Although they were both kings, Elvis meets Oedipus is certainly a wildly weird combination and concoction to boggle the mind (and ears), but this fractured fable is indeed taking place, to paraphrase Presley’s 1969 song, “In the Getty.” That’s the Getty Villa to you, theatergoers, which earlier this year thankfully survived the wildfires. Perhaps to salute its escape, rather than stage a Greek tragedy for the Villa’s 19th annual Outdoor Classical Theater production, the museum preferred to breathe a sigh of relief and celebrate with a musical comedy. Whatever its reason, for the third time, the Villa has brought the L.A.-based Troubadour Theater Company out to Malibu to present the Getty’s yearly staging of ancient Greek or Roman plays in its ample amphitheater.
For the uninitiated, the hallmark of those theatrical troublemakers, the “Troubies,” is a mashup of a conventional show with the music of an artist, so that, using Orwellian trickery, 1 + 1 does not = 2, but rather = 3, in that the scintillating synthesis creates a whole new work of art. For example, last December, the Troubies rocked Burbank’s Colony Theatre with their Troubies’ Home Alone-ly Hearts Club Band, which combined the 1990 movie Home Alone with Beatles music.
At the Getty Villa, the Troubies’ troupe of musical merry pranksters is now combining Oedipus Rex, first produced circa 425 BC at Athens’ Theatre of Dionysus, with the songs of the king of rock ’n’ roll, Elvis Presley. You know, sort of like Sophocles meets Colonel Parker. Oedipus the King, Mama! reconfigures various Elvis hits to fit Sophocles’ drama about an accursed man (with Steven Booth as an uber-muscular Young Oedipus and Troubie co-founder and helmer Matt Walker as Oedipus) who, through the unwinding of a series of misunderstandings, kills his father Laius (Philip McNiven) and marries his mother, Jocasta (the overly well-endowed Beth Kennedy), with disastrous results. With a twisted plot like this, it’s no wonder that the cast sings about having “Suspicious Minds.”
If this all sounds too complicated for you, that’s because this musical mélange may be an Oedipus Complex. Nevertheless, despite the murderous mayhem, it’s all good fun, with music supervisor and Troubie vet Eric Heinly presiding over a quartet that belts out the live music that the cast belts out, sometimes verbatim, other times with a nod to this particular (not to mention peculiar) production (Benet Braun is the musical director). For instance, Sophocles’ King of Thebes is here the King of Malibu. 
Throughout Oedipus the King, Mama! the audaciously irreverent Troubies gaily bite the hand that is feeding them, repeatedly mocking all things Getty. Although they somehow missed transmuting Elvis’ “In the Ghetto” to “In the Getty”—but if the Troubies want to incorporate this number into future shows, have had it, as massive theft of intellectual property rights is clearly the Troubadour Theater Company’s modus operandi and raison d’être—and auds are all the much mo’ bettah for it.
Some topical references are injected into the romp—such as a wickedly clever crack a la the current Epstein brouhaha about “The Oedipus Files.” Which one supposes some Greek king is suppressing as “a Trojan hoax,” to which the Beatles might respond in some future Troubie show: “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey.”.
The name of Oedipus’ brother-in-law, Creon, is mischievously mispronounced as “Crayon,” and Rick Battala portrays the man who seeks the advice of the Oracle of Delphi costumed as a crayon. Hardy-har-har. However, I’d like to point out that for once, a Getty Villa annual Outdoor Classical Theater production highlighting ancient Greek and Roman theater actually includes cast members clad in togas—kudos to costume designer, Sharon McGunigle, for finally bringing some truth in period apparel to these yearly plays that somehow generally manage to avoid togas. I should also mention that the choreography of this zany mishmash is by Ameenah Kaplan.
Overall, the about 105-minute, one-act Oedipus the King, Mama! is heaps of good fun and likely to bring a smile to the lips of all (except for a few mirthless Elvis and Greek tragedy purists). Who knows what’s next for the endlessly inventive, glee-provoking Troubies? Perhaps a musical about the shooter of Lee Harvey Oswald, with Matt Walker playing that show’s director, “Oliver Stoned,” and it could be called, but of course, “Jack Troubie.”
Oedipus the King, Mama! takes place 8:00 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through September 27 at the Getty Villa’s Outdoor Classical Theater, 17985 Pacific Coast Hwy., Pacific Palisades, CA 90272. Tickets: (310)440-7300 or visit their website.
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