She Won’t be Back: Audience members are prime suspects in this murder mystery

Dinner theater is a rarity on the Los Angeles theatre scene. But just 30 minutes south of the City of Angels, dinner theatre is thriving in Long Beach.

Act Out Mystery Theater is hosting a new play that’s outrageous, campy fun. Adding to the fun, it’s audience participation dinner theater, inviting diners to perform small, but vital roles while they enjoy their dinner.

Terminate Her is the story of hated Hollywood gossip columnist Louella Hopper whose poison pen has killed many a career. Moments before she’s about to receive a lifetime achievement award, Louella is murdered, making everyone in the room a suspect.

This story isn’t Agatha Christie level mystery and those looking for such should keep looking. Writer Paul Vander Roest has flare for comedy, poking fun at everyone and everything including old Hollywood and current Hollywood. The scrip, reminiscent of old Mad TV or Carol Burnett Show sketches, offers many laughs.

A troupe of five players performs multiple roles, but with so many suspects, there are a dozen other small parts that need to be played. That’s where they recruit players from the audience. These budding actors are given a sheet of paper with their lines and asked to stand at their tables to perform the lines at the appropriate time.

And this is where the fun really begins. The audience participants are free to perform the parts any way they like, adding flourishes and other bits of characterization as they see fit. Some just read their lines and sit down, but others go all out. At the performance this reviewer saw, the audience member asked to play LL Kool-Aid, (a take off on rapper LL Cool J) went with a hip-hop interpretation, complete with delivering his lines like a rap song and pulling down his pants below the buttocks to expose his underwear.

This audience participation helps break down barriers in the room. It gives strangers a reason to interact between acts, whether its complimenting people on their performance or just asking, “Who do you think did it?” By the end of the night, you feel like you’ve been at a party with many new friends.

While it’s the audience participation aspect that leaves people talking, the principle actors really anchor the show. Not only must they know their parts and perform multiple roles, they’ve also got to be able to improve their lines in response to what audience actors do.

Among the principle cast, Carson Gilmore manages to create three distinct characters including the murdered Louella. Meanwhile Lara Starr Rigores so completely inhabits her Paris Hilton-like character in the first act, it’s hard to believe she turns around and plays the Jessica Fletcher-esque investigator in the next act. Aiding her in the interrogation, Heather Graff plays Alrene Schwarzenbegger, a hilariously by-the-book German detective modeled on Arnold Schwarzenegger in the Terminator movies (if you’re going to title the play Terminate Her, you’ve got to include Arnold somehow).

Terminate Her is ideal for a first date, automatically providing a couple something to discuss, thus eliminating that awkward struggle to find things to talk about.

The Reef on the Water, overlooking Long Beach Harbor, hosts the production. The Reef has long been known for its dazzling dinners. And the three-course meal served during this production is outstanding. Along with the salad and dessert courses, the audience gets to choose one of four entrees – prime rib, salmon, chicken or vegetarian – which are all rave worthy. $50 for this meal, plus the fun show, is an amazing bargain.

Terminate Her plays Fridays and Saturdays at 7 p.m., through Feb. 27 at The Reef on the Water, 880 South Harbor Scenic Drive, Long Beach. Tickets are $49.95 for both show and dinner.

Purchase tickets at the Act Out Mystery Theater website