Charles Dickens¦. A Tale of Two Cities¦A Christmas Carol¦.Mystery of Edwin Drood'
If this is news to you, you are not alone. Dickens began the story as a serialized 12 installment novel - a very common practice in Victorian England.
He unfortunately died before he could finish the story. Many authors and playwrights tried to finish the story with little success.
Almost a hundred years later, pop composer Rupert Holmes (of Escape "The Pina Colada Song" fame) decided to take on this new challenge and so he wrote the book, music, lyrics and orchestration for the musical version.
Drood went on to win 5 Tony awards in 1986 . As the faux playbill reads, it is "a musicale with dramatic interludes".
And frankly, it is fun!
The story is a typical "play within a play" idea “ wacky Music Hall Royale theater troupe mounting a production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood.
Audience members are greeted by the members of the theater troupe meandering among them as the house opens to further create the music hall conceit.
The Chairman, played by George Primavera, was great fun as a semi-straight man master of ceremonies (who tries many times to be funny - mostly to groans). He interacted well with the audience throughout the show as he carried us through the story.
The very thin story itself deals with John Jasper, played with a great deal of gusto and bravado by Joe Marx, a Jekyll-and-Hyde type, drug addicted music master who is quite madly in love with his music student, the fair Miss Rosa Bud (played opening night by Samantha Simon).
Miss Simon has a lovely voice and her Moonfall was superbly done (her operatic training was quite clear). Our Miss Bud is however, engaged to Jasper's nephew, young Edwin Drood (Stefanie Goldberg “ played by a woman as nod to the Victorian practice of women playing men).
Drood disappears mysteriously one stormy Christmas Eve - but has Edwin Drood been murdered' We spend the rest of the show learning we dont know if it happened or who might have done it and then the audience gets to decide in a crazy vote at the hilarious end!
Kudos must go to several of the cameo roles in this show.
Emily Philips as Helena Landless did a superb job of never breaking character with both her voice and her body movements.
Caitlin Sing as the Princess Puffer wowed me with her throaty vocals and her great range of facial and physical expertise.
Also, the comic relief roles of Durdles (Dan McKenna) and Deputy (Zachary Love) were hysterical and very well played throughout.
The company numbers in the production were outstanding overall “ getting almost 45 voices to sound that good can be challenging to accomplish.
Set design by Tim Averill was very well done and the set drops were very realistic. Both my companion and I found the movements of set changes, even behind the curtain, to be much too noisy. Perhaps this was just an opening night issue, but it made it hard to focus on the front of stage events.
Be sure to watch for the train arriving in the station “ it was wonderfully accomplished.
Costuming by Nicole Wee also made this occasional costumer very jealous “ the colors were rich and the small details made them very authentic.
At 2 hours and 45 minutes, it is a long production. The whole audience participation voting causes some of this length.
Still, this was an enjoyable evening of great singing with some catchy little tunes by a wonderful group of Victorian music hall actors.
And no, I wont tell you whodunit on opening night (the cast has prepared for every possible solution I am told). Youll have to go see it yourself and cast your vote for your favorite villain!!
'The Mystery of Edwin Drood' plays at Empie Theatre on the Muhlenberg College campus through November 3, 2013.
For tickets, call 484.664.3333 or write