In Hollywood in 1939, an actor/director named Julian Hyde is blackmailed by a gossip columnist known as Hollywood Confidential who threatens to reveal Hyde's homosexuality. Hyde is coerced into revealing secrets of other Hollywood stars. Hyde plots revenge by making a film about Hollywood Confidential's life, revealing all of his secrets."Mr. Parnell argues that the dreams perpetrated by the dream factory during the movies' golden age were as monstrous as … nightmares but far more lasting and lethal … 'A nation lives by its symbols,' says the playwright. Implicit in HYDE IN HOLLYWOOD is the belief that a braver 30's Hollywood might have helped produce a more courageous nation than the one that was tardy in mobilizing against Hitler in one generation and against Joseph McCarthy in the next… a fascinating piece." —Frank Rich, The New York Times