Marriage Can Be Murder (2006)

WRITTEN BY: James Daab
PERFORMED AT:
* Saint Mary Our Mother School, Horseheads
* Fat Cats restaurant, Corning
* Tag's, Big Flats
* Hill Top Inn, Jerusalem Hill, Elmira
PERFORMED ON:
* February 27, 2006 (6pm)
* March 18, 2006 (7pm)
* April 8, 2006 (7pm)
* June 22, 2006
DIRECTOR: Debbie Troia
SPONSORED BY: Market Street Irregulars
CAST AND CREW:
* ALPHONSO- David A. Scott
* FATHER OF THE BRIDE- William Christoffels
* MARGE/MADGE- Amanda Fenn
* BRIDE- Libby Bloodgood
* GROOM- Jeffrey Smith
* MISTY- Debbie Troia
* RONNIE- Katie O'Herron
* GINA (KEYBOARDIST)- Donna Christoffels
* BEST MAN- selected friend or audience member
* BRIDE'S MAID- selected friend or audience member

PLOT: An already stressful wedding is disrupted by foul play in this dinner theater comedy, a murder mystery.

HISTORY: The same year that I had returned from Dallas to work at Big Fox TV in Corning, MSI was putting on their initial six-week run of this play at Sorge's Restaurant. Within a year after the production's 29 October 2004 debut, the same cast put on an additional seventeen performances. By the time of the last four of those shows, I had met director Debbie Troia (via MSI's "Last Dance of Dr. Disco"), who asked me to take over the role of Alfonso from her husband Mark, whose job was calling him out of town during upcoming performance dates. So, in the last two venues of the show's '04-'05 run, I played the flamboyant wedding planner. So as not to infringe on Mark's caucasian interpetation of the role, I opted to play Alfonso as a Latin character.
At the tail end of 2005, Debbie recruited the cast for yet another performance of "Marriage", this time a Horseheads school fundraiser, catered by Louie's Restaurant, and scheduled for February. Since Lynne Hodges had left Corning for Wales in mid-December, my "Run For Your Wife" co-star Libby Bloodgood was brought in to replace her as Lisa the bride. The sold-out St. Mary's performance was done in a ballroom-style Italian motif, with over 100 people enjoying the show, food, raffles, and dancing.
After that February show, a full-capacity March performance, a Horseheads high school alumni fundraiser, was held at Fat Cats. Another lively crowd attended the show at Tag's in April. SIDE NOTE: The April 8 Tag's show took place on the one-year anniversary of my performance in 2005's "Golden Age of Radio" show, my first onstage appearance in the Corning/Elmira area in almost seven years, and my first play in over five.
Adding those three shows to the previous eighteen from 2004-2005, MSI had performed "Marriage" a total of 21 times in 18 months, with 3/4 of the cast having been in every performance! The Tag's version was my seventh outing as Alphonso, and Libby's third as Lisa.
In late April, Mount Morris High School asked MSI to do "Marriage" for a 22nd time, this performance being a fundraising event for the school's seniors. This time, we were at Elmira's Hill Top Inn, completing the show just before a major rain (and wind!) storm hit the area, blowing props, dinnerware, and furniture about, all mere moments after the actors and audience had gone indoors. Intended as MSI's final "Marriage" production, this one brought the grand total to 22 shows in 20 months (8 for me, 4 for Libby). The thunder and lightning that night ensured that we'd gone out with a literal "bang", suitably capping off an amusingly erratic two-year (one with me), multi-venue run of "Marriage" for the Market Street Irregulars.
The following year, the show's trellis (archway) was used for an actual wedding, mine to Cindy Clark, on March 21st (the first day of Spring). Among the twenty people at the ceremony, which took place in Corning's Soul Full Cup coffeehouse, were "Marriage" co-stars Jeff, Amanda, and Katie.

PHOTOS:
* The cast at St. Mary's (dress rehearsal photo)