It’s Murder, Mary! turns the classic mystery formula gay
Welcome to Cheap Seats, where every Thursday we’ll talk to folks behind the scenes of the stage events opening around town in order to give you a flavor of the productions that won’t be found in any of the promo materials.
It’s Murder, Mary!, Bartell Theatre, June 17-July 2
Promo pull quote: “It’s Murder, Mary! is an adult send-up of Agatha Christie stories, with all gay men trapped in an old hunting lodge while a movie-obsessed killer knocks them off one by one in the style of old classic movies.”
What it’s really about: Like dozens of movies, and every TV show that made it to a fourth season, OUT!Cast and StageQ’s It’s Murder, Mary! is a retelling of that hoary old device: the murder mystery. It takes place in a cabin, as eight people wonder who is killing them, presumably in front of fireplaces and with dramatic finger pointing. The twist with this one, though: All eight characters are gay men. “Agatha Christie sort of invented this whole set up, where you get a group of people and start killing them off. But It’s Murder, Mary! really plays up all aspects of gay culture, while setting it against Agatha Christie stories, which are generally very conservative,” says director/producer Steve Noll. “What makes it work is that you have this usually very conservative storytelling plot with this very alternative way of looking at it.”
Fun fact: The fact that all of the characters in It’s Murder, Mary! are gay men seems like stunt casting/writing at first, but it allows for dissections and deconstructions of gay stereotypes, from the gay activist, drag queen, the old cruiser, the “butch,” the “twink,” and points in between. “Stereotypes generally have at least some truth to them, but through this play, we’re able to break them. Just because someone is a gay pornstar airhead, they’re not necessarily all dumb, or that if someone is an older gay man, it doesn’t mean they’re only looking for sex,” Noll says. “These characters, even though they are caricature stereotypes of gay men, they end up defying that stereotype in the end. You can easily identify the characters with the stereotypes, but just because it’s a light, fluffy play doesn’t mean there aren’t character developments through playing off the stereotypes.”
Why you should try it: Because it’s a fundraiser for the Bartell Theater and StageQ, and Noll is going out on a limb by self-financing the play through his OUT!Cast theater company. “My hope is that if the show is a financial success, then I can recoup just the money I spent to put on the show, and then everything else I’m going to donate back to the Bartell and StageQ,” Noll says. “But none of this is about money for me. The way we’ve got the show, even if we sell just a third of the tickets for nine shows, we’ll recoup. But my goal is to donate $5,000 to the Bartell, and I think that’s achievable.”
