Making a killing
Arkansas Queen takes murder mystery show on a maiden voyage.
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
On June 8, the Arkansas Queen launched its first murder mystery dinner theater show complete with a Wild West theme, keyboard sound effects and chocolate cake.
Not long after the dessert plates were cleaned of everything but chocolate smears, someone on the boat had been murdered.
The show, written by 25-year-old cruise consultant Jenny Blaylock, started with character introductions. Blaylock played the main character, Mrs. Dolly, who also owns a saloon.
The audience was given the background of the town and the characters. They were told the town has a brand new electric chair and a dental chair, too.
Surprisingly, this tidbit was seemingly unrelated to the forthcoming murder.
The citizens had also seen newfangled devices like toilet paper.
“Can you believe people would pay good money for that?” Dolly wonders at the crowd.
One line that got a laugh was when one of the townspeople asked Dolly if she's seen his glass eye.
She said, “No, but I'll keep an eye out …”
After the introductions, the buffet table opens and the audience helps themselves to chicken, ham, vegetables and rolls. Some even wander to the top deck for fresh air. The keyboardist plays classics like “Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain,” “The Gambler,” and the theme to The Andy Griffith Show.
After dessert and coffee, the show resumes.
However, the second half was marred by microphone trouble and for many seated on the mezzanine, much of the dialogue was missed.
Then, in no time at all, the show was over and we were asked to name the guilty character.
“Whodunit cards” were passed out and the characters walked through the audience professing their innocence.
Fortunately, for those who missed most of the dialogue, a black and white photo passed out with the cards showed the recently deceased on the shore with a giant bone next to him. This clue pointed to Miss Libby, who we learned raises hogs and who carried a giant rawhide dog bone prop throughout the show, as the killer.
Blaylock said that was done with the intent of helping the audience figure out the mystery.
“That's why we had the bone sticking out of the water,” she said. “It was very apparent, if you thought about it, who the killer is.”
However, only 22 in the 132-member audience guessed correctly. The names of those observant enough to solve the crime were placed into a bowl and three were drawn for prizes.
The size of the audience was a surprise to the Queen's crew, Blaylock said.
“We probably expected to be somewhere between 40 and 60. We had to turn people away when we hit 132,” she said. “We more than doubled what we thought we were going to have.”
Next month, the Queen will launch with a new murder mystery aboard — with the next one set in the roaring 20s, Blaylock said.
She and Captain Robert Lumpp are writing the show together.
The mystery was Blaylock’s first foray into the world of writing for the public, she said. And the Henderson State University theater graduate will change a few things in the second show.
“When we were rehearsing, we were rehearsing for those 60 people, and we figured they'd be on the main deck. For those that were up on the mezzanine, we tried really hard to include them in everything.”
Next month, she's planning to add lapel microphones for the actors to eliminate the first show's sound mishaps.
Comments
Post a comment
(Requires free registration.)