‘Murder’ With Accomplices

On opening night, which turned out to be the cast’s first full-dress run-through, “Murder Among Friends” went off smoothly enough at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center’s Theatre-on-the-Green. There were only a few glitches in Bob Barry’s light comedy thriller to remind us that the union-professional cast was under-rehearsed or that the show-biz mayhem on stage was strictly good-natured fun but not much to exult over.

The night air was pleasant; the sound system worked; the set was finished just before curtain, and the crowd was easily pleased, as though they’d dropped in on an open-air, neighborhood cocktail party. Friday’s postprandial premiere was a neighborly benefit to raise money for the Muckenthaler; “Howdy Doody Time” might have been entertainment enough to keep the crowd satisfied.

More comedy than thriller, “Murder Among Friends” showed early signs of remarkably mild wit. It even held out the promise that it was rewritten as late as, say, 1985. Angela Forrester (Stephanie Nash) wakes from a postcoital doze with her lover, Ted Cotton (Joshua Devane), on the living room floor of her New York apartment, yelping in terror. She’s had a bad dream in which, during dinner at Sardi’s, a woman pointed an accusing finger at her and began shouting: “She did it! She did it!” If that weren’t bad enough, Angela recounts, “the woman was Barbara Walters.”

Before long we learn that Angela is married to preening Broadway star Palmer Forrester (David Bennett Stephens); that lover Ted is Palmer’s agent, and that Angela has been sending $10,000 a month for the last seven months to a postal box in Queens because someone is blackmailing Palmer over a murder he’s said to have committed. It’s New Year’s Eve, incidentally, and Palmer is expected back from his show to celebrate, along with his producer Doug Barden (Marshall Saidenberg) and Doug’s wife, Gertrude (Nancy Barker).

Suffice to say the plot, much of which revolves around a red dress, develops into the obligatory ritual of byzantine twists down winding corridors, the usual revelations and, not to disappoint, fulfilled expectations. Most of all, we get a funny spoof of a supposed Latino junky (Patrick Newall) who shows up to rob the guests with a stocking over his head, a gun in one hand and chloroform in the other. The biggest laughs are evoked by his thick accent--a sendup that becomes a running gag--which turns on ethnic stereotyping but is hilarious nonetheless.

Some of the stereotypical cliches go sour and should have been cut--for example, the following exchange between Angela and Palmer. She, asking about the show that evening: “How was it, Darling?” He: “Like a benefit for deaf-mutes.” Thud. Also, some of the hard-boiled attempts at humor are more overwrought than funny. Ted is such a cynic, we’re told, that “if he ran out of cigarettes, he’d smoke his own mother.” Yawn.

And the performances? Let’s just say that if the cast and director Pamela Hall were less professional, “Murder Among Friends” could have been a disaster. Although the second act (the little there is of it) runs out of gas, be thankful it ends quickly. No amount of capable talent can solve the mysterious absence of a well-scripted second act. But a few more performances will lend this production considerable buoyancy.

* “Murder Among Friends,” Muckenthaler Cultural Center’s Theater-on-the-Green, 1201 W. Malvern Ave., Fullerton. Tuesday-Sunday, 8:15 p.m.; catered dinner Thursday-Saturday, 7 p.m. Ends Aug. 4. $19.50-$32.50. (714) 447-1777. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

Stephanie Nash: Angela Forrester

Joshua Devane: Ted Cotton

David Bennett Stephens: Palmer Forrester

Nancy Barker: Gertrude Saidenberg

Doug Barden: Marshall Saidenberg

Patrick Newall: Larry / Stephen Jessup

A Muckenthaler Cultural Center Foundation and West End Artists Theatre Co. production of a play by Bob Barry. Director: Pamella Hall. Producer: Ed Gaynes. Set design: Steve Montgomery. Lighting design: David Darwin. Costumes: Don Nelson. Sound: Chuck Estes. Stage manager: Manenka Kilpatric.