Del Valle: A True Tale of Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll…and Redemption ★★★★

As can be deemed from the title: Del Valle: A True Tale of Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll…and Redemption, performer Ned Van Zandt has lived anything but a dull life. Whereas for most autobiographical shows having a young musician sitting at the side of stage accompanying your story with an electric guitar might seem hyperbolic, here it feels wholly appropriate.

Van Zandt is a working actor who’s appeared in a lot of films and television show, everything from the Oscar-winning Coming Home to such recent beloved series as Lost, Nurse Jackie, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. In the middle of his illustrious and long credit list (check it out on IMDB) is a gap where no titles are listed, a time spent in Travis County Correctional Complex, better known for its location, Del Valle, Texas. As is to be expected, Van Zandt’s prison stint is both complex and, fortunately for him and now us, corrective.

A lot of bold-faced names are dropped in Van Zandt’s show: among many, Lara Flynn Boyle, Sid Vicious, Chaka Kahn, even Christian evangelist Billy Graham. And hilariously in a show full of surprises, among those famous folks it’s Van Zandt’s story about Graham that is the most unexpected.

Tellingly, and thankfully, it’s not the celebrities whose interactions with Van Zandt are the most memorable in this show, but rather the colourful characters he meets before prison and those he depends on for survival once incarcerated. First it’s colorful couple Guy and Belinda, who run a meth lab, followed by a host of complicated souls once Van Zandt is sent to prison for his involvement with the aforementioned lab, one of whom asks: “What’s an actor doing in a place like this?”

Van Zandt can’t easily answer that question, especially to Donnie, the Junior Grand Dragon of the Ayhan Brotherhood who wants to be taught how to act. Complicatedly for the bisexual Van Zandt, he also finds Donnie to be “fucking gorgeous” and isn’t exactly reluctant when Donnie demands sexual satisfaction. One can’t help but wonder what Lee Strasberg would have made of the ensuing acting lessons.

Van Zandt is a riveting storyteller, and mercy alive, does he have tales to tell. As Del Valle continues its theatrical journey, it would likely profit from a bit more soul searching, as well as more and deeper personal revelations. Right now the personal narrative arc that Van Zandt obviously experienced is still, on stage, in better need of elucidation. Nonetheless, Van Zandt and this fine production (superbly directed by Amir Arison) deserve an audience beyond the Edinburgh Fringe and will likely get it.