This Masque-produced show at Planet Earth Theatre in Phoenix featured “Death Scene,” “Lili Marlene,” and “The Dressing Room.” It was billed as “a trilogy of one-act comedies about crazy people in the world of theater.”

Arizona Republic columnist Kyle Lawson reported that “it’s by Phoenix playwright Greg Paxton, a crazy theater person himself.”

He went on to write that “one of the one-acts, ‘Death Scene’, is advertised as a play where everything goes wrong. So, does that mean that the character lives?”

The show could have used some of Kyle Lawson’s clever material. The audiences were decent sized during the two-week run but ultimately the supposedly low-budget production lost money because of excessive costume rentals. A cowboy outfit that lit up. And among many others, a clown, a pirate, a drag queen, Bo Peep, and Marlene Dietrich with her female tuxedo and collapsible top hat.

Speaking of a la Dietrich, actor Bill Case had full-body contact with the real thing. In the navy during World War II, he was given the duty of guarding a stage door when she was giving a USO concert for sailors. (Hitler’s efforts to recruit her to the Nazi cause obviously didn’t work.) On cue, Bill opened the door so she could run out and meet her waiting limousine. She ran out, hit him solid, knocked him down, and walked over his body to get to her “waiting chariot.” Afterwards, Sailor Bill said that he did Sir Walter Raleigh one better.

Bill Case was amusingly insightful in his own right. He surmised that “Marlene is like Dracula. They resurrect her ever so often.”

“Death Scene” won the Annual Arizona Theatre Conference competition and was performed in Prescott. And although an important Phoenix critic found the production to be uneven, he loved “The Dressing Room.”

Breaking even isn’t everything.

A footnote, or anecdote or whatever: One actress dropped out after the first weekend due to a mysterious illness. Her illness was revealed by a flyer discovered at a gentleman’s club. She was giving private (ahem) parties with a former child sitcom star (long since deceased). It was actually a blessing. The brilliant, award-winning, Planet Earth actress Mollie Kellogg stepped in at the last minute and covered the role.

That is the crazy world of the theater.