Access a growing selection of included Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts.
You will get an email reminder before your trial ends.
Audible Plus auto-renews for $7.95/mo after 30 days. Upgrade or cancel anytime.
Mastergate  By  cover art

Mastergate

By: Larry Gelbart
Narrated by: Walter Matthau, Edward Asner, Charles Durning, Hector Elizondo, full cast
Try for $0.00

$7.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $5.42

Buy for $5.42

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Editorial reviews

Wiley Slaughter and Shepherd Hunter - a superbly deadpan Walter Matthau - have just completed one of the CIA's most covert and inane operations, which allegedly included producing Hollywood films for foreign dictators. Now they sit before a select joint House and Senate subcommittee, Senator Archer Bowman presiding - gleefully played by Ed Asner - ready to spill the beans. Every A-list actor in this broad, scathing, and somehow whimsical satire has the vocal style of real Congressional hearings down pat. Award-winning playwright and creator of the "M.A.S.H." TV series Larry Gelbart wrote this play in response to the 1980s Iran-Contra affair. It's clear from the uproarious audience laughter throughout this live recording that this political farce continues to ring true.

Publisher's summary

The Tony Award-winning playwright and creator of TV's MASH has fashioned a wickedly funny satire about the Iran-Contra Senate hearings and their participants. A top-notch Hollywood cast, headed by Walter Matthau, brings this scathing comedy to life.
(P)2004 L.A. Theatre Works

What listeners say about Mastergate

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    17
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    1
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    15
  • 4 Stars
    5
  • 3 Stars
    0
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    14
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Wordy, astonishing, laugh out loud funny

If you like to relax, sit back, let a story breeze past your mind, smiling a distant smile every few minutes, stay away. This takes your entire mind. If you're driving, you will go over the curb.

There are no two successive lines in Gelbart's play, that aren't funny. And if it fizzes out a little towards the end, it's because you are exhausted from all the wordplay, and from the pure radio presentation, that can't make up for it in stagecraft, than from any fault on the side of the writing.

Prepare to be amazed, amused, and quoting it for years to come. Love it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Hysterical

I was laughing out most of the time. You will have to know something about politics. On the bright side, if you only started following D.C., with the inauguration in 2017, you will understand this hysterical play!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

POLITICS SAD BUT TRUE

As far as I am concerned, politics is not far from the action of the actors that are heard here. The only thing that is not true, is that the foolish stuff that is portrayed is undermining the average citizen to even wish to be in politics.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Entertaining!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Mastergate to be better than the print version?

I have not read a printed version, but the audiobook is excellent.

What did you like best about this story?

Humerous and entertaining.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favorite?

No favorite character. All were good

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Nothing really moving in the book. Just an entertaining look at Washington and Politics!!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

Classic and still timely

Technically a political satire set during the Reagan era, the play is actually a parody of the misuse of language by media and politicians which makes it even more relevant (and funnier) after the last eight years. Partisan bickering, stonewalling, political double-talk and media inanity are all sent up hilariously by an excellent cast recorded in a live performance. Painful and painfully funny.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!