"Terminate Her!", Act Out Mystery Theatre
by James Scarborough
Playwright Paul Vander Roest’s effort to make an over-the-top murder mystery a suitable topic for the dinner table succeeds magnificently in his “Terminate Her!”, directed by Carol Anne Perini for Act Out Mystery Theatre at the Reef Restaurant. The production is as memorable for it’s skewering of celebrities as it is for its servings of chicken and salmon, all enacted with a gorgeous view across the water of the Long Beach night-lit skyline. Perini’s staging was fast and furious, not missing a beat (or a meal course), the acting was outlandishly spot-on, and the script kept the audience/diners in stitches until the identity of the dastardly perpetrator was revealed.
The story revolves around a ceremony to commemorate the 75-year-long career of gossip columnist Louella B. Hopper (Carson Gilmore; yes, she’s a dude). It’s set in an elegant dining room (the Reef’s Luau Rom; nice touch). It’s allegedly emceed by none other than Paris Milton – a fantastic name: Paris as in Hilton, Milton as in John, writer of Paradise Lost, a great ironic metaphor for the proceedings – who’s played by Lara Starr Rigores. That Louella has, over the course of 75 years of dirt-slinging, made enemies is to put it mildly and after her grand entrance (pratfalls, diva-esque behavior, venomesque asides), she is murdered, though it took almost five hilarious minutes for the death pangs to subside.
Who did it? It up was up to two detectives, Arlene (Heather Graff) and Jessica (Rigores), to interrogate likely candidates. The troupe’s cast supplied a host of the suspects. The boozehound Babette Bottles (Heather Graff) wanted Louella dead because she exposed a teensy, weensy matter of embezzlement. Gaylord Hopper (Gilmore) was her sole heir. Harvey Winer (Vander Roest) stood to lose a fortune if the secret affiliation of his star Dash Ripped (Gilmore) was made public. Ricky Rooney’s (Vander Roest) career was iced by one of her columns. And the production assistant, Cathy Cryer (Robin Mattocks) knew too many details about the murder.
And the audience, some brilliantly, all very good, supplied the rest of the suspects. Tom Bruise was miffed because Louella called his wife, Katie Homely well, homely. She said Nicole Poorly was an unfit mother. She blackmailed Steven Spyberg and was on the verge of blackmailing Meryl Strip, Bette David, and Joan Crawfish. And she raised the ire of Katharine Sunburn and Elizabeth Traylor.
Non-stop buffoonery was well-served in this fast-paced spoof on the peacock shenanigans of the Hollywood upper crust. The script was flexible enough to accommodate the walk-on audience participants who, for that particular evening, were as funny as the ensemble performers and the production as a whole was entertaining enough to make you want to come back for more, not just because you already know whodunit but because you want to see how the X-Factor – the audience participants – influences the next show. Besides providing an illuminating evening of hijinks and haute cuisine, the production also gives one pause to reflect on just how hard it is for actors to get up on stage and perform in front of an audience. This writer as a jive-talking crime scene investigator? Fugetaboutit!
Performances are 7 PM, Fri. & Sat., 1 PM, Sun. The show runs until March 28. Tickets are $49.95. The Reef Restaurant is located at 880 South Harbor Scenic Drive. For more info call 961-9862 or visit www.actoutmystery.com.
