THE DAILY BEAST

40 Years Later, an Unhinged, Hidden Soap Opera Is a Hit

Kevin Fallon
February 15, 2025

Almost 40 years after his genius first entered the world, a 13-year-old soap opera creator is finally getting his due.

It happens to now be in a live show staged in Los Angeles, 13-Year-Old Michael Ausiello Presents: Beverly Hills — A Pretend Soap Opera Performed by Real Actors. But do not be confused by that title. Beverly Hills, the soap opera in question, is very real.

To see it performed four decades later is an unhinged, hilarious experience, one brimming with absolute lunacy, a skosh of narcissism, and some surprising profundity. It’s an homage to the soap opera genre, a tribute to superfandom, and a rally cry for just a good, giggle-filled fun time. We may all be losing our minds right now; it’s way more fun to watch some of the best comedic actors in the business lose their minds on stage instead.

Here’s the wild conceit: In the mid-’80s, Michael Ausiello, the founder of entertainment website TVLine.com and the writer of the book and movie Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, was a closeted teen soap opera enthusiast who channeled his obsession into writing a whopping 517 episodes of his own soap, called Beverly Hills. He kept those handwritten scripts, and is now staging them in cold readings featuring stars like Michael Urie (Shrinking), Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), Gillian Jacobs (Community), Dulé Hill (Psych), and Edi Patterson (The Righteous Gemstones).

Are the episodes… good? At the performance I saw last week, there was a secret murder, a hostage situation, a search for a hidden prism with life-saving powers, and the Russian circus came to town. Performed with utmost sincerity by the ace cast, it was ludicrous. You can watch a livestream of the show here—a riotous respite from, you know, [looks around] everything.