Venice Update: Alright Then,” starring the Beans, is the Best!

Orson and Alley Mills Bean keep the audience laughing for 80 minutes in “Alright Then”
By Reta Moser

It was a delight! It is a must see for Venetians. I am talking about the Beans’ and their latest hit “Alright Then” at the the Pacific Resident Theatre on Venice Blvd. Show just opened.

After the fast 80 minutes, I thought these two are one of the reasons I live in and love Venice. They are unassuming, excessively smart, talented, productive, accessible people who are my neighbors. Venice has some of the all-time talents and these two are prime-prime examples.

They are Venice at its best! They are people at their best!

But back to the play. It is called “Alright Then,” which is the term they used to transition from one segment of each one’s life. They cleverly covered both lives by flipping thru the years with great examples or tales. They kept the audience laughing.

Orson is 22 years older than Alley and for Alley that was insurmountable. And yet they were married. Orson said “She was a fox.” They have been married almost 25 years.

They talked about their childhoods and the demons they collected and conquered. They didn’t delve much into their exciting show biz type lives but some things did come out. Orson had talked about his childhood in his one-man production of “Safe at Home.” which he wrote.

Wow Alley expelled or suspended! One would never think Alley would be the type to be expelled, suspended. The fact that she graduated magna cum laude with the first female class at Yale would be more believable.

I didn’t know that Orson introduced an unknown named Barbara Streisand on The Tonight Show when he was hosting it for Johnny Carson. He hosted The Tonight Show for Johnny Carson more than 100 times. He said, as a standup comedian, his first dressing room was a nail.

Perhaps, there is a sequel in the wings covering their show biz careers.

You can Google them both … Alley Mills Bean and Orson Bean. “They got talent!”