Unauthorized Play About MÖTLEY CRÜE To Debut At 'Hollywood Fringe' Festival

From award-winning writer/director David Lucarelli comes "The Crüe: Underneath The Dirt Lies The Truth", a completely unauthorized play about the world's most notorious rock band. A darkly humorous drama starring Ryan Ruffing as MÖTLEY CRÜE bassist Nikki Sixx and Phillip-Charlie Daniell as MÖTLEY CRÜE manager Doc McGhee, it will debut Saturday, June 4 at 9:00 p.m. at the Hollywood Fringe festival at The Flight Theater at The Complex, 6476 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90038. Tickets are on sale now.

MÖTLEY CRÜE are largely remembered today as the unrepentant, decadent, sleaze kings of the Sunset Strip. The ultimate hair metal band that did more drugs, had more sex and got into more trouble than anyone else before or since. But their actual story is far more interesting, disturbing and inspiring than is widely remembered. As they stood on the edge of becoming one of the biggest bands in the world, for one brief shining moment, all things were possible. Neither a hatchet job, nor a snow job, "The Crüe" is an intimate look at Nikki Sixx and the band he built into a cultural phenomenon.

Who is this show for? For all the diehard CRÜE heads, for the more casual fan who may have seen "The Dirt" movie on Netflix and think they know what the band is about, and for those who may have only heard their name and wonder why a "hair metal" band that formed 40 years ago is headlining stadiums today.

"The Crüe" is written and directed by Lucarelli, award-winning writer/producer of "Doctor Zomba's Ghost Show", writer of "Tinseltown" (Alterna Comics) and "The Children's Vampire Hunting Brigade" graphic novels.

"The Crüe" cast: Ryan Ruffing, Phillip-Charlie Daniell, Jeff Skomsky, Roman Guastaferro, Ed Gage, Madison Hansen, David Guenaga and Tamara Torres.

"I debuted my first play, 'Doctor Zomba's Ghost Show', at the 2018 Hollywood Fringe fest to a sold-out run," says Lucarelli. "I'm so excited to return to the Fringe fest for my directorial debut with 'The Crüe'. Given that MÖTLEY rose up from the very same streets of Hollywood that now bring forth the Hollywood Fringe fest, it feels like the perfect place to do it.

"If all people remember MÖTLEY CRÜE for it being the quintessential party band that did a lot of drugs and had a lot of sex, then that would be a shame because there was so much more to them," he continues. "I've been a lifelong fan of this band since I first saw them live in 1984. This play is my attempt to show them as more than just one-dimensional caricatures and show the world why they mean so much to so many."

He adds: "The casting of Ryan Ruffing as Nikki Sixx has been a real coup. Nikki was the mastermind behind the band, and Ryan captures perfectly the single-minded intensity it took to make MÖTLEY CRÜE so massively successful, the brilliance of his creative vision, and the dark side of his self-destructive nature."