If you attend a performance at the The Great American Melodrama from now until September 19, be forewarned: you’ll have to work for your entertainment.
Yes, the current offering from the Oceano theatre company will ask you to “put on your detective cap” to help them solve . . . dun, dun, dun . . . a murder! Not only that, you can’t just sit back and enjoy the performance: you have to clap when a lighted, strategically-placed APPLAUSE sign tells you to (okay, that part’s easier than having to guess whodunit!).
All this because you’re part of Murder on the Air, a two-act dizzy mystery written by Margaret Raether and briskly directed by Erik Stein, set in the golden age of radio when studio audiences witnessed dramas, musical programs, and commercials being broadcast live on the air.
This play is easily one of the Melodrama’s more over-the-top shows, with madcap comedy, broadly-performed characters, and a detective story that defies description.”
So grab your choice of munchies from the Melodrama menu, take a seat, and join in the fun. This play is easily one of the Melodrama’s more over-the-top shows, with madcap comedy, broadly-performed characters, and a detective story that defies description. I dare you to make enough sense of the comings and goings, the on-air and off-air shenanigans, and the fast-paced patter of our cast members in order to correctly name the killer (or killers?) when called upon to do so!
A half-dozen characters all take part in much on-air mischief, each of them (spoiler alert, but not really—it’s a melodrama!) turning out to be rogues off-air as well.
Dori Duke, Annaliese Chambers, Billy Breed and Kelly Brown are employees of radio station KGAM who are facing a shortage of musicians and actors as they prepare to go on the air. Their period costumes and wigs (great work by Tracee Bear and Courtney Ekstrom, respectively) immediately take us back to pre-WWII days, from Duke’s navy dress to Brown’s white-topped loafers to Breed’s double-breasted brown suit with red pocket square (roguishly topped off with a not-so-subtle toupee).
They are soon joined by Casiena Raether and Anjewel Lenoir, and all of a sudden we are watching half-a-dozen veteran actors make taking pratfalls, articulating multiple voices, and hitting high notes look easy.
Murder on the Air is silliness incarnate. But wait, there’s more!
The play is followed by The Space-Vaudessey Vaudeville Revue, written and directed by local multi-talent Ben Abbott. He and music director Jordan Richardson take wackiness to outer space, giving the cast—and costume and wig designers Bear and Ekstrom—more opportunities for nuttiness.
Expect Star Trek, Rocky Horror and even Age of Aquarius vibes. Even without being asked, you’ll want to participate in this out-of-this-world third act as well (“It’s just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right. . .”).