Event Article

Fullerton College Theatre Arts Department presents "The Musical Mystery 'of Edwin Drood" based on the book, music and lyrics of Rupert Holmes. The musical play is directed by Gary Krinke

"This show is just wacky-and great fun," says director Krinke. "There are 23 different endings! The cast has to -be ready to go in any direction because we never know which villain, or pair of lovers, the audience will choose. That really makes things exciting."

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood," Rupert Holmes' Tony Award-winning musical comedy, is a musical version of Charles Dickens' last and unfinished novel.

It takes place in a Victorian music hall in London, where the audience is greeted by a hammy, second-rate vaudevillian troupe, eager to please. In a conundrum of a play within a play, each music hall actor tries to gain the favor of the audience as they act out the story of Edwin Drood.

Mystery surrounds the whereabouts of Drood, an arrogant young man who disappeared on Christmas Eve in a storm and is presumed murdered. Who killed him?

Suspects are plentiful. Drood was engaged to the beautiful Rosa Bud, but his uncle, a sinister choirmaster, loves Rosa, too.Then there are the local minister who takes in two mysterious young Ceylonese; the town's mayor; a drunken gravedigger and his assistant; the intriguing Princess Puffer, madam of the night with some dark secrets and a slew of others.

Is Edwin Drood really dead?

Dickens died before he completed the novel. Song and dance stops "dead" where death ended them. And the audience is invited to "take a stab at flushing out the suspects and fleshing out the ending, after gathering all the evidence."

The audience votes on who they feel should be the villain and which lovers end up happily ever after - tonight at least. The performers then act out the ending of audience's choice, wrapping up all of the loose ends.

"The Mystery of Edwin Drood" was a smash-hit on Broadway in 1986.

The musical won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, Best Original Score and Best Book, as well as the Drama Desk and Outer Critic's Circle awards for Best Musical.

Krinke has directed a variety of productions professionally, in the Lyric Theatre of Oklahoma, Performance Riverside, Lake Tahoe Music Festival, La Mirada Civic Light Opera, Moonlight Amphitheater and Prism Productions, and as a long-time member of the Fullerton Theatre Arts Department faculty.

Krinke serves as Artistic Director for Standing Room Only, the Fullerton College High School Summer Musical Theatre Conservatory, an organization he co-founded in 1980. Krinke has received numerous Los Angeles Times, Backstage West, and Robbie awards for his directing The play opens on Thursday, March 8 and goes on Saturday, Mar. 10 at 8:00 p.m. Also on Thursday, Mar. 15 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, Mar. 11 at 2:00 p.m. in Campus Theatre, Fullerton College 321 East Chapman avenue, Fullerton.