Charlottesville is known for being a relatively artsy area, with live shows of all sorts happening almost every week it seems. One thing it lacks, however, is a consistent dinner theater. But director Peter Ryan and stage manager Aaran Hayes hope to change that with their new interactive dinner theatre show, “The Club Ritz Caper”:
Murder Mystery Theater Dinner Arrives in Charlottesville
A 1920’s speakeasy..serves as the background for Charlottesville’s newest mystery theater show. It’s called the Club Ritz Caper. …
Mystery shows involving audience participation have been around for awhile. Perhaps the best known example is the Broadway musical “The Mystery of Edwin Drood”, a revival of which was playing on Broadway just a couple years ago. Much of “Drood” revolves around audience interaction, and the audience actually votes to decide how the show should end. Peter Ryan, writer and director for “Club Ritz Caper”, is using that same idea but with a much a more intimate setting by applying it to a dinner theatre. Ryan told Cville Weekly:
“’This is theater for people who get restless during normal theater,’ he said of his latest show, The Club Ritz Caper, which performs in the hotel restaurant during dinnertime. ‘It’s really 3D theater, happening all around you. Then a crime is committed and you’re asked to solve the crime, like you’re in a detective movie, and you’re the detective.’”
You can read the rest of this very interesting article here.
Audience members are encouraged to come in ‘20s-style attire. Make a night of it and hire a Charlottesville limo to drop you off in style. With a show like this, you can support the local arts by being a part of it yourself. What could be better?
