Comic Musical Murder Mystery “Lucky Stiff” Opens at Circa ’21, Rock Island
The list of comic musical murder mysteries is not long, and Circa ’21 Dinner Playhouse, Rock Island, features one in its latest production, a Quad Cities premiere.
Friday night is the opening of what’s billed as the “delightful song-and-dance slapstick,” “Lucky Stiff,” playing through March 7. Penned by acclaimed Broadway veterans Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (“Ragtime,” “Anastasia,” “Once on This Island” and “Seussical”), in the hilarious murder mystery musical, Harry Witherspoon receives the unexpected news that he’s received $6 million from his uncle, but only if he takes him on a vacation to Monte Carlo.
The catch? Uncle Anthony is dead and embalmed, and if Harry fails at his task, the money will instead go to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn, according to a show synopsis. However, also hot on the tail of Uncle Anthony’s money is Rita, with whom Anthony embezzled $6 million behind her husband’s back.
And hot on Rita’s trail is her brother Vinnie, who has been blamed for the crime. With mistaken identities, love interests, disguises, farcical chases, a cast of eccentric characters to prove Uncle Anthony is alive, and, of course, an omnipresent corpse, “Lucky Stiff” is an “offbeat, madcap, hilarious romp of a murder-mystery musical,” Circa said in a release this week.
Brad Hauskins and Sarah Hayes.
Directing and choreographing Circa ’21’s debut of “Lucky Stiff” is frequent performer and director Ashley Becher, whose recent productions for the Rock Island dinner theater have included “Irving Berlin’s White Christmas,” “Chicago” and “The Addams Family.”
Venue veteran (and Ashley’s hubby) Bobby Becher (“Chicago” and “Heartbreak Hotel”) portrays the put-upon Harry, with fellow Circa ’21 favorites Sarah Hayes (“Come from Away”) playing Rita; Jeremy Littlejohn (“Garfield: The Musical”) as Vinnie; and Brad Hauskins (“Jersey Boys”) as the body of Uncle Anthony. A half-dozen additional stage talents complete the Lucky Stiff ensemble: Cara Chumbley; Kyle DeFauw; Topher Elliott; Kiera Lynn; Megan Mistretta and Paul Gregory Nelson.
“I loved the music and learned more about the book,” director Ashley Becher said Thursday, noting Circa owner/producer Denny Hitchcock was looking for a smaller January show (which has in the past featured a murder mystery). “Lucky Stiff” features just 10 actors, with four playing multiple colorful, over-the-top characters.
Jeremy Littlejohn and Sarah Hayes.
“It’s really fun and silly, really good material,” Becher said. “I wanted to make it zany.”
Hauskins plays the dead guy, often in a wheelchair (always in sunglasses), so he didn’t have to memorize lines. He has some, including at the very start, where his character his shot within the first 10 seconds of the show (which Hauskins thinks is the funniest part of the show).
“It’s not acting, it’s more a physical exercise,” Hauskins said. “It’s not a play about a dead body. It’s really the relationships around him, all these crazy characters. These are huge characters and they’re all interacting, and most of the time you’re just trying to keep the dead body upright.”
“I can’t react,” he said. “Somebody’s trying to pass him off as being alive.”
Hauskins has to know when another actor moves him, most of the time by Bobby Becher’s character. It’s this ruse, that it’s his living uncle he’s taking on vacation.
The new Circa show features (L-R) Jeremy Littlejohn, Brad Hauskins, Paul Gregory Nelson, Bobby Becher, Sarah Hayes and Megan Mistretta.
Originally from Normal, Ill. and a 1989 graduate of Augustana College, Hauskins most recently played Vernon in Heartbreak Hotel. Some of his favorite Circa ’21 credits include Misery (The Circa ’21 Speakeasy), The Outsider, Escape to Margaritaville, Grumpy Old Men, Disaster!, The Full Monty, Shear Madness, Southern Crossroads, and Almost Heaven and directing Rocky Horror Show, Madagascar, Big Nate The Musical, Go Dog Go, and A Fairy Tale Christmas. He is also an “off and on” musician, improv comedian and, occasionally, a playwright, Winter Wonderland, Home For The Holidays, and the Bootlegger revues, The Best Of The Bootleggers.
“Lucky Stiff” isn’t exactly the musical version of “Weekend at Bernie’s,” since it literally premiered the year before – the musical opened off-Broadway April 1, 1988 and “Bernie’s” (a black comedy about two insurance men who pretend their boss is alive after he was killed by a hitman) opened in 1989.
Hauskins also sings in the curtain call, and at top of the second act.
Becher says there’s a plot twist at the end of the show. The mystery is not “who did it, but who did it to who,” Hauskins said. “It’s more about the characters around him trying to get the money. It’s really about greed.”
Megan Mistretta, Brad Hauskins and Bobby Becher in Circa ’21’s new “Lucky Stiff.”
“One of the really fun things, there is a small ensemble, that just play all these different characters and they’re so fun,” Hauskins said. “Each one of their individual characters is as big as any of the lead characters. For me, it’s hard not to watch it. I always appreciate it when for some reason, I get put into a position here my head is in just enough of a place where I can watch a little bit of the show.”
“Lucky Stiff” will be presented at Circa ’21 with performances on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 5:30 p.m. and Wednesday matinées at 1:15 p.m. Pre-show entertainment featuring the theatre’s wait staff the Bootleggers also will precede all performances. Ticket prices are $70 for the Friday-through-Sunday productions and $63 for the Wednesday matinee and evening productions.
Reservations are available online at circa21.com or at the Circa ’21 ticket office at 1828 3rd Ave., Rock Island. You may also call 309-786-7733 ext. 2 to secure tickets.
Bobby Becher, Cara Chumbley and Brad Hauskins in “Lucky Stiff.”
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