By Tyler Patterson
Daily Theater Editor
Imagine a mystery novel where in every reading a different suspect is the killer. Think of the last great story you read and imagine what it would be like if the last few chapters rewrote themselves every time you put the book down. In University Productions' first musical of the year, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," this scenario is not as far-fetched as it sounds. It's the premise of Rupert Holmes' musical stage adaptation of Charles Dickens' unfinished novel.
Calling on a tradition of British music hall theater where vaudeville-type performers showcase their talents in a haphazard collection of entertaining performance pieces, "Drood" is a special kind of musical.
In a recent interview with The Michigan Daily, Gary Bird, director of "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," said, "The closest thing to liken it to is American vaudeville. It has a turn-of-the-century feel where you see a number of artists perform acts, songs, scenes and little vignettes. It fed into the early silent film."
Bird, who directed U-prod's "Grand Hotel" last winter, sees a benefit to giving students experience working on shows like "Drood" or "Grand Hotel" that fall away from the more mainstream Rodgers and Hammerstein-style musicals. "They're very much more style pieces," Bird explained. "I just think it's an interesting challenge for our students if they can do more than the standard musicals."
The combination of a loose audience-engaging atmosphere and one of the preeminent storytellers of all time, Charles Dickens, may be a lethal combination. On Broadway, this musical won five Tony Awards when it opened in 1985, including Best Musical.
The unfinished Dickens story, however, acts as a "springboard" for the musical, and "Drood" is by no means trying to claim itself as the authoritative version. Part of the charm of this musical is that it extends a tradition that began with Dickens' death - guessing what the proper ending of this story should be.
"It's about a company of British music hall performers who decide to be ambitious," Bird explained. "Usually, they perform a disjointed series of vaudeville musical acts, but they decide to put on their version of Dickens' unfinished classic. With the little gimmick at the end."
The gimmick at the end, of course, is that the audience gets to decide who did it. University Productions offers seven possible endings and after an audience vote, the company will then perform their choice. "There are seven different murderers, each with their own confessions to make," Bird said.
"The challenge will be to get the audience involved without being assaulted," Bird went on. "It's a TV generation. People don't go to a show expecting to be involved."
There's nothing new about engaging the audience into a performance. "The thing that's interesting is that there was a whole lot more audience-interaction theater before the advent of realism," Bird said. "Nobody would go to a theater if the audience wasn't directed."
The difference in experience could not be more pronounced. In the traditional "TV" experience, one maintains a certain amount of distance from the world created in the performance. In the style put forth by "The Mystery of Edwin Drood," you cannot separate the theater goer from the world of the performers. With the cast of a simple ballot, the performers must comply with the wishes of the audience.
Throughout the weekend, with every performance, there will be another mystery to solve. Despite their experience with the story, the performers always return to square one. A murder has occurred. Someone is responsible, but no one knows who. Not even the murderer. With the help of the audience, each and every night, a mystery gets solved - only to be recreated at curtain fall.
From left to right: Featured performers Laurie Ferdman, Matt Schicker and Erika Shannon star in The Mystery of Edwin Drood.