Summer used to be re-run time on
television, when the networks ran shows you’d already seen just to fill time.
At Long Wharf Theatre, summer has been “fill time,” when the theater’s creative
staff takes a break and brings in packaged shows to keep the lights on and,
hopefully, the seats filled. This time around, it’s Murder for Two, an Agatha Christie spoof of sorts, with music,
that’s been all around the country, including Broadway. It’s easy to see why
this 90-minute mélange of silliness is so often produced: a relatively simple
unit set and a cast of two indefatigable actors. If nothing else it’s easy on
the production pocketbook. Whether it’s entertaining remains to be seen.
The premise is pure Christie: a
host of characters is brought together at a creaky old mansion, there’s a
murder and everyone becomes a suspect. The twist is, a la The Mystery of Irma Vep, that all of the characters are played by
the two actors: Ian Lowe plays the detective (who’s not really a detective
yet), and Kyle Branzel has the Herculean task of playing all of the suspects:
the wife of the writer who has been murdered, a dysfunctional couple who are
neighbors, a psychiatrist, a ballerina, the writer’s niece, three choir boys
and an Irish fireman (don’t ask). Except for the choir boys (bargain basement
Dead End Kids), they are all suspects because they’ve all been featured, warts
and all, in the writer’s novels: hence, the motive for murder.
The evening gets off to a shaky
start mainly because exposition, i.e., establishment of the characters and
their relationships, must be delivered by the two actors, with most of the task
falling to Branzel (his only prop is a pair of black horned-rim glasses). It
is, to say the least, a bit confusing, made more so when the actors speak over
each other, creating a verbal stew that’s difficult to digest. Branzel uses
body language and voice modulation to create the characters but it takes a
while to sort out exactly which mannerism denotes which character.
Things finally settle down, at
least with regards to who is whom, and the play proceeds with the usual
gathering of facts and red herrings, all punctuated by songs that while tuneful
are hardly memorable. To add to the actors’ tasks, they both must play the
piano to accompany the songs (this they do quite well, with more than a touch of
Victor Borge and Chico Marx in their playing styles).
The first 40 minutes of the show
seem to drag a bit, but after there’s a second murder the silliness is stepped
up a bit. There’s a running joke about cell phones ringing, a member of the
audience is enticed onto the stage to play the second murder victim, the choir
boys get to sing about all the horrible things they have seen, the Irish
fireman (perhaps the high point of the evening) appears with his “hose” and
does his River Dance shtick and the
dead writer’s widow finally gets to do her big number (I guess you can call it
the 11 o’clock number). Cats screech, lights flash, things crash, glitter
confetti falls and, eventually, the mystery is solved, as if anyone in the
audience really cares.
The basic problem with Murder for Two is that it is a skit that
goes on for too long. Writers Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair (Kinosoian wrote
the music, Blair the lyrics) had a good though not original premise, and they
throw in some knowing film and Broadway allusions, and there are some truly
funny moments, and hopefully Branzel and Lowe are getting paid triple-time for
their efforts, but the show seems mired in its premise and, save for the
fireman and the choir boys, it just goes around and around in an eventually
tiresome circle. There’s something a bit off-putting about farce that tries too
hard to be funny.
Murder
for Two runs through Saturday, Aug, 30. For tickets or more information
call 203-787-4282 or go to www.longwharf.org.
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