By Kendra Hill
I have now been to a couple of Salty Dinner Theater’s shows and have really enjoyed those I attended. It is a unique experience to have the actors on the same level as you and interacting with you during the show (at the beginning of this show I was actually pegged as Sherlock Holmes first murder suspect, yikes! Thankfully he proved me innocent.)
This weekend I had the pleasure of seeing Sherlock Holmes: The Case of the Violinist’s Beau at the Spaghetti Factory in Orem. It was written and directed by Beth Bruner and was Salty Dinner Theater’s first mystery. With a show that performs in many different restaurant venues, I think it would be hard to direct. Beth did a good job spreading characters through different parts of the restaurant, but it’s tricky to see everything at once, as the actors are all over the place. There was a good sound system and we could always hear the actors. There was one small glitch when one of the mics was left on, but the actors were very quiet off stage (which is tough – I’m an actor, we love to talk!) and was quickly fixed.
When we (Jennifer Mustoe and I) arrived at the restaurant, we were greeted by Sherlock and Watson. They chatted with us as we waited to be shown to our seats and really helped set the mood for the show. The other actors were inside and wandered from table to table and talk to the audience giving background information and (in a sense) setting the stage for the show.
I was impressed with the acting choices the actors made. They were all very bold and it made it easier to distinguish between the characters to solve the mystery. While many of the characters were silly in nature, the majority of the dialogue and jokes in the show seemed to be aimed toward an older audience and may become boring for younger children, unusual for most SDT shows. There are some things that kids will enjoy including one of the characters often being treated like a dog (sort of like Scooby Doo and his Scooby snacks), and the magician does a couple of magic tricks, but I don’t know if that is enough to keep their attention the whole time. There also seemed to be times where there was a lot of dialogue and the story started to drag. Though, when that happened, there was always a yummy dinner to keep you occupied until the show picked up again.
Sherlock Holmes (Mike Brown) put a very entertaining and fun spin on the character and was very good at silly improv lines when audience members said unexpected things. Watson (Ryon Sharette) was a very good balance to Sherlock’s silliness and they were a very good team. Sometimes it is hard for actors to have such a good chemistry, especially when they were often separated by tables of patrons, but Mike and Ryon really did a great job at playing off of one another. Jane – the romantic heroine – (Sheri Gillies) was very cute and fun to watch. She would change her emotions quickly, from crying to sedate explanations, which was rather silly, though it didn’t get many laughs. I blame it on the rather low energy audience of the evening because I really enjoyed her performance and was surprised it didn’t get more positive audience response. Sasha (Tanner Haderlie) was very entertaining to watch and really projected his performance through the room. He had a very thick Russian accent, but still was easy to understand. Inspector Marsan (Megan Tholen) had a very strong presence on stage, which was especially good when she had her stand-offs with the chauvinistic Hagman, the magician. However, with all of the eccentric characters in the show, she sometimes was a little drowned out. Hagman (Christopher Kucera) did very well at being an outrageous magic Texan (never thought that would all be together in one sentence). He was very big and over the top, which really worked with this cast and the strong character choices that were made. Irene Hall (Jamie Haderlie) had a great singing voice. During the breaks of the show, she entertained the audience with a large range of songs including Broadway tunes, mainstream songs, as well as some the audience could join in. She really did a good job at keeping the show lively and upbeat after some of the longer dialogue areas.
As every actor knows, each audience is different. Some nights you get loud laughter and applause almost constantly, while other nights the audience seems not to understand what is going on and is quiet. Sadly, the night I went to review, the crowd seemed to lack enthusiasm and it brought the energy of the show down a little bit. The majority of the jokes, though many were funny, seemed only to get small chuckles. The actors, even with a lack-luster audience, kept their energy thriving and still were able to entertain those of us who were enjoying the show.
The best part of the evening was the ending. Not because the show ended, but because the audience was able to participate in the punishment of the culprit. During the show, each audience member has a booklet with information on the characters where they can take notes as they try to discover who the killer is. When the dessert course is brought around, everyone is invited to write their guess of who was the murderer on a piece of paper as well as how to punish said culprit. If more than half of the audience is correct, then the actor or actress must act out the punishment. Luckily for us, the majority of our audience correctly guessed the killer (who shall remain nameless.) While we had an audience lacking in energy during the show, they were sure creative with their punishments. The poor culprit had to do many things including dancing the Harlem Shake/Gangham Style while announcing that Sherlock Holmes was fantastic, all the while being pelted by spaghetti noodles, and to top it all off, had ice cream smeared in their face. What a good sport they were, and it had the audience roaring with more laughter than was heard the rest of the show.
This show was funny and entertaining, and a good way to spend the evening. At times it did drag, but it was made up by the fun characters and the performances by Jamie Haderlie. You may not want to take younger children as they might get bored by the long areas of dialogue and the more mature jokes, but if you do there are still a few silly things that they will enjoy.
The Salty Dinner Theater performs almost every night, but in varying locations throughout Utah and Salt Lake Counties. To find the best location for you, it would be best if you go to their website and pick where and when you would like to go.
The price of admission is $15 for adults and $8 for children, not including the price of dinner.
Salty Dinner Theater presents Sherlock Holmes: Case of the Violinist’s Beau
Arrive by 7:15, check website for dates
TICKET PRICE: $15 adults $8 children (dinner not included)
CONTACT INFO: (801) 262-5083 info@saltydinnertheater.com
WEBSITE: http://www.saltydinnertheater.com/
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