Moose Murders
Orlando Iriarte
Photo by Samantha Mercado Tudda
Any show that opens with a man wearing a fanny pack, un-ironically, needs to re-think its approach. And Moose Murders, the revival of the infamous 1983 flop, boasts both an un-ironic fanny pack and a serious lack of thought in its production.
Arthur Bicknell’s play made history as the biggest flop on Broadway, closing on opening night, after 13 previews and one performance. It has been lauded as the biggest failure on Broadway and acquired a sort of mythical status as one of the worst plays written. Leading lady Eve Arden quit after the first preview performance, and the New York Times theater critic Frank Rich said it was the worst play he had ever seen on Broadway. This production, by the Beautiful Soup Theater Collective, boasts a “shamelessly revised” script but is not improved enough to be considered a quality piece of theater — or even mere entertainment.
In a program note, director Steven Carl McCasland states, “This is a true ‘Moose Murders.’ No mocking here. No camp.” That was the mistake; if Moose Murders had been performed as a farce, mocking its own lack of quality and cohesiveness, then the show would have been at least entertaining. But presented seriously, with no tongue-in-cheek humor or self-mockery, it is simply boring.
The plot of Moose Murders, if you can call it that, centers around an upstate New York lodge, which has been purchased by the wealthy Holloway family to provide their dying patriarch Sidney (Dennis Delbene) with a few days of peace before he dies. Needless to say, he does not get it. The mother, Hedda (Anna Kirkland) seems resigned to her husband’s fate, while her children Lorraine (Ali Bernstein), “Stinky” (Jordan Tierney) and Gay (Caroline Rosenblum) all compete for their mother’s attention, amongst other things. Lorraine’s husband Nelson (Cory Boughton) is there as well, along with a husband and wife performing team Snooks and Howie (Brittany Velotta and Steven Carl McCasland), strident, possibly foreign nurse Dagmar (Noelle Stewart) and caretaker Joe Buffalo Dance (Orlando Iriarte).
Each performer is capable, but they are working with so little that to evaluate them seems unjust.It’s never exactly clear who is scheming with whom, or who wants to murder who, or even who is or might be dead. This level of confusion might elevate a poorly-written work if it was presented as a comedic farce, rather than a straightforward drama, but there is no drama here and very little comedy. The quirks, such as Stinky’s incestuous attraction to his mother, only inspire a raised eyebrow rather than an actual laugh, and the murder scenes are staged much too slowly and with absolutely no suspense or danger.
The Beautiful Soup Theater Company is known for exploring classics as well as re-visiting lost works, and in the trailer for Moose Murders, they brag that they have also revived various notorious flops including A Doll’s Life and Goodtime Charley. Acknowledging the lack of quality in Moose Murders is one thing, but presenting it with integrity is another. And this production, which hovers awkwardly between humor and directness, does neither.As one character said to another onstage, “All I’m saying is I expect more than eccentricity from your performance.” The same could be said to this entire cast.