The Last Confession

[Frankly Rich]

The Last Confession is a play about the death of Pope John Paul I only 33 days after he was voted in as pope. Many rumors have swirled that he was murdered, but there was no autopsy. The play takes the line that a Cardinal Benelli, himself a candidate for Pope who lost out to JP I, is on his deathbed and willing to confess what he knows about the murder.

 

The show is traveling to various cities, having received good reviews in Toronto and London. It stars British actor David Suchet, who is both a television and stage star in London. Once it plays Los Angeles, it goes to Sydney. I have seen no talk of it heading to New York.

 

Given the good reviews and my general interest in the subject matter- I have read two novels about the supposed murder of the kindly Albino Luciani, who had received a clean bill of health before becoming Pope- the play interests me. We'll never know the truth of his death, yet reports were that he was making noises about cleaning up the Vatican that annoyed certain people...the gay mafia?

 

Tickets were priced at $105 in the orchestra at the Ahmanson Theater in downtown LA, so I picked one, and then learned of a 10% service fee. I didn't want to pay $115.50 to see this relatively unknown play, so I picked a seat in the front row of the balcony at $35, plus $3.50 handling. (One would think that handling each ticket would incur the same cost regardless of its price.)

 

There are no cute guys in the show, so I didn't need to be up close anyway. This way I still get to see the play and learn the story. It starts on June 7th and runs through July 6th.