The SpeakEasy Stage Company's production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood is great fun. Drood is one of the few Tony winners I never had a chance to see, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to take in a production of such fun and charm. The music hall setting of the show gives the company great freedom to involve the audience throughout. Members of the company connect with their sections of the audience from the start, and you find yourself rooting for your player throughout. It's a wonderful bonding moment that becomes totally engaging.
Drood, for those who don't remember, is the unfinished, serialized murder mystery by Charles Dickens, subsequently musicalized by Rupert Holmes. The 1985 production won a slew of Tony Awards and firmly entrenched the "let the audience decide the ending" gimmick used commonly on TV and in the theater these days. It obviously worked then and it definitely works now.
The SpeakEasy production is marvelously cast. Though a few off notes are hit here and there, the cast is uniformly charming and engaging. The choreography and direction make great use of the small stage, employing inventive solutions to theatrical problems.
Drood is the perfect musical for the season. Great fun, engaging. It just brought a big smile to my face.
Fun Fact: Halfway through the run of the Broadway production, Joe Papp changed the name of the play from The Mystery of Edwin Drood to, simply, Drood to secure a better position in the Times alphabetical theater listings.
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