By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
The Black Swamp Players has survived.
With “Clue: The Musical” the Players start their 51st season, something that seemed in doubt earlier this year. What better way to start that season than killing a character off. And there’s never been a more congenial corpse than Mr. Boddy (Heath Diehl).
Mrs. White (Monica Hiris) pleads with Mr. Boddy (Heath Diehl)
He serves as master of ceremonies to his own murder, and even after he ends up dead at the end of the first act, he can’t help but return to join the chorus line. Silly? You betcha. And in the spirit of a musical based on a board game, the audience gets to play along.
“Clue: The Musical” opens tonight (Friday, Nov. 9) at 7:30 p.m. and continues with shows this and next weekend at first United Methodist Church. Click for showtimes and details.
Audience members get game cards and a pencil with their programs. The goal is to guess who killed Mr. Boddy, where and with what weapon. The solution differs at every show. At the start Mr. Boddy along with Prop Runner (Katie Partlow) takes a jaunt into the audience to have them select game cards determining each of those elements. The chosen cards are placed in an envelope on stage to await the big reveal at the end.
Then we get to meet the suspects.
Mrs. Peacock (Karla Richardson) and Colonel Mustard (Andrew Varney) renew their friendship.
This being a play, just cardboard cut-out characters won’t do. No, these familiar figures emerge from the box in full two-dimensional glory, and not atallinclined to play by the rules. They are caricatures of the stock characters in murder mysteries. Mrs. Peacock (Karla Richardson) is the much married rich widow with a trail of husbands, all dead under mysterious circumstances.
Miss Scarlet (Anneise Mason) and Mr. Green Garrett Hummel) hatch a plot.
Colonel Mustard (Andrew Varney) is an old lover, who has survived. He was married to Boddy’s mother and lays claim to ownership of the mansion and the scene of the crime.
Miss Scarlet (Annelise Mason) is a small time Vegas entertainer, who at one point gave Boddy an encore in his hotel room. Professor Plum (Matt Crawford) is a pretentious intellectual who is writing a book with Boddy and has been on the losing end of some business dealings with him.
Mr. Green (Garett Hummel) has also had shady business dealings with Boddy, though he’s been more successful at it.
The Detective (Mac Ramsey) questions Mrs. Peacock (Karla Richardson)
And Mrs. White (Monica Hiris) is the much put-upon domestic, literally the chief cook and bottle washer and suspect. Boddy bailed out her stepson from major trouble with the law, and so she is resentfully in his debt.
Such a richness of motives! The detective, a hard-boiled cutie, played by Mac Ramsey comes on in the second act to sort it all out, though the suspects sing “She Hasn’t Got a Clue.”
All this is played for laughs.
Professor Plum (Matt Crawford) and Miss Scarlet (Annelise Mason)
The songs are a pastiche, and nothing really audience members will come away humming. ItThe cast, accompanied by pianist Anna Chowattanakul, gives the tunes their due with Mason showing off a voice that merits being heard in another context.
The pianist actually deserves billing with the cast, given her placement on the stage and occasional interactions with Mr. Boddy.
The action at times spills off the thrust stage further pulling the audience into the show.
The audience at the dress rehearsal was busy at intermission trying to sort out the clues.
The Players’ fans will be left thankful that the troupe, like Mr. Boddy, has risen again to join the chorus.
