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AHS play mixes musical comedy, murder mystery genres Tuesday Nov 1, 2016 at 2:11 PM Nov 1, 2016 at 2:11 PM Vickie Aldous for the Tidings @VickieAldous Fans of musical comedies, murder mysteries and spy thrillers will find all three genres in Ashland High School's production of "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940." A group of show business types gathers at a foreboding mansion in hopes of winning a financial backer's support for a new musical. But the "Stage Door Slasher" — who has already murdered chorus girls in a previous musical — begins to pick them off one by one. Can they figure out who is the killer in their midst before they all wind up dead? "It's like a game of Clue or a Scooby Doo episode in a spooky old house. It's based on the clichés of the genre," says Michael Hume, a veteran Oregon Shakespeare Festival actor who is directing the high school production. A special $7 preview performance is at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 2, at Ashland High School Mountain Avenue Theatre, 201 S. Mountain Ave. Regular performances are at 7:30 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 3-5, and Thursday through Saturday, Nov. 10-12, with matinees at 2 p.m. Sundays, Nov. 6 and Nov. 13. Reserved tickets are $15, and general tickets are $10. Tickets for students under 18 and seniors over 65 are $7. Tickets are available online at www.showtix4u.com, by calling 1-866-967-8167 or visiting Paddington Station, Tree House Books or the Music Coop in downtown Ashland. Reserved tickets are only sold online. For more information, call 541-482-8771. For group sales, call 541-840-6410. The fast-paced comedy with musical numbers mixed in pokes fun at show business and popular movies from Hollywood's heyday. Set in 1940, the play by John Bishop draws from three entertainment forms popular in the era — "Let's put on a show" musical comedies, murder mysteries and thrillers involving international espionage and war, Hume said. With "Let's put on a show" movies, the plot focuses on performers who gather together to plan, rehearse and stage a show. Time-honored classics in the genre range from Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland musicals to "White Christmas" with Bing Crosby to "The Band Wagon" with Fred Astaire. "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" has fewer musical numbers and is more of a comic romp with some music mixed in. It also has an element of romance, with hack comedian Eddie (played by Nur Shelton) awkwardly wooing chorus girl Nikki (played by Zoe Lishinsky.) "The two leads are sweet young people who fall in love as murders take place," Hume says. Hume said the play also references murder mysteries such as Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." In Christie's novel, people are lured to an island under false pretenses, then murdered as stormy weather blocks their escape to the mainland. Because they are trapped on the island, the murderer must be among them. "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" ramps up the humor in the mystery genre, with an overabundance of knives and guns, and people disappearing into secret passageways and behind sliding panels in the eerie mansion. "It's great fun. It's a farce," Hume says. "A lot of people are disappearing. It's a dark and stormy night, and the phone line is dead. Hume said Ashland High School was able to borrow props, including Victorian-style chairs, rugs and a portrait of a German munitions manufacturer, from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, which has a vast warehouse of pieces. As for the spy thriller genre, Hume pointed to the example of Alfred Hitchcock's 1942 film "Saboteur," in which international saboteurs destroy an American aircraft factory, then target Boulder Dam. "The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940" has a Nazi saboteur subplot. One of the characters is actually an undercover American spy trying to identify Germans sabotaging American war efforts. The spy also tries to unravel the mystery of the "Stage Door Slasher" who is murdering show business performers. Hume says the witty play includes hundreds of insider references to 1940s era political figures and movie stars. Other cast members include Tessa Buckley as Helsa, the disappearing and reappearing maid; Sienna Ross as Elsa. the wealthy backer thrilled by the murderous mayhem at her mansion; Audrey Cirzan as the egotistical song writer Berniece; Cara Feldman as Marjorie, the pretentious Broadway producer; Michael W. Burt as the Irish tenor O'Reilly; and Kyle Storie as Ken, the name-dropping director. Nicky Clary plays Roger, the composer; and Will Ranson is the undercover cop Kelly. Understudies include Eliza Strong, Kate Jaques-Prentice, Sierra Milburn, Isaiah Brown, Sage Chitwood, Henry Alexander, Ari Albertson and Isaiah Brown.