Much Ado About Laughter: latest mystery dinner theatre production is outrageous fun

Imagine a convention filled with world famous detectives where one of them gets murdered. That’s the premise behind the latest mystery dinner theatre production from Act Out Mystery Theatre, the comedy troop specializing in spoofing pop culture.

These three super sleuths argue amongst themselves about who is the greater detective until Agatha Christie shows up to put them all in their place. Two of the three are her creations, after all. And before long Agatha ends up dead.

Things go from mysterious to crazy in the second act when French chef Julia Child shows up to play detective. Don’t ask why Child is doing the sleuthing; her being there just adds to the laughs. Next thing you know, James Bond shows up to lend his suave spy skills only to be upstaged by the arrival of Nancy Drew who is intent on solving this murder. And just when you think things can’t get any more outrageous Dorothy Gale and her house drop in from Kansas. Hilarity ensues as these unrelated characters all try to fit into the same universe.

Much Ado About Murder is Act Out’s best production since last summer’s Die Nasty! which spoofed soap operas. They take every clichés about murder and sleuths and milk it for the delicious comedy. The more outrageous the scenario, the more this troupe seems to be at home. And they’re very much at home with Much Ado.

Writer/director Paul Vander Roest has crafted a finely honed script. And yes, there is a script, even though at times it feels like the actors are ad libbing the entire thing. They do go off script occasionally when the situation lends itself, but always manage to stay in character and get back on script without the audience being any the wiser. The audience as well as the actors are all reveling in the journey, knowing that’s where the fun is.

And the audience does get to be a part of the fun too. While five different actors play the ten main characters in this production, there are ten other small parts for which the troupe recruits audience members to play. In this case Nick and Nora Charles, Sam Spade, Phillip Marlow, Jessica Fletcher and even Encyclopedia Brown are among the other detectives needed to help advance the plot.

Great acting is not expected of the audience members recruited, merely standing at the dinner table and reading the lines they’ve been handed. But sometimes great acting occurs nonetheless. At opening night, the guest recruited to play Jessica Fletcher played the TV detective as a lesbian, bringing outrageous laughs and an entirely new level of meaning to the part.

But the troupe is never upstaged by the audience. Lara Starr Rigores, an Act Out staple, makes an impressive Miss Jane Marple in the first act, getting the prim and proper old lady routine down perfectly. But then in the second act, she’s so mesmerizing as Nancy Drew, you completely forget she was in the first act. Rigores is clearly having the time of her life playing the perky and practically perfect teen detective.

Carson Gilmore, always enjoyable in these productions, plays Sherlock Holmes as a drunk, managing to fall on cue but never spilling a drop in his glass. But then in the third act, Gilmore plays Lt. Columbo, so perfectly imitating Peter Falk that you again completely forget he was Sherlock in the earlier act.

Natasha Lloyd almost steals the show with her Julia Child, a character she first played so deliciously in Die Nasty! that they had to bring her back for this production. She sautés her lines with French cooking phrases that bring many a chuckle.

Two newcomers join the troupe with this production. Michael Dublin comes aboard to play Hercule Poirot and then James Bond, adding nice mannerisms to both characters. But it’s Jillian Yim who truly is the show stealer in this production. In the first act Yim portrays a bitter, haggard Agatha Christie, then turns around to pull off a wide eyed innocent Dorothy, getting the Judy Garland voice down so perfectly, you wonder if she’s not channeling Judy.

Much Ado About Murder is a silly fun, complete with a great meal at the Reef on the Island. It’s worth the drive to Long Beach to see.

Visit the Act Out Mystery Theatre website.