Keith van Straaten.
He has subverted conventional wisdom by resurrecting the TV chestnut "What's My Line?," which ran on prime-time TV from 1950 to 1967, as a weekly stage production at the 99-seat theater. And he's doing it without the campy sneer Hollywood usually applies to such retro ventures. "It's like going into a time machine when things were a lot simpler," says theatergoer Doug Prinzivalli, who's there to see the show for the third time since it started in November. "It's an homage more than a parody."
As the show begins, Van Straaten, who previously hosted the Comedy Central game show "Beat the Geeks," takes the stage in a gray suit and chunky glasses to explain the rules of the game. As in the original, a celebrity panel is given the task of guessing the occupations of a series of guests. Instead of the original's stars of yore, like Dorothy Kilgallen and Steve Allen, tonight Ann Magnuson, Wil Wheaton, Annabelle Gurwitch and Rick Overton will be playing.
Although they're given ample time to plug upcoming projects and personal websites at the beginning and end of the show, the panelists eagerly get down to business once the first guest (a rose grower) takes his seat. They scribble notes and furrow brows — a Hollywood rarity in itself.
There are witty asides, but many of the laughs are accidental, as audience members (who are informed of the guest's occupation before the game begins) watch the panel stumble blindly toward an answer that, to those in the know, seems obvious. "First and foremost, you have to take the game seriously," Van Straaten says. "No matter how funny and charming you are, if you don't play the game, you will never win the audience over."
In addition to being charming while asking yes-no questions, the panel members are challenged to behave themselves, '50s-style.
"The original was very cosmopolitan, and the panel was suggesting, 'This is how life would be if you were one of us,' " Van Straaten adds. "It may not be true now, and it may not have been true then, but it's fun to re-create it when we can."
To that end, women wear evening attire, the men don suits and ties, and the panel addresses one another as "Mr." and "Ms." After being introduced, Magnuson steps delicately to her chair in a lacy black 1950s cocktail dress, her hair in a demure updo. Wheaton, wearing a suit and tie, not only rises upon her entrance but also pulls back her chair. It could be a high school cotillion with better lighting, until Magnuson asks if the product the first guest sells is bigger than a breadbox.
"It depends," the rose grower says, with a raised eyebrow. "How big is your breadbox?" Magnuson smiles, making a coy gesture toward her chest as the audience bursts into giggles.
That little gesture is as racy as the evening gets, and that's fine with Van Straaten. "With no scripts, it's very natural to go for innuendo and suggestive language," he says. "But we try to say it's much more fun when the audience can put it together in their minds on their own."
The second guest of the evening is also the entertainment: He's a professional musical saw player. Not surprisingly, he stumps the panelists, who get impressively close, guessing the washboard as his instrument of choice. When he breaks out his saw and bow for a rendition of "My Funny Valentine" — which, Van Straaten informs us, was the favorite song of 1950-67 panelist Arlene Francis — the crowd is hushed; not even an ironic snicker can be heard.
The entertainment segment is one way the live production is different from the original; on the TV show, guests never demonstrated their talents, an issue producer Gil Fates bemoaned in his 1978 book "What's My Line? The Inside History of TV's Most Famous Game Show." With an hour to fill (the TV show was just 30 minutes), it's a luxury Van Straaten can afford, as is convivial chat with each guest. "The secret to our show is that it's actually a variety show and a talk show combined, then disguised as a game show," he says.
But he tries to drop in subtle details from the original to appeal to "WML?" devotees like Prinzivalli, who watches the original on the Game Show Network. In addition to fun facts about the original show's panelists, he's included guests with ties to the past. To wit: Ed Begley Jr., whose father appeared on the show in the 1950s, was a recent mystery guest.
There's even an old-fashioned commercial break for the show's sponsor, Auction Doctors Inc., in which Van Straaten acts out a skit with his co-host, Claudia Dolph, who also provides the evening's Vanna White-esque hand flourishes.
After failing to identify the third guest (a heart surgeon), the panel donned blindfolds for the final "mystery guest," always a recognizable face. Tonight, it's Lindsay Wagner, who elicits a whoop of excitement from the crowd. Though she valiantly tries to disguise her voice as that of a little old lady, Wheaton eventually outs the Bionic Woman.
After the show, most of the audience clusters in the lobby, talking about the good old days of reality TV.
"My friends said, 'If you like "Match Game," you'll love this,' " writer Dennis Hensley says.
He should know: Hensley has hosted his own retro theatrical version of "Match Game," cheekily titled "The Mismatch Game," for years (it returns to Hollywood's Renberg Theatre on Friday and Saturday). "Mismatch" tweaks its inspiration further than "WML?": Actors play the familiar faces of the '70s (Tony Tripoli as Charles Nelson Reilly, Ted Biaselli as Tony Randall), and the innuendo is replaced with racy humor that would never get past a TV censor.
Ultimately though, the two shows are more similar than different, stemming from nostalgia for a time when reality show contestants didn't have to eat squid guts to impress us.
"Watching these as a kid, it always made being a grown-up look like so much fun," Hensley says and sighs. It's not something anyone's ever likely to say about "Fear Factor."
*
'What's My Line?'
Where: ACME Comedy Theatre, 135 N. La Brea Ave., L.A.
When: 8 p.m. Wednesdays
Price: $12
Contact: (323) 525-0202; acmecomedy.com, jkeith.net
 March 2, 2005
Roar of the Crowd - Los Angeles
By Jim McCarthy
Do you remember a few years back when a certain show in which you could maybe possibly become a millionaire was all the rage? Sure, the rage only lasted a few weeks; a couple doses of Cipro knocked it right out. Still, for a little while there, it was the 50s all over again. Americans tuned in to watch game shows when by all rights they should have been watching overly dramatic medical shows with unrealistically good looking doctors and nurses.
The return of the game show never felt quite right for me though. The scary music and phony high-tech sets made me think of "Logan's Run." Back in the old days, you had B-List celebrities making racy wisecracks and contestants revealing intimate secrets to win $50 on a set that was obviously made of cardboard. And that was in the bonus round! If you didn't get that far, you were pretty much playing for Turtle Wax.
With 1062 reviews this week, you have a chance to relive some of that nostalgia with one of the winning shows and go even further back in time with the other:
[What's My Line?] was almost exactly like the TV show, but a lot more fun! Great panel and guests. A game show or comedy lover's dream. —Andrew Fleischer
What's My Line? Live on Stage, at the Acme Theatre in Hollywood. Celebrity panelists try to guess the occupation of the mystery guest by asking yes/no questions. It's unscripted and true to the original. John Carrozza says that "fans of classic game shows [shouldn't] miss this amazing experience!" Andrew Flesicher says that even if you're not a game show buff, "it's a comedy lover's dream." Jerome Robinson adds that it's a "modern day version of a classic. Donna Moore wraps it up, saying "we had a fantastic time and a great theatre experience." Goldstar Events members rated What's My Line? Live on Stage 3.6 out of 4.
 September, 2005
WHAT'S MY LINE?: LIVE ON STAGE 2005
By Tom Murrin
From 1950 to 1975, one of television's most popular game shows was What's My Line? Each week, a panel of four celebrities tried to
guess the unusual occupations of three guest contestants. For the
finale, a well-known "mystery guest" would try to fool the panel, who
had to guess while blindfolded. Fast-forward to 2005, Hollywood,
California, where WML fans, J. Keith van Straaten, producer and
host of many an LA comedy show, and co-producer/director Jim Newman,
decided it would be neat to revive the timeless classic. Which they have
done, for 35 well-received segments, at the comfy, state-of-the-art Acme
Comedy Theater. Familiar TV, movie and literary stars make up the
panelists. PAPER's very own Ann Magnuson appears regularly, as does John
Waters' favorite, Mink Stole. Andy Dick has been on, and so has downtown
New York's novelist/storyteller, Jonathan Ames.
All the panelists are put through a practice game and given
instructions on how to play. It's not so easy, and the audience, who
know the answer from the start, happily gets to assess the thinking
processes of the in-the-dark celebrities. "It's really a game of
deductions. We tell our panelists 'It's not a guessing game,'" says the
congenial van Straaten, who acts as host. "It's about being methodical.
You don't want to just guess blindly, or you'll use up your questions."
One mid-summer show had as contestants a man who made large-sized toilet
seats, a woman who taught the Tibetan language and another woman who
played the Chinese zither, which she demonstrated for an enraptured
audience. "I love those moments, when we can enchant the audience,"
remarked van Straaten. And to top it off, the mystery guest that night
was Monty Hall, the host of Let's Make A Deal, and his
prize-bearing assistant, Carroll Merrill. Van Straaten revealed that on
average the celebrities usually "get two out of four. Two panels had
four out of four, and one panel had zero out of four." Whatever the
final score, it's a night of spontaneous fun.
Acme Comedy Theatre, 135 No. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles,
California, (323) 525-0202. Every Wednesday night at 8 p.m. through Nov.
16. $15.
September 1, 2005
WHAT’S MY LINE? - LIVE ON STAGE 
"What's My Line? - Live On Stage" is an homage to the CBS game show in which a team of celebrity panelists attempted to guess the occupation of the contestant. It ran from 1950 to 1967, and then was carried in syndication until 1975. One of the more urbane and civil game shows on record, What's My Line? slipped in quality during its later, in-color incarnation, when the producers felt the pressure to speed things up, forgoing the pleasant ritual of having each panelist introduce the next. In this stage version, director Jim Newman brings back the gentility of yore. Host J. Keith van Straaten steps into the spit-and-polished shoes of predecessors Wally Bruner and Larry Blyden. On the night I attended, the panelists included actor Barry Saltzman, entertainment writer Anna David, comedian Paul Gilmartin and KPCC radio host Kitty Felde, who were stumped trying to fathom the profession of Aussie saddle maker Colin Dangaard (“Is what you make worn for protection?”) and English hornist Victoria Sabonjohn, whose impromptu concert, with keyboard accompaniment by Adam Chester, added a texture of indescribable beauty. The panel did, however, home in on the profession of female rabbi Naomi Levy and “mystery guest” Camryn Manheim. Amazingly, this doesn’t parody the original show but offers a replica sample from a vintage pop culture, with the host and guests formally dressed as though for church. The show provides a window onto the decorum and spontaneous, champagne wit of a bygone era. Van Straaten has been doing this kind of game-show hosting on the comedy circuit for years now, and through those years I’ve been blasting theater that tries to ape TV. This is one example, however, where I have to eat my words. Acme Comedy Theater, 135 N. La Brea Ave., Hlywd.; Wed., 8 p.m.; indef. (323) 525-0202. Written 09/01/2005 (Steven Leigh Morris)
 September 2, 2005
7 Days in The Arts
by Keren Engelberg, Calendar Editor
Just when you’d forgotten about Tara Lipinski, she turned up as the mystery guest at ACME Comedy Theatre’s “What’s My Line?” Journal singles columnist J. Keith Van Straaten moderates the weekly live act based on the television show of the same name. You’ll recall that’s the one where celebrity panelists try to guess the occupation of a guest by asking only yes or no questions. Other past mystery guests and panelists have included Camryn Manheim and Hector Elizondo.
8 p.m. $15. ACME Comedy Theatre, 135 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. (323) 525-0202.
 August 31, 2005
Irv's Insight by Irv Rudman
Classic TV Game Show Live On Stage
You don’t have to be bored in front of your television on Wednesday nights watching old game shows when you can experience great laughs from the live performances of the classic TV game show “What’s My Line” at the Acme Comedy Theatre. Four celebrity panelists try to guess the occupation of guests with interesting or unusual jobs by only asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. At the end of the show, panelists are blindfolded and will try to guess the identity of mystery surprise celebrity guest with only ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions. Previous mystery celebrity guests have included actors Camryn Manheim and Noah Wyle, and fashion critic Mr. Blackwell.
Acme Comedy Theatre
135 N. La Brea Ave.
Los Angeles
Tel: (323) 525-0202
Website: www.jkeith.net
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