This follows hard upon my previous and first attendance of a The Mystery Cafe production. In fact, I’ve only reviewed three other productions in between I’ll Be Homicidal For Christmas and the new mystery ‘Til Death Do Us Die. What’s the rush you might ask? Well you know how when you first discovered Schitt’s Creek or Joe Pera Talks With You and you stayed up late bingeing every available episode because you enjoyed it so much? Well it’s kind of like that, I had such a blast with the first one that I wanted to keep going. And like finishing the last season and learning you have you have to wait a year for the next one or discovering that the bastards at Warner Brothers Discovery have cancelled a masterpiece after three short seasons. I’m now a bit bummed that there isn’t a new one on the schedule yet. I also took my own holiday gift giving advice and gave the gift of theater and in this case, The Mystery Cafe was given to some family members. I tell ya what, that’s the way to take in these productions! Get together your favorite mystery comedy loving fans and book a night out for some matrimony and murder. Once again, I stepped into the role of Dr. Watson to observe and be quite clueless as to the solution to the mystery. While the chief aim of the productions is the comedy on which it delivers, I’ve found in both cases that the mystery holds up as well. You could actually solve, but don’t feel bad if like me, you cannot see the solution until it is revealed to you and at which point, it will seem elementary my dear reader. Always the sign of a good mystery is when you can’t figure it out, but once it’s revealed you feel stupid for not solving it yourself. That means they didn’t cheat, but they kept it tricky enough that the answer took some critical thinking to solve which apparently, I don’t possess.

This latest Mystery takes place at the Wedding of Tara Ball played by Nissa Nordland and Duncan Schoen played by Brian Hodge-Rice. The Wedding party is made up of familiar faces Casey Martin, Brittany Oberstadt, Josh Carson, and Jonah Smith. Wini Froelich is the mother of the bride and Brad Erickson is the groom’s grandfather. Tim Dybevik is the Bride’s Uncle who is also officiating the ceremony and the DJ is played by Sam Landman. So glancing over the cast list, that should reveal another reason I wanted to see this production, it’s filled with local favorites. Now the fun of this show is the details, the jokes, the mystery, even the character names but I don’t want to spoil any of that for you. So trying not to reveal anything but still give you a feel for what to expect is the goal here. The audience plays the role of the guests at Tara and Duncan’s wedding, you’ll be seated at tables and if your table is far enough away from where the seating is set up for the ceremony, you’ll get the honor of sitting in the seats reserved for family of the bride and groom. After the ceremony and throughout the reception, you’ll be served your a three course meal, by the actors in character. The mystery will unfold throughout the evening so pay attention to the actors, though they will make sure your attention is on them for the critical moments there are a lot of jokes and comic bits happening at all times. At the end of the evening after you’ve enjoyed your slice of wedding cake, you will be given the opportunity to bribe members of the cast to answer questions using your allotted $20 of Mystery Cafe cash. Once you’ve learned all you can, you submit your guess as to who committed the murder and why. In terms of audience participation it ranges from being cast as the father of the bride or in my case as a line dancing guest our you can just sit back and observe, you really can participate as much or as little as you’d like.

The show is written by Brian Kelly and George Keller, comedy wise there are the odd clunkers here and there but overall its comedic writing and performances are very strong. I think sometimes people dismiss the mystery comedy genre, especially of the “dinner theater” variety as something less than other types of theater. I don’t know why that is, I imagine the script for something like this is just as challenging as any other. The performers need to be well rehearsed and able to stay in character and improvise as they interact with the audience. There are the usual design requirements and perhaps more given the non-theatrical venues. Most importantly, it’s as entertaining as any other type of theater. There’s nothing wrong with theater that is fun, escapism is one of the many reasons we go to the theater. And while it might seem like all this does is entertain, I’ll remind you that it also asks you to engage your problem solving skills and try and help bring the culprits to justice. I am having a great time with these shows they are a lot of fun, both clever and witty, and as an added bonus they are family friendly, so this is a great experience for a family theatrical outing, which is the best kind of family outing.

For more information and to purchase tickets to ‘Til Death Do Us Die go to https://www.themysterycafe.com/

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