An interactive "who dunnit" dinner theater production involves the audience in determining who killed a dancer at a revived disco club.
By EILEEN SCHULTE
Published October 10, 2003
CLEARWATER - The lights are dim in the Starlight Room, and the cheese has been served.
Suddenly, a loud crash is heard coming from just outside.
Crumpled beneath a broken 8-foot-tall mirror ball is a dead body.
"Somebody was shot out there," said Alma Rodriguez, a retiree from Belleair Bluffs, looking toward the door.
Really?
But who? And why?
It's up to Rodriguez and dozens of other folks attending in the Detective Dinner Theater's production of Disco is Dead! to find out who dunnit.
There are clues.
"Accidents" keep happening, causing the characters to trip and fall.
And where the heck is the first course of the meal?
The interactive play written and directed by Charla Garrison is put on every Saturday night in the dark, intimate room of the old hotel.
As theatergoers munch on their tropical fruit salads and chicken piccata, seven actors engage them in conversation, pulling them into the story, trying to get them to get up and boogie.
You are, they tell participants, at the grand reopening of Disco Le Chic, closed down in the 1970s because disco had "allegedly" died.
The cast: Miss Fever, the five-time disco dance champ; Freda Faye, owner of Disco Le Chic; Angela Halliwagger, Faye's assistant; Kiki York, five-time disco champ runner up; Stu Meyer, disco king; Lucy Turner, Stu Meyer's dance partner; and Delta Dawn, a visitor to the disco. They not only want to bring disco back, they want to make it an Olympic sport.
On the night of the "grand reopening," there is a dance contest all the characters want to win. The grand prize is $10,000 and the chance to dance with the disco god himself, Tony Manaro.
But before the contest starts there is a warning:
"Go home if you know what's good for you," said Lucy (Brie Turoff) wearing a tight black pantsuit with hot pink sparkles.
But the participants stay, bribing the characters with play money for more clues (a $5 bill gets you a hint of a clue, a $20 bill gets you a better clue).
Meanwhile, Stu (Damien Baldwin), "so boss" in his white John Travolta polyester suit, dances with Lucy, and effeminate Vic (the cast calls him Vicky) pairs up with Angela (Kathleen Lilly), a mousy nerd - or so it seems.
They dance to such hits as It's Raining Men and Kung Fu Fighting, while dropping hints about who the killer is.
Bobbi Spencer, who was sitting at a back table, thinks she knows.
"The obvious one is Stu," she said, marking her ballot.
She was wrong.
On this night, Angela did it.
But next Saturday, it will be a different suspect. It could be Kiki. It could be Delta. It's up to you to figure out who it is.
"At any given time, you could be sitting next to a murderer," warned Garrison, laughing.
Solve a murder at the Detective Dinner Theater. Performances are at 7:30 p.m. every Saturday at the Belleview Biltmore Resort and Spa, 25 Belleview Blvd., Clearwater. Admission is $49.95, $45.95 for seniors 65 and over and groups of 20 or more. The cost includes the show and a four-course dinner. Doors open at 7 p.m. The show runs through Jan. 24. To make reservations, call (727) 446-8569.
