Dinner Theater Solves the Mystery of Success

What one upcoming world premiere in San Diego will be is a mystery. Literally.

It’s “Rio Can Be Murder”--a Mystery Cafe production that opens Oct. 26 at the Imperial House Restaurant, 505 Kalmia St. Julia Holladay, the local producer for the 3-year-old Boston-based Mystery Cafe, has tapped into an eager audience for her company’s light, interactive mystery fare, served in between dinner courses.

She opened her doors at the Imperial House with “Murder at Cafe Noir” in May of 1990, before replacing it last January with “Killing Mr. Withers,” which will give way to “Rio Can Be Murder.” In May, she expanded her venues when she put “Cafe Noir” into the Lake San Marcos Resort.

But she has had trouble finding new material to feed her hungry hordes.

So, after licensing her first two scripts from the original Mystery Cafe company that provides the model for her organization, she has commissioned “Rio Can Be Murder” from local writer Byron LaDue.

Based on an idea of Holladay’s, “Rio Can Be Murder” is set in a hotel in Rio de Janeiro in 1946 and touches on fact-based stories of Nazis hiding out there after World War II. Holladay said she wanted these allusions to true stories as a way of giving “some depth and richness that was lacking” in “Killing Mr. Withers.”

If the show works, Holladay may talk with Mystery Cafe founder David Goldstein about using the script at other Mystery Cafe locations across the country.

Will Roberson, who has his own mystery theater piece, “Knock ‘Em Dead” running at the Reuben E. Fleet Dinner Theater, will direct. He also directed “Killing Mr. Withers.”

“Tales of Tinseltown,” the West Coast premiere that received a critical drubbing at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company when it opened May 30, will be revised and remounted Dec. 6-29 at the Coconut Grove, a 1,000-seat theater in Miami.

The Gaslamp will share in any net profits in accordance with the contract it signed with Sondra Gilman and Celso M. Gonzalez-Falla, the married commercial producers who brought the Gaslamp the project.

Gonzalez-Falla said he has no regrets about the San Diego production. He said he also hopes that the financially struggling Gaslamp can “get some money back from this thing.”

“San Diego was a great experience,” he said from his office in New York. “The mistake many people make is that they don’t see how the show works. We learned a lot.”

One thing he learned is that he needs to put more money into the show. He said there will be an entirely new set and improvements in the sound, the lighting, the script and the score.

But the bulk of the script, most of the score and half the actors will remain the same. San Diego actors Keith Devaney, Melinda Gilb and Ellen Harvey will reprise their roles in Miami.

Proving that you don’t always need a space of your own to keep producing, four of San Diego’s longtime homeless theaters have shows in the works:

* NewWorks Theatre will present “Alibi,” a West Coast premiere billed as a “lost” Agatha Christie play based on one of her many Hercule Poirot mystery novels. It will open Oct. 11 at 7:30 p.m. at the Horton Park Plaza Hotel and will run through mid-November. Dessert, gourmet coffee and clues will be served by the actors during intermission. Call 692-9909.

* San Diego Actors Theatre will present the San Diego premiere of Ken Ludwig’s “Lend Me a Tenor,” a 1989 Tony Award-winning comedy about the antics that ensue when a boozy world-famous tenor passes out and can’t perform “Otello.” The show opens at the Sixth Avenue Playhouse from Nov. 20-Jan. 12. Call 268-4494.

* Ensemble Arts Theatre will present the West Coast premiere of “I Can’t Get Started” by Declan Hughes Nov. 1-23 at the Gaslamp Quarter Theatre Company’s small space at 547 4th Ave. Call 696-0458.

* Sledgehammer Theatre, the company that received a San Diego Critics Circle award in 1989 for its ingeniousness in matching unique spaces to its theater projects, has found yet another unusual site for its world premiere of Mac Wellman’s “7 Blowjobs.” The show opens Oct. 13 and runs through Nov. 3 at an indoor parking garage at 843 10th Ave. “First we’ve got to build a theater, and then we have to build a show,” said executive director Ethan Feerst. Call 544-1484.

Two one-acts by new San Diego companies are also opening tonight. There will be Beckett at the Big Kitchen: “Not I” (the story of a life flashing before the eyes as told by the mouth) and “Embers” (a tale of a mysterious death) through Oct. 13. Barry Mann and Linda Castro will star and Mary Coleman will direct.

At the new Fritz Theater, the one-acts are Lee Blessing’s “Nice People Dancing to Good Country Music,” directed by Duane Daniels and James McClure’s “Lone Star,” directed by Tavis Ross. The shows are billed as “The Texas Tavern Plays” and run through Oct. 6. Call 338-0351.

PROGRAM NOTES: The proceeds from the Second Annual World Bocce Tournament will kick off Moonlight Amphitheatre’s fund-raising campaign for a $3-million, 350-seat indoor theater. The tournament will be held Oct. 20 at Vista’s Brengle Terrace Park in the baseball field near the Moonlight Amphitheatre. The target date for opening the new theater is September of 1993. . . .

Athol Fugard, now starring in and directing his play, “A Lesson From Aloes,” at the La Jolla Playhouse’s Mandell Weiss Theatre, will be directing his 1969 play, “Boesman and Lena,” Off Broaday later this year. . . .

The Old Globe has passed $1.1 million in sales for the return of “Forever Plaid,” beginning Nov. 1 on the mainstage. The run, which extends through Dec. 8 (with probable extensions in store) is 75% sold out, with only single tickets remaining for November. . . .

Local comedienne-actress Judy Milstein and local comic Don Victor, who just completed a run in Circus Cafe at the Fritz Theatre, will join the cast of the Fern Street Circus, which has its preview Friday.

San Diego Children’s Theatre will present “Mary Poppins” at the Poway Center for the Performing Arts Oct. 3-6.