Carmel Community Players continues its 2022-23 season with John Bishop’s farcical endeavor – Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 presented in the auditorium at Ivy Tech’s Noblesville campus.
This is the first time I have seen a show at this venue, and it really is a beautiful place for theatre. Unfortunately, I understand that after this season’s shows it will no longer be available to community theatre programs.
First off, I want to congratulate the cast and crew of MCMo40 for the work they put into this very complicated script. The story arc is full of broadly rendered characters, red herrings, overlapping action, mysterious goings on, and hard to convey plotlines, all sprinkled with comic lines and circumstances. The set by David Muse is very well done, and Clay Howard’s lighting design aids the storytelling.
Jeffrey Haber as Eddie and Hannah Janowicz as Nikki. (Photo by Rob Slaven / IndyGhostLight.com)
Now, when I say this is a complicated story – I’m afraid I have to say that it is a difficult tale to put forth in a comprehendible manner. Some matters are definitely the fault of Mr. Bishop’s script. Most everything is written in a seemingly overly intricate way. Names of characters, names of people the characters know, plot lines, laugh lines, characters’ back stories, which more often than not are misleading and/or false, all are so hard to follow – one gets lost from the onset.
I realize that mystery writers want to attempt to throw off the audience or reader so they have their ah-ha moment at the end – but this is too much. The exposition introducing all the facts and information that we need to progress into the action goes on and on through a majority of the first act. None of this lends itself to being a forthright theatre experience for the audience.
Such a convoluted attempt at storytelling puts the players in a difficult position as they try to gather up all the pieces and present them in an understandable way. For the most part, the result is a very uneven presentation, which I doubt comes though with the intentions of the actors or director.
That’s not to say all was lost here. There were several good scenes and some nice work by many in the cast. Jeffrey Haber and Hannah Jancowicz showed good presence, especially in their scenes together. Haber played Eddie – a struggling comedian, and Ms. Janowicz took the role of Nikki – a likewise struggling actress. Together they have some proficient moments which stand out with some sense of apt collaboration. Likewise, Kelly Keller’s Ken De La Maize is sufficiently offered as a pretentious Broadway/Hollywood director. But, in my opinion, most of the other characterizations are rather over-the-top, and while you can make an argument that that is what the script called for, I feel they are nonetheless overly done.
Kelly Keller as Ken De La Maize. (Photo by Rob Slaven / IndyGhostLight.com)
There are several other problems with things like diction and pace, along with some pesky technical issues with the microphones all the actors wear. In all, I think Director Elizabeth Ruddell had her hands full with this oversized story and certain things might have been overlooked in order to accomplish what could be accomplished.
Bottom line: Though this was a brave community theatre event, I feel the intended mark was missed. The script had too much complication to be enjoyable to this reviewer. That said, I will look forward to future offerings by this director and her cast members.
Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 continues at the Ivy Tech venue in Noblesville through March 5. For tickets, call the box office at (317) 815-9387 or log on at CarmelPlayers.org.
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As an objective observer of this production, knowing nothing of the script and having no previous experience with this director or actors – this show was masterfully performed. The reviewer makes a good point that the script/story itself is convoluted – but he “missed the mark” in his assessment. The “over the top” performances were hilarious as it is A COMEDY – the convoluted, over the top nature of the entire script (including the characters) is intended and the great performances were not missed by the majority of the audience. I have no horse in this race, as I don’t personally know anybody involved, but my guess is that this reviewer doesn’t have a bend toward the humorous side of life. To each their own, but the show was hilarious and directed/performed well.