This is not the story of Mötley Crüe.

Crude: A Completely Unauthorized Play is, however, a love-letter to the legendary 80s band, focusing on the contributions of one member in particular, Nikki Sixx (called Niky in the Playbill.) The band made a point of not endorsing the production, and writer/director David Lucarelli made sure to side-step any direct references to the Crüe, but there can be no doubt whose story this is.

The band needn’t have worried; the one-act play, which premiered Saturday at The Flight Theater in The Complex in Hollywood, has nothing but love for the crew, and especially Sixx, who is ably portrayed by Ryan Ruffing as a cocky, driven, visionary with a gift for wowing an audience – and the same can be said for Ruffing himself.

In a series of vignettes, the narrator (David Guenaga) introduces Nikki to us. First, he’s a rockstar-wannabe kid who through sheer force of will acquires a guitar, learns to play, and joins a rock band. And that band is just one of many in Hollywood trying to make it big, but against all odds, they do: they become MTV mega-stars.

The vignettes are quick, to the point, and very funny. The show doesn’t shy away from the band’s raucous antics (groupies, trashing hotel rooms, and having a little too much fun when reporters attempt a serious interview with the band) or even the more serious events, like Nikki’s addiction and Vince’s vehicular manslaughter charge, the show does not focus on them.

Instead, Ruffing and the rest of the small cast, including Jeff Skomsky as Vyns (aka Vince Neil), Roman Guastaferro as Tahmi (Tommy Lee), Ed Gage as Myk (Mick Mars), Madison Hansen as Lytah (Lita Ford), Tamara Torres (various groupie and reporter roles) and Phillip-Charlie Daniell as the band’s manager Dahk (Doc McGhee), let us experience the heady, hedonistic joy of being the biggest stars on the planet, at least for a while.

Lucarelli is an award-winning writer/producer of Doctor Zomba’s Ghost Show, and a writer of Tinseltown (Alterna Comics) and The Children’s Vampire Hunting Brigade graphic novels. He said he drew his inspiration for writing the play from growing up with the band, and thinking that books and movies about them left out a lot of interesting aspects to the band that didn’t deserve to get lost to history, and so he did his own research and told stories from events he witnessed.

“I did a lot of research, and there’s definitely things that I witnessed personally. That story about Vince throwing the frisbee across the arena, that happened when I saw them on the Theater of Pain Tour,” Lucarelli said. “There’s things about the way they spoke for and to their fans that really resonated and connected with me when I was a 12-year-old kid. They seemed to believe in us as much as we believed in them.”

The show originally had a different title (and character names), but Lucarelli had to change that after the band he loves became aware of his intentions.

“We always said all along that it was unauthorized…unfortunately we got their attention. They weren’t happy with the fact that we originally called it The Crüe and that we were using a modified image. We were mortified because we were doing this out of our love for the band and our love of theater, and so we immediately changed all that. They gave us the cease and desist letter and we assured them we weren’t using any copyrighted or trademarked material.”

“Mötley Crüe is Nikki Sixx’s baby…he’s poured his blood sweat and tears into it for forty plus years, so of course he’s going to be protective of it. But I think if understood what the show was, he’d probably like it.”

The show will run four more times this month at The Flight Theater @The Complex Hollywood, at 6476 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90038. Tickets can be purchased here, and more information about the show is available through that link.

Saturday, June 11th at 10pm
Saturday, June 18th at 7:30pm (ASL performance)
Sunday, June 19th, 1:00 pm
Saturday, June 25th, 6:00 pm (Pay What You Can)