STAGE REVIEWS : Mysteries Served With or Without Comedy : Theater: Mystery Cafe dishes up funny ‘Rio Can Be Murder’ in addition to dinner, while dramatic ‘Alibi’ at NewWorks is too full of clues.

If you’ve seen one or two or even three mystery theater productions, you definitely haven’t seen them all. The two newest mystery shows in town both deal out a dose of death, but then, like the murder victims themselves, the similarities cease. Mystery Cafe’s hilarious “Rio Can Be Murder” treats murder as a cause for comedy, while NewWorks Theatre’s “Alibi” is a deadly serious sleuth-and-solve mystery.

Mystery Cafe, the local production company responsible for the still-running “Murder at the Cafe Noir” and the recently closed “Killing Mr. Withers,” has outdone itself with “Rio Can Be Murder.” Continuing with its proven format--the actors double as waiters and serve dinner between scenes--Mystery Cafe has put together a wildly engaging evening.

Although the play is short on intrigue and it’s hard to really care whodunit, the nonstop comedy routines provide more than enough entertainment.

“Rio Can Be Murder,” written by Byron LaDue and directed by Will Roberson, owes more to films like “Airplane” and “The Naked Gun” than it does to Agatha Christie novels. Comedy and sexual innuendo--not murder and mystery--are the meat and potatoes of this show.

The action takes place inside a Rio de Janeiro hotel in 1946, just before the raucous pre-Lent celebration Carnival. A collection of archetype villains and heroes converge on the hotel and soon thereafter, hotel manager Fritz Wright is killed.

Or is he? It’s not too clear, but it doesn’t really matter. The gags fly across the Imperial House banquet room so quickly that gathering clues takes a back seat to gathering punch lines.

The cast revels in the word-play and slapstick. Ronald Christopher Jones demonstrates deft comic timing as the hotel bartender who secretly publishes leftist propaganda. Patricia Harris Smith is perfect as the sex-crazy “Black Widow” Cordelia Ranchera. James Pascarella is splendid playing both the hotel manager Fritz and a deranged Nazi drag queen.

Once again, it is actor Michael Boland who steals the spotlight. Previously, Boland played the handsome drifter Jack in Mystery Cafe’s ill-advised “Killing Mr. Withers. In “Rio,” he plays the handsome war hero Jack, reprising the same stock tough-guy postures with consistently amusing results.

At one point, Jack overhears an anti-American comment and blurts: “I’ll deck anyone who says Americans are intolerant.”

Sound designer Mark Danisovszky and scenic designer Walter B. Smith created a suitably festive environment for the production. Danisovszky’s taped sound effects help manufacture tongue-in-cheek melodrama, while Smith’s designs transform the long, narrow room into a fully functional theatrical venue.

Incidentally, the food, like the production, is also new and improved. The homemade potato soup and the chicken breast with lemon-butter-caper sauce is much tastier than previous Mystery Cafe offerings.

All in all, “Rio Can Be Murder” is a most satisfying experience.

“Rio Can Be Murder” runs indefinitely at 8 p.m. Fridays, 5 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays at the Imperial House Restaurant, 505 Kalmia St., San Diego. Tickets, including dinner, $32-$37. Beverage and gratuities extra. 544-1600.

Whereas dinner and comedy preempt murder in “Rio,” NewWorks Theatre’s presentation of “Alibi” is a just-the-facts-man murder mystery.

Justice, not dinner, is served in this Michael Morton play based on an Agatha Christie novel. Because the 11-person cast doesn’t have to bother waiting tables or fetching clean silverware, increased focus is placed on performance. Still, even with fewer distractions, this production cannot overcome its one sizable fault: “Alibi” is too wordy and dense with plot twists and developments.

In reading an intricate mystery novel, you can close the book for a spell and mull over the facts; no such luxury is afforded in watching an intricate mystery play. The endless stream of information presented results in a sensory overload. If you stop to analyze the facts for a brief instant, you’ve missed another clue and all hope of solving the crime.

Last Friday, frustration, rather than fascination filled the 70-seat Picasso Room of the Horton Park Plaza Hotel. None of the 11 people in attendance guessed the culprit correctly.

Hercule Poirot did, of course. “Alibi” features Christie’s ultimate sleuth, the Franglais-speaking Poirot (played with cherubic charm by Sean Flannery.)

Set in a pristine British community, “Alibi” revolves around the murder of fabulously wealthy Sir Harry Forbes. Poirot is vacationing in the village when the crime is committed. Not surprisingly, he comes to the rescue and vows to solve the crime.

Even less surprisingly, every character in the play has both a motive and an opportunity to do the deed. Flora Forbes (Heidi Wilson) stands to gain a healthy chunk of Sir Forbes’ estate; Ralph Patton (Todd Pickering) is the lovesick young man who is willing to risk anything for his lover Ursula (Stephanie Britton); Caroline Sheppard (Crystal Goodman) is the town gossip who seems to know what’s going on before anyone else.

It’s hard to find fault with Helen Reed Lehman’s brisk direction--the primary faults lie in the script. Stuffing the countless details of a full-length novel into a two-hour play is asking for trouble.

As with most good mysteries, all the evidence necessary to solve the crime is readily available to the audience. In this case, “all the evidence” is too much evidence.

“Alibi” runs through Nov. 17. At 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays, in the Picasso Room of the Horton Park Plaza Hotel, Fifth Avenue at E St., downtown. Tickets, including dessert, $20. 268-9142.