If John Bishop's endlessly hokey comedy had been written in the year of its setting, it would be easier to forgive the jokes seen coming several beats before they arrive, and the Abbott and Costello-style mystery would be acceptable. But Bishop's two-act semifarce arrived on Broadway in 1987, and it's hard to imagine how it got there without adding anything new to a tired plot. And matters aren't helped by Dreamhouse Ensemble, because Alex Sol doesn't deliver the needed razor-sharp direction, nor is the cast charismatic enough to elicit even a few laughs and surprises. Instead, the company, bolstered by two moderately enjoyable performances, gamely stumbles through the plot, assisted a touch by a set design that ably accomplishes its goals.
The locale is a posh drawing room in the mansion of Elsa Von Grossenknueten (Adrian Lee), an effective, cozy set designed by Rich Wrightson, which includes secret-passage entrances. Elsa has reassembled the creative team behind an ill-fated production, in which three dancers were murdered by an unknown assailant. Her goal is to perhaps find the killer. The group includes director Ken De La Maize (Zenius Muleckis), writers Roger Hopewell and Bernice Roth (M.J. Walters and Leona Britton), and producer Marjorie Baverstock (Kady Douglas). One returning actor is corny comic Eddie McCuen (Rob Kariakin), and two new talents are Patrick O'Reilly and Nikki Crandall (Seth William Meier and Jacqueline Hickel). Lorianne Hill appears as several women who look like the maid Helsa, and police detective Michael Kelly is portrayed by Stevie Johnson. As one might expect from the title, not everyone makes it to Act 2 alive.
The purposefully stereotypical characters are archetypes from mystery movies of the 1930s and '40s, but the cast has difficulty capturing them. As Elsa, Lee's German accent slips frequently. Johnson flubs and drops several lines. Muleckis' director is appropriately smarmy but too dull. Only Hill and Meier, as Helsa and Patrick, exude reckless fun with their characters, and they are able to fly through the dialogue without sounding rushed. Sol's direction is clunky. The murders lack a bit of shock, and most of the entrances and exits are too slow for the farce to gather steam. With too many strikes against it, the production breaks down long before its nearly two-hour running time comes to an end.
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Fri.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 7 p.m. Mar. 7-May 11.
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