Audience will help to solve 'Mystery of Edwin Drood'

POTSDAM — Clarkson Theatre Company takes pride in producing musicals not often performed in the north country.

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" continues that tradition when the company presents the solve-it-yourself musical mystery Thursday, Friday and for two shows on Saturday.

The musical comedy won the 1986 Tony Award for best musical and best original score. It was composed by Rupert Holmes and is based on the novel of the same name by English novelist Charles Dickens. Dickens's novel was left unfinished at the time of his death.

The musical requires lots of audience interaction, which keeps cast members on their toes. The mystery begins with the disappearance of the arrogant young orphan Edwin Drood and the audience is called upon to do some amateur sleuthing to choose the story's outcome.

"The show allows the audience to vote for the identity of the murderer," said Allison S. DeVoe, lighting director for the production and the company's vice president and spokeswoman.

The plot, according to Tams-Witmark Music Library Inc., which licenses the play, kicks off when the Music Hall Royale musical troupe puts on its flamboyant rendition of an unfinished Dickens mystery.

"The story itself deals with John Jasper, a Jekyll-and-Hyde choirmaster who is quite madly in love with his music student, the fair Miss Rosa Bud. She is, in turn, engaged to Jasper's nephew, young Edwin Drood," according to Tams-Witmark.

The title character disappears mysteriously one stormy Christmas Eve.

Musical numbers include "The Wage of Sin," "Perfect Strangers," "Both Sides of the Coin," "Don't Quit While You're Ahead" and "Moonfall."

The actors are trained to play any of the murderer and lover combinations the audience selects.

"We're doing it live based on the audience every night," Ms. DeVoe said. "This means that eight different people have to learn a song for the possible ending, with at most, four getting to actually perform it."

It's not just the actors who have to be flexible.

"It also makes the technical aspects more challenging, since there are several songs that happen almost entirely in the audience," Ms. DeVoe said. "This means the lighting and sound systems need to be more flexible, and not centered only on the stage. The set also has to allow for some cast members to be in the audience during the show, without blocking the audience's view."

Clarkson Theatre Company's fall show is usually a musical.

"They are more popular for parents and younger children that come up for Clarkson's Family Weekend," Ms. DeVoe said.

The cast is a 50-50 mix of Clarkson University students and SUNY Potsdam students.

The company welcomes members of the Clarkson community, as well as from SUNY Potsdam, SUNY Canton and St. Lawrence University. Its home is Old Snell Hall in downtown Potsdam at Park and Elm streets.

"Besides the theater departments at neighboring colleges, there aren't a lot of theater groups to compare ourselves to," Ms. DeVoe, of Clarkson's Class of 2011, said. "We are not doing shows because we are getting graded on them or they are part of our graduation requirements. We do shows because we love theater."