Each month, Jason Fortner spotlights one or more musical theatre composers and/or lyricists, offering his own unique perspective on the songwriting legends of musical theatre. Send your comments/questions on this column to happgood@aol.com.

In the midst of rehearsals for a local production of SOMETHING’S AFOOT, I got to thinking about the relative lack of mystery musicals on Broadway.

Part of this may be the structure, as stated by critic Walter Kerr in his 1976 review of SOMETHING’S AFOOT on Broadway. He said, "There is no such thing as a musical that is also supposed to be a 'whodunit'... Reason: the music totally relaxes the suspense, and the suspense makes the music seem intrusive."

According to Kerr, the structure can’t work, but I’d rather think of a show like SOMETHING’S AFOOT like the songs in A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM, which Sondheim reckoned to be little rest stops to catch your breath between the broad comedy. While not fully dependent on the other, the book and score play a bit of ping-pong, bouncing back and forth to entertain.

Of course SOMETHING’S AFOOT didn’t last long enough on Broadway to make much of a dent (or a cast recording) but thanks to subsequent productions in London, on cable TV and in most regional theaters, the show has lived on. (In fact one need go no further than YouTube to see clips from dozens of amateur productions as well as the TV version starring Jean Stapleton & Andy Gibb.)

The show was written by a trio of writers, James McDonald, David Vos, Robert Gerlach with additional musical material by Ed Linderman. The original Broadway production featured Tessie O’Shea as detective "Miss Tweed" and Gary Beach as "Nigel" the greedy nephew and played 61 performances on Broadway. Other notable productions featured both Pat Carroll and Mary Jo Catlett as the plucky British sleuth.

The show itself is great fun to do, taking off as a spoof of Agatha Christie style mysteries like AND THEN THERE WERE NONE/TEN LITTLE INDIANS in which a group of British archtypes are stranded in a stately home of England, getting bumped off one by one in humorous ways. The score is a pastiche of Thirties styles, ranging from the stiff upper lip anthem ("Carry On") to the double entendre novelty number ("Dinghy") to the Cole Porter-esque beguine ("The Legal Heir"). The mystery itself is not the most smartly developed in literary history, but the fun is in the journey, so the key is to play it fast & loose and razzle dazzle the crowd before they have time to see that the facts don’t always add up logically.

Betty Buckley as the title character in the Broadway production of THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. Source: Betty Buckley.com

Another mystery musical that continues to live on is Rupert Holmes’ THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD. Created as a summer divertissement for the New York Shakespeare Festival’s free performances at Central Park’s Delacorte Theatre, this unfinished work by Charles Dickens proved fertile ground for musical comedy fun. Starring George Rose, Howard McGillin, Cleo Lane and Betty Buckley, this rousing musical used the show within a show approach, using a troupe of actors at an English Music Hall as a jumping off point to tell the tale of Dickens’ DROOD.

Composer/lyricist/playwright/orchestrator Holmes did quadruple duty on the show, doing the lion’s share of work and exhausting himself in the process. Ably aided by Director Wilford Leach and choreographer Graciela Daniele, the show was great fun from start to finish, largely due to its’ take no prisoners style of broad performance.

Of course as mysteries go, the one here is just what was Dickens thinking as he "laid down his pen for the final time", leaving behind this unfinished plot? To rectify this dilemma, Holmes and company devised a clever plot device in which the audience votes on the direction the show will take, choosing who is behind the detective’s disguise, which two characters will become lovers, and most importantly, who is the Murderer! This made for a unique experience, making no two performances alike and encouraging repeat viewings. Along this circuitous path, the audience is entertained with rousing Music Hall style numbers, ranging from the Patter Song ("Both Sides Of The Coin") to the musical nervous breakdown ("A Man Could Go Quite Mad") to the broken down torch number ("The Garden Path To Hell") with many other stops along the way. As musical mysteries go, this is definitely my favorite!

David Hyde Pierce and Debra Monk in CURTAINS. Photo by Joan Marcus. Source: Broadway Fan Club.com

Rupert Holmes also had a hand in bringing CURTAINS, the John Kander & Fred Ebb musical murder mystery to Broadway. This tuneful musical comedy featured David Hyde-Pierce, Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba, Jason Danieley, Jill Paice and Edward Hibbert and centered around the out of town tryout of a Broadway bound musical. As the body count increased, Detective Cioffi, played by David Hyde Pierce must deduce the identity of the fiend.

I had the opportunity to see the show when it previewed in Los Angeles and then later on Broadway, and  had a great time, largely due to the lead performers zest and verve. My favorite numbers in this piece were "A Tough Act To Follow" and  "Show Business", and though the actual revelation of the killer was a bit of a let down, I had fun seeing a good old fashioned musical comedy on the stage.

Throughout Broadway history, no musical mystery was more troubled than NICK & NORA, the Charles Strouse/Richard Maltby Jr/Arthur Laurents flop that languished in an ongoing preview period in 1991 as the authors struggled to make it work. Based on the famous Thin Man films and featuring the husband & wife detective team Nick & Nora Charles, NICK & NORA was poised to be a big hit, but things turned against the show and fortunes faded. Everyone in New York (and beyond) had heard bad things about the show, prompting Frank Rich to quip in his review:

Leaving the Marquis Theater after "Nick and Nora," I kept hearing the same jaded comment from other members of the audience beside me on the escalator: "Well, it's not nearly as bad as they said it would be."

Well I must second that and state that upon closer examination, I find NICK & NORA, in its various mutations, to be very entertaining. Featuring a stellar cast that included Barry Bostwick, Joanna Gleason, Christine Baranski, Faith Prince, Debra Monk, Chris Sarandon and a wealth of great tunes and comedic moments, the show should have worked, but previewing in New York for such a long time really hurt the shows chances of survival.

Still, I like NICK & NORA, especially numbers like "A Busy Night At Lorraine’s", "Detectiveland" and "Boom Chicka Boom". I really feel the authors could have pulled this off, had they not gotten caught up in personal squabbles and minutiae, and I’m saddened that this show is still not available for production. I really think it could be a very entertaining show for audiences out in the hinterlands, despite the challenges of the original production.

Anthony Head as Inspector Lestrade & Robert Powell as Sherlock Holmes in the 1993 UK Tour production of SHERLOCK HOLMES THE MUSICAL Source: www.jameshead.freeserve.co.uk

So, as you can see, the arena of mystery musicals is pretty small. A few more entries in this genre would include BAKER STREET (Grudeff/Jessel/Coopersmith) and its English counterpart SHERLOCK HOLMES (Bricusse), both musicals based on the tales of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The first starred Fritz Weaver & Inga Swenson on Broadway, with fun numbers like "What A Night This Is Going To Be" and "Letters". The Bricusse SHERLOCK HOLMES featured actors like Ron Moody taking on the role of Holmes in England, and despite authentic feeling numbers like "Down the Apples & Pears", it was flawed in it’s elementary execution. Though both shows tried to win an audience, both were less than successful in finding one.

Another musical with a mystery built in would be REDHEAD (Hague/Fields) in which waxworks assistant Gwen Verdon becomes embroiled in a Jack The Ripper style series of killings, aided by Richard Kiley as her love interest. The show is fun, with great numbers like "Erbie Fitch’s Twitch", "The Uncle Sam Rag" and "Merely Marvelous". Rarely performed today, it’s a fun and intriguing show, with a real twist in the mystery.

Norbert Leo Butz, John Lithgow and Sherie Rene Scott in the Broadway production of DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS. Photo by Carol Rosegg Source: Theatremania.com

Additional shows that feature mysteries with twists include CITY OF ANGELS (Coleman/Zippel) and DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (Yazbek), although the latter’s mystery has to do with con artists, not murder.

So, after reviewing this short list, I’ve surmised that maybe Mr. Kerr was right after all, in the point that it’s really difficult to combine the mystery & musical genres successfully. That said, I’m sure there will be more attempts in the future (as well as some examples from the past I may have missed) and maybe one will become a classic of the musical theater.

Until then, we’ll just have to contemplate whodunit… or will do it!