Things to do in Newport, Rhode Island (RI): The Best Performances

Reviewed By BearTravelers33 - Framingham, United States

I was a little surprised to see kind of low-ish scores for this company. We did the 1800s secret santa themed murder mystery on a December Saturday night and it was quite possibly my favorite thing we did during our weekend in Newport. We love theater and especially supporting any local artists when we visit places. The use of the art museum for a theater setting was very cool and unusual. We were greeted upon arrival by multiple actors playing servants working in the mansion, who introduced themselves and had brief conversations with the guests while we browsed the museum at our leisure for around 15 or so minutes. We were then gathered and sat in an exhibition hall where we were reintroduced to the characters who did a scripted act for about 30 minutes that lead to the demise of a main character. This part of the act was funny, full of little clues and we didn’t have any problem hearing the actors. After this the characters dispersed in the house and we had 30 minutes to interpret clues in the museum and interview the characters about their backstory and possible motives. I have to give props to the actors for staying in character and having to ad lib responses to numerous ridiculous questions and accusations by the guests at the party. I very much enjoyed their reactions when I point blank asked some of the characters if they committed the murder (that strategy sadly did not work) There were about 20 people in total for this event, so we didn’t have any issues with overcrowding and were frequently interviewing characters by ourselves in a room while others were exploring different parts of the museum/interviewing other characters. A lot of the guests also got together and worked as a group when interviewing characters to gather information. Guests were in a good mood, everyone was friendly, interacting with each other and having a good time. The actors were funny and very quick with their responses and all the guests were invested in the mystery. I thought it would be weird interrogating actors and interacting with people since I’ve never done a murder mystery thing but it ended up being a ton of fun. I suppose the entertainment value you get out of the show depends on how much you are willing to participate. If you just kind of wander around and do nothing, it’s obviously not going to be fun. The final 20 or so minutes involved the guests being sat back down in the exhibition hall, where the actors and guests revealed clues, asked questions and made accusations. Even when the guests didn’t have questions, the actors pushed the script along to ensure a lack of awkward silent moments or dead air. The mystery was clever and I pegged the wrong person, oops. All the actors staying in character even when we were walking out the door showed serious commitment. The best part was also having the run of such a beautiful art museum to ourselves with 20 other guests for an hour and a half after it was officially closed. I do have to say some of the humor is a bit dry, and while none of it was inappropriate, you might be offended if you can’t laugh at jokes about murder or accept some of the cavalier attitudes about murder perpetrated by some of the characters. I personally found the actors to be hilarious and some of their responses during the question and accusation portion of the show garnered some massive laughs from the audience. Totally worth the money and I would love to come back and see some of the other themed mysteries this troupe has come up with.