SBHS Theatre to Produce The Mystery of Edwin Drood this Spring!

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We are excited to announce that our Spring show will be The Mystery of Edwin Drood—the musical where you choose whodunit—and whodunit with whom!  Created by Rupert Holmes (Best known  for Escape—the Pina Colada Song), who also wrote Curtains, The Mystery of Edwin Drood started out at the New York Shakespeare Festival, headed by Joseph Papp of the Public Theatre, moved to Broadway and played for a total of 608 performances at the Imperial Theatre starring Betty Buckley, Cleo Laine and George Rose. It was mounted in London’s West End. The Mystery of Edwin Drood was revived on Broadway in 2012, when it played for 136 performances at Studio 54 starring Chita Rivera, Will Chase, Gregg Edelman and Jim Norton, and with Stephanie J. Block in the title role.  In 1986 Rupert Holmes become the only person ever to receive solo Tony Awards for  Musical, Book, and Score.  It received a total of 5 Tonys that year.  

This wildly warm-hearted theatrical experience kicks off when the Music Hall Royale (a hilariously loony Victorian musical troupe) “puts on” its flamboyant rendition of an unfinished Dickens mystery. The story itself deals with John Jasper, a Jekyll-and-Hyde choirmaster who is quite madly in love with his music student, the fair Miss Rosa Bud. Now, Miss Bud is, in turn, engaged to Jasper’s nephew, young Edwin Drood. Our title character disappears mysteriously one stormy Christmas Eve-but has Edwin Drood been murdered? And if so, then whodunnit? Musical numbers include The Wage of Sin, Perfect Strangers, Both Sides of the Coin, Don’t Quit While You’re Ahead and Moonfall. The giddy playfulness of this play-within-a-play draws the audience toward one of the play’s most talked-about features, which allows the audience to vote on the solution as prelude to the most unusual and hilarious finale!

So put your detective hats on and dash over to the Santa Barbara High School Theatre April 24, 25, 30 & May 1, 2 at 7pm and May 3 at 2pm to help solve this mystery.  You may have to see it multiple times—no two endings are the same!