THEATER REVIEW

Here's the premise of "Let's Murder Marsha," now on stage at Rainbow Dinner Theatre:

Marsha (Casey Allyn) is an avid murder mystery buff, much to the dismay of her husband, Tobias (Bradley "Bing" Ingersoll), who thinks such bilge will rot her brain.

Then one day, she overhears Tobias plotting with a woman named Persis (Rachel Blauberg) to commit what Marsha thinks is her own murder.

Faced with that perceived threat, there's only one thing Marsha can do, and that is to conspire with her friend and neighbor Virgil (Joe Winters) to murder Tobias first.

This merry, potentially murderous, mix-up, featuring the Rainbow's marvelous cast of clowns, has the potential to be highly entertaining and riotously funny.

The show (in which no one ends up murdered) is entertaining, but as the polite but hardly exuberant applause from the audience at the curtain call seems to indicate, it is not very funny.

This is not necessarily the cast's fault. For the most part, these are seasoned actors who, even though they stumbled over lines a few times (opening weekend jitters, perhaps?), know how to wring laughs out of an audience.

The problem is the show itself. The situation is rich with potential, but poor on delivery. The script falls flat, especially by way of the one-line zingers that comedy needs.

Still, the cast tries.

Allyn is in top form as the over-suspicious Marsha, and Winters, who is generally very funny, manages to pull off the role of Marsha's unwilling and very swishy co-conspirator.

Ingersoll, who did so outrageously well as a Texas blowhard in "Send Me No Flowers" and as the gun-toting, redneck father in "Home For the Holidays," turns in a good performance as Tobias, and Blauberg is super as the sexy Persis, Tobias' partner in "crime."

Bianca, Marsha and Tobias' maid, played by Sarah Grill (making her professional stage debut) could be funny, but all too often comes off somewhere between cutesy and annoying. Doing comedy is difficult, especially for a beginner.

Some of the best lines go to Bianca's boyfriend, Ben, who is the Inspector Clouseau of security guards. But even Ben, a role shared by Jimmy "2Step" Cosentino and Christopher Babcock, succumbs to over-acting toward the show's end as he cluelessly strikes heroic poses while aiming his can of mace at anyone and everyone.

The bulk of the laughs in this show where laughs are hard to come by go to Sherry Konjura as Marsha's crotchety old mother. She plays the role so well that one chuckles in anticipation every time she shuffles out on stage.

In comedy, a lukewarm audience reaction is like a death knell, because stone silence off the stage affects those on the stage. Actors, especially comedic actors, feed off the audience's laughter. The louder the audience roars, the looser and more animated the actor becomes, and the show just gets funnier and funnier.

With "Let's Murder Marsha," there was very little audience laughter and no roaring whatsoever, with the result that the show comes off stiff and plodding.

After the curtain call, director Cynthia DiSavino headed backstage carrying a clipboard on which she had jotted down cast notes and possible changes. DiSavino and her husband, David, co-founders of the Rainbow, continually tighten their shows, taking out things that don't work, while adding things that do.

I expect they will do the same with "Let's Murder Marsha."

They'd better. Otherwise, it will be a long, dull run until March 14.

lalexander@lnpnews.com