By Timothy Ruppert
When a play features a cowled maniac committing a murder within the first two minutes, one gets the impression quickly that the evening will not tiptoe forward either in rendering suspense or in escalating the stakes. The Stage Door Slasher is loose in Westchester County, and a profound blizzard makes it impossible for the spirited cast of The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 to escape the killer. Stopping the Slasher becomes even more sinister a task given the labyrinthine layout of the mansion owned by Elsa Von Grossenknueten (Katy Chmura); with a hidden passage behind every bookcase, Frau Grossenknueten’s estate provides as welcome a site for peril as anywhere you may visit in an Agatha Christie work. And the Slasher has plans for a busy night.
A mirthful love letter to old Broadway (with Xs and Os for Golden-Age Hollywood as well), John Bishop’s charmingly parodic play opens South Park Theatre’s 2026 mainstage season with a delightful production that finds every moment of fun in Bishop’s nimble, allusive script. Helga Terre’s incisive direction allows the delightful ensemble to explore the piece’s humor without losing the thread of the mystery at the show’s heart. Along with Terre’s guidance, Chmura’s fight choreography merits praise for enhancing the physical comedy without abandoning a sense of menace entirely, as in the scene when the Slasher pursues the wisecracking Eddie McCuen (Mike Hamilla) with a blade sharp enough to pierce a copy of Melville’s Moby-Dick (literally). As theatre makers portraying theatre makers, the cast performs together smoothly, and their collaborative efforts create a cogent illusion. Led by Hamilla and Madison Bosler as the intrepid Nikki Crandall, the actors are vivacious to a person. A new show from the musical-writing team of Roger Hopewell (Eric Leslie) and Bernice Roth (Misty Challingsworth) occasions the fateful gathering that brings, along with Eddie and Nikki, the long-winded director Ken (Joe Eberle), the saccharine producer Marjorie (Naomi Grodin), and the Irish baritone Patrick (Bob Rak) to within inches of the Slasher’s knife. NYPD officer Michael Kelly (Dewayne Curry), Benoit Blanc-style accent at the ready, is present to investigate, and housemaid Helsa Wenzel (Adrien-Sophia Curry) proves invaluable to keeping the energy high.
Like the ensemble, the behind-the-scenes creative team contributes immensely to transporting us through time and space to prewar New York. Lilly Brown’s costuming impresses, as do Matt Lisiak’s sound design and Sabrina Hykes-Davis’s work as technical director, with the lighting package especially noteworthy. Amy Farber deserves congratulations for a wonderfully realized set that evokes the era while functioning flawlessly as the nexus of a palatial home devilishly devised by a World War One spymaster.
One need not be a student of the period, though, to enjoy South Park Theatre’s The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940. This group’s collective alacrity makes the best of individual talents, and the result is a terrifically entertaining visit to the past—beware the Stage Door Slasher!
*Please note that all name spellings were taken from the biographical section of the playbill.
-TR
“The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940” plays through Sunday, May 9, at South Park Theatre, located at the corner of Brownsville Road and Corrigan Drive, South Park Township, PA 15129. Visit here or call South Park Theatre at 412-831-8552 for tickets.
