In early March there is a group that puts on their annual “Murder Mystery Dinner” as a kind of fundraiser for their upcoming season. It is fairly common knowledge that murder mystery dinner shows are not well written by any stretch of the imagination, nor are they all that strong. I have made a point of avoiding them as much as possible except in extreme circumstances. However, once in a while curiosity gets the best of me and I end up going only to be reminded as to why I didn’t like them in the first place.
The only exception? Tony and Tina’s Wedding, but that wasn’t a murder mystery as much as just a show during dinner… but I am not talking about that in this point.
So knowing that there was a group putting on a mystery dinner I found myself interested enough to see them… after all they have been doing this for several years now, but I just had not had the time (or motivation, regrettably) to go. So when a friend of mine noted that she was planning to go I decided “why not” and went with her.
The first act… I will admit was a lot of expository and as thus seemed to slow down quite a bit at points and the action dragged in a lot of places. Then again, because it is a lot of expository it is bound to feel slow. Not an excuse in some cases and at first glance I could not understand why there are certain characters there or why certain scenes were included.
Sam Spade (played by Jim Zervas) caught my attention from the moment he opened his mouth, he was in character, and drew your attention. I found myself wondering when would be the next time he would be back on stage… thankfully being that he was the Private Investigator on the case it usually isn’t all that long.
The chemistry and interaction between Nino and Gilda (portrayed by Carl Zeitler and Courtney Knysch) is a sight to behold, they were fun, flirty, and have that perfect “tango-esque” quality of pushing against each other and pulling towards one another. They were more fun together than they were apart. Though, Nino was fun independently with a few other characters, Gilda was just fun to watch. Period.
Which brings me to Aphrodite (Grace Martinez)… she walks into the room and she demands attention. Then again considering the character are you really all that surprised? She had a nice “Mae West” quality to her voice and kept it subtle enough that I wasn’t sick of her. Seriously though, she was fun to watch.
Others that stood out every now and then were Effie and McPherson (respectively Vicky Giannini and Jerry Moore).