Play Suggestions: Need a funny murder mystery

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Need a funny murder mystery

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Topic: Need a funny murder mystery

Posted By: peacock
Subject: Need a funny murder mystery
Date Posted: 3/08/10 at 9:48pm

I am looking for a murder mystery, preferably a comedy. I do NOT want one with audience interaction. Considered Arsenic and Old Lace, but I teach at an international school, and it is too Americana. There are thousands out there, and I cannot afford to order and read all of them. Many are really lame. So, please, let me know if you produced one that was actually well-written and funny.

Replies:

Posted By: pdavis69
Date Posted: 3/09/10 at 8:27am

Try Something's Afoot. Murder Mystery/Musical and FX delight.

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Patrick L. Davis
Fort Findlay Playhouse

Posted By: tristanrobin
Date Posted: 3/09/10 at 1:04pm

Moose Murders- renowned for being one of the worst - and shortest-lived - Broadway plays ever - and absolutely hysterical - so bad, it's fab!

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http://tristanrobin.blogspot.com

Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 3/09/10 at 2:26pm

What a coincidence! Just reading "Murdered to Death" by Peter Gordon. It's a spoof of Miss Marple mysteries. (She shows up in this as Miss Maple.) I've only read the first few pages, but it looks very promising.

Description from the script cover:

This hilarious spoof of the best of Agatha Christie traditions is set in a country manor house in the 1930s, with an assembled cast of characters guaranteed to delight –Bunting the butler; an English Colonel with the prerequisite stiff upper lip; a shady French art dealer and his moll; the bumbling police inspector and a well-meaning local sleuth who seems to attract murder wherever she goes – they're all here, and all caught up in the side-splitting antics which follow the mysterious death of the house's owner. It soon becomes clear that the murderer isn't finished yet, but will the murderer be unmasked before everyone else has met their doom, or will audiences die laughing first?

Posted By: Lazy Bee
Date Posted: 3/12/10 at 12:46pm

Try the following (the links lead to synopses from which you can read the full scripts on-line by clicking on the titles)

http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/cgi-bin/Search_Results.asp?iAR=4&iC%283%29=1&iC%287%29=1&iC%289%29=1 - Full length comedy murder mysteries (from which I particularly like the first on the list)
http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk/cgi-bin/Search_Results.asp?iAR=4&iC%282%29=1&iC%283%29=2&iC%285%29=2&iC%287%29=1&iC%289%29=1 -
One-act comedy murder mysteries (which I can't recommend too highly, since I've written three of them)

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Stuart
Lazy Bee Scripts
http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk - http://www.lazybeescripts.co.uk read complete play scripts on-line

Posted By: edh915
Date Posted: 3/16/10 at 1:53pm

Have now finished "Murdered To Death" and I can say that I highly recommend it. It needs to be played very "British stiff upper lip" with outrageous things being said with straight faces. It's very funny. Miss Maple, Inspector Pratt, Constable Tompkins, and a rogue's gallery of suspects and victims.

Posted By: jmausser
Date Posted: 3/23/10 at 2:07pm

I directed "Done to Death" by Fred Carmichael a few years ago. It is a hilarious spoof of all sorts of common murder mystery "gadgets". Highly recommended.

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Director in Leavenworth

Posted By: peacock
Date Posted: 3/24/10 at 2:39pm

I am now taking a little different tack. Anyone ever try Get Smart? Love feedback on that.< id="gwProxy" ="">< ="jsCall();" id="jsProxy" ="">

Posted By: PSdotcom
Date Posted: 3/28/10 at 8:24pm

For a really good murder mystery, you could take a look at these:-

http://www.productionscripts.com/michael-starr-cook-p-31.html - The Cook Did It! by Michael Starr
http://www.productionscripts.com/mitchell-murder-email-p-185.html - Murder by E-mail by Reg Mitchell
http://www.productionscripts.com/chris-martin-killed-hotel-manager-p-381.html - Who Killed the Hotel Manager by Chris Martin
http://www.productionscripts.com/chris-martin-killed-headmaster-p-407.html - Who Killed the Headmaster by Chris Martin

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