“The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year,” a show put on by the Murder Mystery Company, is sure to be dead as all get out.
That’s when the fun begins, however.
An interactive murder mystery is coming Nov. 23 to Ho-Chunk Gaming Wittenberg for two nights only with the promise of getting everyone in the Christmas spirit mixed in with solving a deadly puzzle. This particular show is put on by a group of actors from Minnesota who travel to zoos, opera houses, theaters and other venues.
The show opens with a man putting on a Christmas party at his office, according to Cayla Wolpers, director and one of the actors in the troupe.
“He hires some entertainment. He hires a stand-up comedian who isn’t really that great at being a stand-up comedian — he has some really horrible jokes to say in front of everybody,” Wolpers said. “Unfortunately, that stand-up comedian is the one who dies. Then the rest of the show is everybody trying to figure out who committed the crime.”
Wolpers noted it was easy for the traveling troupe to mix in holiday cheer and homicide.
“I’m really excited to do a show for the casino and everything,” Wolpers said. “It sounds like a really fun time. December is pretty much our busiest time of the year, and so we said, ‘OK, we’ve got to do a Christmas-themed murder mystery.’ It’s a lot of fun to do.”
Those who come to the show are encouraged to wear their most hideous ugly sweaters to blend in with the show. Wolpers said some people in the audience will also be selected to be suspects and part of the fun.
“We are an immersive theater company,” she said. “We make the audience a part of the show. We make audience members into suspects. We give them binders with all of their clues and a name tag, and we say, ‘Hey, congratulations. You get to be an actor today.’ It’s really, really fun to be able to inspire them in that way and help them and everything. A lot of times, there are people who come up to us afterwards, and they’re like, ‘Gosh, I didn’t know I could do this, but you gave me a shot, and I really appreciate it.’”
The Murder Mystery Company came into being in 2002 from a living room in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Since then, it has grown to 20 troupes performing about 7,500 shows a year, all across the nation. According to Wolpers, the company’s secondary goal is to bring theater to areas where there might not be high-quality performing arts, noting that some shows are performed “in the middle of nowhere.”
“When the Murder Mystery Company just started, that was one of their first shows they created — they created a Christmas show because everyone wanted to do a murder mystery around Christmas,” said Wolpers. She has been with the company for 10 years and just completed her 250th show. “It’s been a lot of fun to be able to travel around and do shows in places that people wouldn’t expect theater to be done.”
While it’s debatable by some whether a Christmas show should be performed before Thanksgiving, Wolpers shrugs it off and points out some performances of “The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year” were done before Halloween.
“We made sure the client wanted the Christmas show, even though it was Halloween time and everything like that,” Wolpers said.
lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com
Nothing says Christmas like a murder mystery
