Drood ( The Mystery of Edwin Drood ) ._______________
Playwright: Rupert Holmes
At: Noble Fool Theatricals at Pheasant
Run Resort, 4051 E. Main, St. Charles
Phone: 630-584-6342; $27-$38
Runs through: April 12
There's a jolly Jekyll-and-Hyde duality to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, or Drood for short. This clever, Tony Award-winning 1985 Broadway musical comedy revels in constantly twisting perspectives for its own solve-it mystery structure.
With so much going on, thank heaven that Noble Fool Theatricals has employed Circle Theatre artistic director Kevin Bellie to direct and choreograph this rollicking show. Bellie previously directed a much admired Drood for Circle Theatre in 2005, and now it's clear he has worked his magic again on this silly show for Noble Fool.
Drood is based upon the Charles Dickens novel of the same name, which was left unfinished at the time of the author's death. If you only know Rupert Holmes for his hit single Escape ( The Piña Colada Song ) , prepare to be impressed by his triple-threat work as Drood's composer, lyricist and playwright.
Instead of a conventional narrative, Holmes sets the whole show within a bawdy English music hall ( complete with the traditional female male impersonator, bad puns and loads of not-so-subtle innuendo ) . In a twist, the actors switch in and out of character in the Dickens mystery to assume their music hall personas. This unconventional structure allows for songs to both grow out of the mystery plot and when the rowdy actors demand to sing favorites from the music hall's repertory like the rousing Act I closer Off to the Races.
Since no one knows how the mystery is supposed to end, Holmes has ingeniously created a series of different outcomes that get voted upon by the audience at every performance. Just who gets to be the secret detective, the murderer and the set of lovers changes each and every night ( the unlikely lovers on opening night left the audience in convulsive stitches ) .
Bellie skillfully navigates all the shifts and sudden changes with panache, drawing finely tuned performances from his energetic and vocally strong cast. If there's one drawback to Bellie's work, it's his tendency to busy up the musical numbers with extra bits of needless domestic duties for walk-on chorus members.
In the ensemble, the operatic soprano of Julie Bayer as the virginal love interest Rose Bud is a particular stand out. Bayer teams nicely with Cat Davis' Drood, particularly in their break-up song 'Perfect Strangers.'
Kenneth Z. Kendall impresses as the vocally-dexterous two-faced villain John Jasper, as do Jeff Diebold and Darci Nalepa as the stereotypical hot-blooded twins from Ceylon. Tom Weber wins loads of laughs as the gross-out grave digger Durdles, as does Richard Marlatt doubling as the busybody Chairman and the incontinent elderly mayor.
Drood is loads of fun, especially if you're a die-hard Anglophile. Noble Fool's fine Drood should certainly win a few more fans for this quirky interactive show.