The Mystery of Edwin Drood will make its first-ever return to Broadway since winning the Tony "Triple Crown" (Best Musical, Best Book, and Best Score). Who killed Edwin Drood? It's a question that has stumped audiences for years-now it's your turn to answer one of Broadway's most baffling mysteries. Take a trip back in time to a Victorian music hall where a rowdy ensemble of actors mounts a staging of Charles Dickens' unfinished novel. Everyone on stage is a suspect in the murder of young Edwin Drood-and it's up to you to choose the killer! Is it John Jasper, Edwin's protective but slightly maniacal uncle? Rosa Bud, his reluctant betrothed? The debauched Princess Puffer? Each performance ends differently, depending on what the audience decides!
Perhaps the best part is watching the first-rate cast have so much fun — Stephanie J. Block shows real comedic power, Jim Norton is having a ball, Chita Rivera is giggly, Gregg Edelman is just silly and Will Chase is over-acting perfectly...This is a play where overacting can be done to perfection…The jokes are hoary, the songs are ditties ('Off to the Races' is the best known) and the mystery not so mysterious — 'You might like to add that line to your list of suspicious statements!' says one character to the audience — but the fun is infectious, even if it seems that the folks on stage might be having more of it than the paying guests…In the wrong hands, it can sit awkwardly in a Broadway house — too zany, too arch. But these are the right hands: There are veterans at every turn. So no matter who gets the most votes, everyone wins.
One of the refrains sung by the Victorian music hall performers in The Mystery of Edwin Drood is, “No good can come from bad.” The case isn’t quite so black and white in this 1985 “musicale with dramatic interludes” by Rupert Holmes, teased out of the unfinished Charles Dickens novel. But regardless of the accomplished cast and sparkling design and direction in Roundabout’s Broadway revival, nothing great can come of mediocre material…Holmes’ show scores points for ingenuity, but it often feels like being stuck for too long in front of an olde-worlde department-store window display. A vehicle running 2½ hours needs more memorable songs than these mostly interchangeable parlor ditties, and more engaging characters than this bunch, which by design, are cardboard cutouts enlivened by melodramatic flourishes. A genuinely intriguing mystery rather than a half-baked whodunit devoid of psychological complexity wouldn’t hurt either.
1985 | Off-Broadway |
Original Off-Broadway Production Off-Broadway |
1985 | Broadway |
Broadway Transfer Broadway |
1987 | West End |
London Production West End |
2012 | Broadway |
Roundabout Theatre Company Production Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actor in a Musical | Jim Norton |
2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Actress in a Musical | Stephanie J. Block |
2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Andy Karl |
2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical | Jessie Mueller |
2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical or Revue | 0 |
2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Set Design | Anna Louizos |
2013 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Sound Design in a Musical | Tony Meola |
2013 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Jim Norton |
2013 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Performance Award | Chita Rivera |
2013 | Drama League Awards | Distinguished Revival of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Musical | 0 |
2013 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Costume Design (Play or Musical) | William Ivey Long |
2013 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical | Will Chase |
2013 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Revival of a Musical (Broadway or Off-Broadway) | 0 |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Direction of a Musical | Scott Ellis |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical | Will Chase |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical | Stephanie J. Block |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | The Mystery of Edwin Drood |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Roundabout Theatre Company |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Todd Haimes |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Harold Wolpert |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Revival of a Musical | Julia C. Levy |
2013 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Musical | Anna Louizos |
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