Review: THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD at TheatreWorks New Milford

Improvisation is a completely different set of skills to typical performing. Just as some actors are great at drama but bad at comedy, some actors are great at improvising on the stage and others are not. Improvising with the audience takes those skills to another level. That is what makes shows like The Mystery of Edwin Drood such deceptively difficult productions to get right.

Written by Rupert Holmes, The Mystery of Edwin Drood is based on the final and unfinished novel of the same name by Charles Dickens. Due to its unfinished nature, Holmes finishes the musical by allowing the audience the complete the story, forcing the cast to have multiple endings prepared to accommodate the different situations that live voting may result in. The meta-theatrical nature of the “Musical Royale” being a theatre troupe performing this musical justifies the format but requires the cast to constantly feed on the audience’s energy and react to their whims.

Capitalizing on this opportunity in TheatreWorks New Milford’s production was Joe Harding’s Chairman. The Chairman serves as the narrator and reluctant town mayor. Harding handles this responsibility with ease, serving as both a bridge between the audience and the cast, as well as reveling in the absurdity of the production; an absurdity that allows the cast to play larger-than-life caricatures. The two to most take advantage of this relationship was John Jasper and Rosa Bud, played by Tyler Wolfson and Rebecca Spalvieri respectively. Wolfson’s exaggerated facial expressions created a delightfully villain in John Jasper that the audience loved to hate. Conversely, Wolfson’s chemistry with Spalvieri made the uncomfortable relationship between their characters endearing and the audience was invested in Bud’s escape of Jasper’s undesired grasp from minute one. The characters may have been at odds, but it was clear to see that everyone on stage was having a blast; exactly what a show like this requires.

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