City of Champions

A brilliant new play ​by Steve Brown

A sensitive and absorbing drama that goes behind the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown to expose an evil, modern day Sodom and Gomorrah.

In the nineteen eighties, Lonnie Drake and Laurie Munro were teenaged superstars. Exposure to the darker side of Hollywood took it’s toll on both of them and they both developed substance abuse problems that derailed their stellar careers. Now, at almost forty years of age, Lonnie is still working in the film industry, is married and is successfully maintaining his sobriety. Laurie is thirty-eight and broke. After numerous trips to rehab, he is finally clean and desperately wants to work. However, the industry considers him unemployable because of his well-publicised past problems. Under the career management of his mother, he makes his money selling autographs through personal appearances at fan conventions and disposing of personal items online. The only thing he wouldn’t sell is his Teddy Bear. Laurie is temporarily living in the guest lodge in the back garden of Lonnie’s house in Inglewood, an area of Los Angeles otherwise known as the ‘City of Champions’. An opportunity to work suddenly presents itself but it means working with someone from his past who caused him lasting damage. Laurie must make some life-changing decisions. Will he go to work, challenge the establishment or just run away?