‘Who shot the mayor?’ First dinner theater to be hosted

By Jenny Rohl, Contributing writer 

The Murray Half Marathon has partnered with The Alley Steakhouse as well as Badgett Playhouse, to host Murray’s first ever “Murder Mystery” dinner theater on April 20th. The proceeds of the event will go toward raising money for the Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House.

The audience is limited to 100 people and while tickets are first come, first serve, they sold out within two weeks. Keith Travis, Vice President of Development for Murray-Calloway County Hospital and The Endowment for Healthcare, said there is still a waiting list of about 25 to 30 people for the next show.

“Based on the overwhelming acceptance of this, we are trying to book two more shows in July and two more in August,” said Travis. “We have some other shows; Honeymoon from Haiti’s is one of them and we may have Who shot Dr. Davies?”         

The night will consist of a 3-course meal and audience members will have the opportunity to assess clues and determine from 3 or 4 suspects which individual is guilty of, “shooting the mayor,” while dining at one of Murray’s five star’ restaurants, The Alley Steakhouse.  

Tori Chapman, senior from Murray, KY and Spring intern for The Endowment of Healthcare, said they had been discussing ways to get the community involved. “Badgett Playhouse asked us what storyline we would want to use, and we decided to use the ‘Who Shot the Mayor?’ storyline to really get our community members interested in the event.”

Travis said The Mayor of Murray, Dr. Rose, has been a good sport about all of it.

While the Murder Mystery dinner may be new to Murray, it is a regular thing for Badgett Playhouse, the performing arts theater that will be putting on the play.

Producer, Bill Minihan of Sharpe,KY, said they reuse scripts they have written in the past and then alters them to fit the situation.

“There is a 3-piece band and then typically 6-8 actors in the show,” said Minihan. “This one has 6, but it varies depending on the story line. The story lines are also similar, but differ.”

Badgett Playhouse worked with Travis and The Endowment of Healthcare last year when they did a concert series of 12 and this year they will do a series of 16 concerts in addition to the additional four murder mysteries.

Minihan said, “The murder mysteries are very tongue in cheek. It’s not weird or gory, but it’s a lot of fun. We’re proud of our cast and it’s going for a great cause.”.

In addition to the Murder Mystery: Who Shot the Mayor? There are a variety of other events going on to raise money for Anna Mae Owen Residential Hospice House. More information about these events can be found at MurrayHalfMarathon.org.  

  

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