What if You Missed 'The Submission'?

NO HITTING From left: Eddie Kaye Thomas, Jonathan Groff, Rutina Wesley and Will Rogers face off toward the end of "The Submission."

You missed the must-see Off Broadway hit of the moment? Fear not. Take our theatergossip quiz, and you'll be able to lie convincingly about having been there.


IT'S too late to see "The Submission." It closes this weekend. It was sold out anyway (if the man at the Lucille Lortel box office on Thursday night was telling the truth). And it was only around for 27 days. But you can still learn enough about this hot show to appear in the know.


1. "The Submission" is about

(a) a white playwright who has the nerve to write about a black family in the projects
(b) a black actress who pretends to be a playwright
(c) a gay man who gets produced at Humana and can't tell anybody
(d) all of the above

2. In "The Submission," the passing of time is signaled by

(a) the changes in Jonathan Groff's hairdo
(b) Eddie Kaye Thomas's packing his boyfriend's seasonal clothes
(c) Will Rogers's baseball caps
(d) the blackboard specials at Starbucks

3. The first line of "The Submission" is

(a) "I've written a play"
(b) "There was this kid on the subway."
(c) "Yo, mother-fucker!"
(d) "Occupy Wall Street!"

4. Rutina Wesley, the only woman in the cast, stars on HBO's "True Blood" as

(a) a waitress whose best friend is a fairy
(b) an heiress in love with a vampire
(c) an orphan with a secret life as a shape-shifter
(d) a born-again Christian who eats human hearts

5. The line that makes the Lucille Lortel audience gasp loudest is

(a) "Faggot!"
(b) "Nigger!"
(c) "Cunt!"
(d) "Republican!"

6. Jonathan Groff, who plays the central character, has appeared on the Fox series "Glee" as

(a) Rachel's ex-boyfriend
(b) The gay boy who was named prom queen
(c) The glee club sponsor
(d) Sue Sylvester's fashion consultant

7. Walter Bobbie, who directed "The Submission," has already moved on to his next job:

(a) Directing "Venus in Fur"
(b) Directing the revival of "Godspell"
(c) Restaging "Chicago" with all "American Idol" finalists
(d) Replacing Linda Lavin in "Other Desert Cities"


"The Submission," by Jeff Talbott, directed by Walter Bobbie, Lucille Lortel Theater, 121 Christopher Street. Closing night: Oct. 22, 2011.


BEFORE YOU CHECK OUT THE ANSWERS, READ MORE ABOUT:
The New York Times review
Jonathan Groff
Rutina Wesley
Walter Bobbie
Jeff Talbott
The Humana Festival of New Plays
"Venus in Fur"
"Glee"
"True Blood"

WHAT'S MY SCORE?

1. (d) All of the above. A middle-class gay white male playwright is afraid people will be skeptical that he has written about poor black characters, so he chooses a pseudonym that sounds like a black woman's name and hires a black actress to pretend to be her.

2. (d) In the first scene, pumpkin latte is on the board. By the time the play within the play is chosen for the Humana theater festival in Kentucky, there's a St. Patrick's Day special.

3. (c) And of course the line is spoken by the white playwright to his equally white friend.

4. (a) The fairy is Sookie Stackhouse, played by Anna Paquin.

5. (b) The word "faggot" is spoken too, but the reaction is much less intense.

6. (a) His name is Jessie St. James, and he returned as a good-guy on prom night in Season 2.

7. (a) "Venus in Fur" opens Nov. 8.

WANT MORE THEATERGOSSIP? Scroll to read the quiz about Frank Langella, star of "Man and Boy." Then search to check out our Samuel L. Jackson ("The Mountaintop") quiz and posts about shows from "The Addams Family" to "War Horse."