Review: ‘Musical Comedy Murders’ a slow burn but delivers the laughs
The Modern Theater Coeur d’Alene’s production of the farce “The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” takes a while to hit its stride, but it elicits some big laughs.
In “Murders,” a rich woman and undercover policeman assemble a group of theater folk at her mansion under the guise of an audition to try to catch the person who murdered three chorus girls during a musical comedy production two years earlier. Of course, they are all trapped in the house due to a snowstorm, and naturally the lights go out several times.
John Bishop’s script spends the bulk of the first act setting up the plot rather than the jokes, but at the end of the act, the pace and humor start to pick up, hitting their mark after intermission.
“The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” may not have musical numbers, but it is rich with slamming doors, secret passageways, eccentric characters with multiple identities and a crazed killer – or killers? By the end of the play, however, one’s not sure who the murderer was.
The set by George Green and Eric Nowak is a warm 1940s-era parlor and quite cluttered, but killers and victims need places to hide.
Director Heath Bingman choreographs the chaos well, managing to direct and misdirect the audience’s attention to create surprise and fun.
There are some funny bits that stand out. An exchange where Elsa Von Grossenknueten (Gail Cory-Betz) tries to figure out what to say to the group as police Sgt. Michael Kelly (David Kappus) gestures, not subtly, across the room is funny. In another beat, who-what-where-how dialogue is reminiscent of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s on First?” sketch.
Some of the punch lines were lost due to missed comic timing, but that is something that can improve over the life of the show. Cory-Betz as Elsa, the rich woman who orchestrates the charade, delivers her lines with a naiveté that makes the subject hilarious. When someone asks for rope to tie up a criminal, she just happens to have some in her bedroom, for example.
Aubree Peterson plays German maid Helsa Wenzel – and several other identities – a challenge she handles well, and physically she pulls out all the stops. Kim Antone as lyricist and drunk Bernice Roth has a big personality with a low tolerance for murder. Her physical comedy – fainting, running into doors – is humorous. Eddie McCuen as comedian Easton Townsend has a great energy.
Other characters include the dancer Nikki Crandall (Kimberly Hardy), composer (Jeremy Whittington), Irish actor Patrick O’Reilly (Josh Koester), director Ken De La Maize (John Michael Collins) and “simply divoon” producer Marjorie Baverstock (Wendy Carroll).
With this show, one never knows who or what will be waiting in the closet, and therein lies the fun.