Fans of film noir and true crime won’t want to miss Off-Broadway newcomer Ode To The Wasp Woman at The Actors Temple Theatre. Written and directed by best-selling novelist Rider McDowell, the play chronicles the sensational final 48 hours of four 1950’s B movie stars: Susan Cabot, leading lady of the Roger Corman’s cult classic The Wasp Woman; George Reeves, the man who brought Superman to life on TV screens across America; Carl “Alfalfa” Switzer of the beloved Our Gang comedies; and B-movie queen Barbara Payton. The unbelievable stories are told in four one acts with music.

“I wrote Ode To The Wasp Woman as a paen to my boyhood TV heroes of the the 1960’s and 70’s,” says McDowell. “When I learned on the same rainy day in 1970 that Superman and Alfalfa were both dead, it shocked me. Fold in the deaths of ‘Wasp Woman’ Susan Cabot and Barbara ‘I am not ashamed’ Payton, actresses I admired, and the grim picture was complete. Ode To The Wasp Woman reveals the who, what, where, if not the ‘why,’ of the deaths of these fallen stars.” 

The stellar cast is highlighted by Sean Young (Blade Runner, Fatal Instinct) as Susan Cabot. A limited engagement begins previews on Monday, October 30th, ahead of a November 9th opening night.