REVIEW: The Dinner Detective is a murder mystery full of delight… and aliases
“the lead detectives effectively keep you off balance with their authority and humor all night long.
There were plenty of people milling about in the lobby area of the Hilton Garden Inn across from Albany Med Saturday night. They weren’t lined up to check in. Was there a game in town? Parents’ weekend at Albany Law? My Spidey sense was already tingling as we grabbed a sharpie and made up fake names for ourselves for the evening’s entertainment, The Dinner Detective.
My partner Chris chose the name Tanqueray, I chose Crafty and we shared a table with Paige Turner, Thelma, Louise and Anita Hardcock. While waiting to register we struck up a conversation with Jackson 5 and a fascinatingly forward and gregarious warm woman named Loosey Goosey, who told us she volunteered as an usher at Proctors. We had a revealing conversation about bartending at touring Broadway events versus concerts and how the experience at the musical tours had changed and how audiences were supposed to tell the difference between “MJ” and Get the Led Out.
This was a very relevant conversation with a very relevant guest as we were attending an interactive murder mystery and Chris, Anita, Louise, myself and especially Loosey Goosey had a vital role to play in the evening’s festivities. I have never seen a group of 100 join together quicker, drop their reticence and enter into a game as we were introducing ourselves under our aliases and grilling each other about matters both whimsical and deadly serious in trying to discover the culprit of the evening’s murder. Many people were stumped by being asked the silly “Who’s your favorite villain?” to “Which do you aspire for more, money, power or respect?” by a stranger.
The lead detectives, Jenna Wilkinson and Chris Forge, storm the dining room with orders of “Hands up! Let me see your hands!” and they effectively keep you off balance with their authority and humor all night long. Forge is especially good with the offhanded quip and action star presence.
There were five other local actors sprinkled in among the guests (some I recognized from stages across the region) who posed as guests and had a role to play in the mystery. They were Barbara Collura, Cory Haines, Rita Machin, Russell Roberts & Ovella Snow. They were all fantastic in the twisty story titled “Game Over,” which really did have a sensible conclusion that could be figured out by the clues presented by someone smarter than me. I had one of our tablemates explain the ending to me.
The food was really good (especially the parfait dessert!) and it was a really enjoyable evening spent communally with a large public group and a merry band of players where a bunch of strangers could come together, break bread, have a laugh and learn something about each other. That this unexpected pleasure happened at a dinner theatre murder mystery is perhaps the greatest puzzler of all.
The Dinner Detective plays an irregular schedule at Hilton Garden Inn and is available for private bookings. Check out their website https://albany.thedinnerdetective.com
