BWW Reviews: MURDER FOR TWO Is Two Hours Too Long

Enduring Arizona Theatre Company's current production of Murder for Two is like watching two cute hamsters incessantly rolling on a wheel, keeping pace with its speed but going nowhere fast. It's curious, but, in the end, unsatisfying.

At first glance, this zany frolic, the creation of Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, looks like an irresistible winner. (It has received a goodly share of nominations as a murder mystery musical comedy.) Think about it. Two guys, assuming multiple roles, careening through the Agatha Christie-like twists and turns of an investigation into the death of the renowned author, Arthur Whitney, and the incidental disappearance of some ice cream! Each of the guests, played seriatim by Mr. Kinosian himself, has been a character in one of Whitney's novels, and it falls upon the somewhat witless Detective Marcus (Ian Lowe) to rigorously apply investigative methodology (to wit, determining the motive and then to whom it applies) and reveal the culprit.

There's no doubt that Messrs. Kinosian and Lowe make a great team and are, each in his own way, versatile and immensely talented performers. They sing, dance, pace, and piano play with aplomb. However, notwithstanding Mr. Kinosian's agility and posing, there's nothing particularly memorable or distinctive in the birthday party suspects or the songs that are supposed to define them.

Midstream in this whodunit spoof, one of Mr. Kinosian's characters opines that they've witnessed another death ~ that of the American theatre. It is surely intended to be a laugh line, but it's a bit too near the painful truth, particularly in the wake of the December demise of Actors Theatre, which, for nearly twenty years, mostly under the brilliant guidance of Matthew Wiener, has presented socially relevant, provocative, and edgy plays. The line may be Mr. Kinosian's prescient acknowledgement that his entertainment is no substitute for thoughtful theatre that strains the mind and moves the heart.

Murder for Two rolls on at the Herberger Theater Center through January 18th.

Photo credit to Joan Marcus.