I’ve always heard of one but I am invited to one next month. How exactly do they work? I imagine them like a game of clue. Good/bad? Tell me your experiences.
They vary, obviously. Some are good, some are not-so-good.
Basically (with variations) there are the hired actors, who play various roles, and who have various secrets. You wander around, chat with them, and try to get them to confide their secrets. Then you and the other paid guests chat with each other, and try to put the pieces together. “But the butler said the soup was cold!” “Yes, but the deacon told me that the heiress is a vegetarian!” etc.
If you enjoy meeting people, chatting with them, listening to them, asking questions, and trying to figure things out…it can be right fun! It isn’t a milieu for those who are painfully shy.
(I love the human interaction part…and can NEVER solve the actual mystery. NEVER! But I like these things anyway. And the food is usually pretty good too!)
I’ve only been to one, but I intend to go to more.
Single ticket is $40, two tickets are $75, and I was told that larger groups can get better discounts. This includes dinner. People are seated at tables, in groups of up to six, and each table was a team. After dinner and chitchat, we traipsed to the auditorium where we saw a mini play. There was some audience participation. After the play, we returned to the dining room (it’s actually an old school, so we were in the cafeteria) and had dessert. During dessert, we examined the evidence (photocopied sheets of various papers) and the actors wandered around, allowing the guests to talk to them, ask them questions, and generally staying in character. Then all the groups discussed the mystery and tried to figure out whodunnit and why. My table figured out who, but another table had a slightly better explanation as to why.
I had a great time, and consider it a pretty good value. I do wish that the old cafeteria had better acoustics, it was hard to understand people. I went alone, and got put into a table with a group of four people who knew each other, but they were pretty social with me. Most of the guests seemed to be in their 60s or better. I don’t know if this is typical of most mystery dinners or if it’s just this particular theater that draws an older crowd.
Is this a commercial one at a restaurant, or at someone’s house?
I’ve only been to one at a restaurant, but mostly they had staged parts of the plot between courses, with a first part while people were having drinks and mingling. Just before dessert you got to turn in a solution, and they announced the winner after.
The ones at home come in boxes. We’ve hosted quite a few. The host assigns each guest a character, and he or she gets a packet of background information and usually a set of pieces of information you are supposed to introduce into conversation. The rules are that you can ad lib, but you cannot lie or contradict information in your character bio.
We’ve also done two murder mystery weekends at resorts - these are done by actors who mingle.
We’re doing a dinner at a restaurant next weekend.
I’ve done two at people’s houses. When people acted their part, it was fun. When they didn’t, it was embarrassingly lame. So if you’re hosting one, or attending one, encourage people to get into their parts. I’m not talking renting elaborate costumes, but at least put in a tiny bit of effort to embrace your character.
I’ve also done a professional one, on a train. I thought it was cute; my husband hated it. The troupe really overacted, but that’s kind of what they’re supposed to do. Of course, HE was the one they picked to be the audience-participant. I thought it was hysterical. He was not nearly as amused as I was.
I had a job while in uni as an actor in one, it can be a lot of fun. Except where we were hired to provide some entertainment at company dinners were everybody was more interested in office gossip than solving the mystery. Without everybody participating it gets lame incredibly fast.
I used to act in them post college - functionally for $20 in gas money and a free dinner. Some people LOVED them, some people hated them.
I have a home one sitting here that I’d like to do, but haven’t yet, that was written by a women at my church. Its Henry VIII wives.
How about a game of Mafia? Pretty much the same thing?
In the ones I’ve been to, everybody gets a character bio and a randomly-picked note saying if they’re the murderer or not. Obviously, the characters are designed to all have a motive, but only the killer gets a specific description of how the murder occurred.
I agree that the enjoyment depends on people just reading their notes or really getting in character.
Some friends and I have a monthly dinner club. One month, the hostess chose to do a murder mystery. Great fun.
My mom used to act in them part time when I was a kid. She had a regular career, she was the mysterious gypsy fortune teller for fun.
Always , always fancied going to one of these.
But I think that if they’re not well planned and acted the result could be dire.
I’ve done a couple at home and yes, they only work if people get into the swing of it. My mum and I did a couple of professional ones which we both loved - we were always quite good at it. The most memorable was one on the actual Orient Express, which I booked for her 65th birthday. We won that one (most creative right answer) and our prize was a special edition of the book (Murder on the Orient Express, of course) which we got the whole cast to sign with their real and character names. It’s one of my most treasured memories of her.
I performed in two different MMDs several years ago. At least with those, it would have been impossible to solve the mystery, as each of those plays had three different endings, resulting in three different murderers (but the story and the clues never changed). When they ask you to solve the mystery, you only have a one-in-three chance of being correct.
The ones I was in were actually fairly silly- but everyone had fun.
A friend hosted one. it was great fun. Basically, the murder mystery element took place between the courses. The names were gloriously silly and the whole thing was clearly designed to take account of the amount of alcohol consumed.
I attended one within the last 6 months or so. The lobby was very fun- it was set up like a Clue game, and had search-and-find sheets to get folks up and wandering around. They sold coffee and milk shakes, but no alcohol. It was a BYOB theater. The dinner was just mediocre, although the desserts were very nice.
The guests were seated at tables of approximately 10 people. The staff brought drinks and salads while engaging folks at the tables. Then a person or two from each table was selected and taken back to the lobby where they were given costumes and a script.
Only about two people from the theater were actually in the play, which totally surprised me. It was not advertised as an audience participation event.
The play was silly fun and the guests/actors varied in their skill set. One fellow clearly did not read well and the play kinda bogged down whenever it was his turn to read his part, but he also had a lot of personality, which helped. At the end, we filled out our “Clue” cards to guess who the criminal was, and then the correct criminal was revealed.
The evening I attended was certainly fun, but I could see that if there was a reserved or reluctant crowd, then it could easily be a dud.
They do two performances a night- a dinner show and a dessert-only show. I would attend again when the next play comes up, but maybe just the dessert play and not the dinner play.
Hmm these are more scripted than I thought. I thought the actors wouldn’t be identified, everyone appears as a guest, then suddenly someone dies. Also, the dinner seems to interrupt the flow of things rather than help it.
I’ve heard of MMTs that have the actors posing as guests. I guess that it all depends on how the company wants to present it. While we had some audience participation in the one I went to, the actors couldn’t have passed as guests. We needed to see the play. An oily fitness club owner has promised ownership or partnership of the club to three different people. Two of them are women, one is his girlfriend, and he wants to take the other one to Vegas so that they can work out the details. So we get to see this guy rushing around, trying to avoid everyone while promising various things to various people. Then there’s the scene where the two women manage to get together and compare notes. And the guy who was promised a partnership is also there. Murder ensues offstage, and we have to figure out whodunnit.
Maybe I’ll get to go to a MMT where the actors pose as fellow guests. That would be fun, too.
SWMBO and I love them. The food is usually good, but the show is the big thing. You will be able to figure out whodunnit if you pay close attention.
We went to one for New Year’s Eve about 5 years ago and won a copy of the Maltese Falcon that was cast from the same mold as the original. Way cool!