Review: MURDER AT THE H.O.A. at Grant County Theater in Sheridan

If you have ever attended a homeowners association meeting and thought there was enough drama to inspire a murder mystery, Murder at the HOA at Grant County Theater in Sheridan may be the show for you.

Written by Stephanie R. Austin and Kari Williamson and directed by Jerry Wayne, Murder at the HOA combines neighborhood squabbles, eccentric residents, secrets and murder into a wonderfully entertaining evening of dinner and live theatre. Add in a delicious meal catered by Lady Birds Cafe, and this is one neighborhood meeting I was happy to attend. The production runs through September 27.

The action centers around the annual meeting of the Whispering Pines HOA board, where it doesn't take long to realize these neighbors have issues.

Actually, they have a lot of issues.

Joe (Zach Tallent) is president of the HOA and is trying his best to keep the peace, all while guarding a secret of his own. Unfortunately for Joe, Vice President Tina (Summer Brinley) has an opinion about practically everything.

For starters, Tina wants everyone's lawns spray-painted green no matter what season it is. Apparently, even nature has to comply with Whispering Pines standards.

But landscaping is only the beginning.

Tina wants Susan's (Baylie Smith) big dog gone. Susan's children, Avery (Trudie Robinson) and Daisy (Shelby Huber), are also caught up in the neighborhood drama.

Then there is Pat (Rachel Sewell) and her pigeons. Tina wants those gone, too, but Pat has a much bigger solution: start a revolution and get rid of the HOA altogether.

I mean, if you're going to challenge the board, you might as well go big.

Crystal (Kaitlyn Curry) isn't safe from Tina's plans either. Crystal is the local spiritualist who practices yoga and runs a business out of her home, which Tina wants shut down. Crystal also grows some fresh "herbs" in her backyard, and I'll let you interpret those quotation marks however you wish.

Even Joe's wife Mandy (Brooke Smith) finds herself in Tina's crosshairs. Mandy handles neighborhood watch, but Tina wants to get rid of her and take over that job as well.

With Tina making demands, Pat threatening revolution and Joe trying to keep everyone under control, tensions build quickly.

Also watching the chaos are Renne (Karen Goins) and Lindsey (Nanci Trammell), along with Blair (Chessa Hawthorne), the neighborhood teen—or at least everyone assumes she belongs somewhere in the neighborhood.

Goins and Trammell cracked me up as Renne and Lindsey. Positioned off to the side watching the meeting unfold, their side comments reminded me of Statler and Waldorf, the two Muppets sitting in the theatre balcony commenting on everything. Their timing makes those little interjections count, and I found myself looking over to see what Renne and Lindsey had to say next.

However, Murder at the HOA is ultimately a true ensemble piece.

Everyone interacts with everyone, and the production thrives on the alliances, aggravations and interruptions moving around the room. Even when one character is speaking, the rest of Whispering Pines still feels alive. The cast plays off one another well, creating the sense that these people have known each other—and gotten on each other's nerves—for quite some time.

Even better, they bring us into their world.

The cast treats the audience as though we are Whispering Pines residents attending the annual meeting ourselves. That choice works particularly well in a dinner-theatre setting. We're already gathered around tables eating and visiting, so once the actors start including us, becoming part of the neighborhood feels completely natural.

Director Jerry Wayne uses that setup to make the audience part of the storytelling rather than keeping us at a distance.

Eventually, Tina pushes her neighbors to their limit. Tempers flare, everyone storms off angry, and that explosion sends us into intermission.

When we return, the neighborhood has a much bigger problem.

Someone is dead.

Can you guess who it is?

I'm certainly not telling you.

From there, the audience participation gets even better. The cast moves through the room asking us: Who do you think did it, and why?

Suddenly, all those complaints from the first half become potential motives. Secrets seem more suspicious, relationships deserve another look, and everyone has a reason to start pointing fingers.

Now we're witnesses.

And possibly terrible detectives.

Of course, this is dinner theatre, so we need to discuss something equally important.

The food!

Dinner was catered by Lady Birds Cafe, and I may have developed a new Sheridan obsession.

First of all, they make the best green beans!

Then there was the pork chop, which may have been the fattest pork chop I have ever seen. That thing meant business.

And then there were the brownies.

Those brownies were so moist! Even after that giant pork chop and those wonderful green beans, there was no way I was passing up dessert.

I enjoyed Lady Bird Cafe's food so much that I will happily make a special trip back to Sheridan just to eat at their actual restaurant, 120 W Center St, in Sheridan. When theatre catering has me planning another road trip, they have definitely done something right.

Murder at the HOA kept us laughing while also giving us a mystery we genuinely wanted to solve. I enjoyed trying to figure out what was going to happen next, who might be responsible and why. Just when I thought I had settled on a suspect, another interaction gave me a reason to reconsider.

Because this is such an ensemble-driven production, keep an eye on the whole room. The relationships established before intermission become much more interesting once you're trying to decide which one of these neighbors could actually be responsible for murder and why.

Murder at the HOA continues at Grant County Theater in Sheridan through September 27. Come hungry, come ready to laugh and be prepared to do a little detective work of your own.

And seriously, Lady Bird Cafe, I'll be back for those green beans.

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