RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM At a performance of Dave & Buster's Mystery Dinner Theatre's "Murder I Do," Oliver Thomas (played by William Boynton, third from the left) interacts with Daryl and Marie Carter, far left, and John Casison and Lani Esmena.

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D&B’s new theater
has intrigue

A cynical marriage of convenience between the heirs to rival conglomerates is derailed when a murder is committed during the wedding ceremony. Someone in the wedding party paid for the hit. Can YOU figure out who hired the killer?

Dinnertime sleuthing Murder Mystery Players present "Murder I Do" Where: Dave & Buster's, Ward Entertainment Complex, 1030 Auahi St. When: 7 p.m. Saturdays through July 23 (except July 16), also 7 p.m. July 15 Cost: $34.95 includes sit-down dinner and show; coffee and tea included, soft drinks and alcoholic beverages, tax and tip extra Call: 589-2215

Welcome to "Murder I Do," the new production of the Murder Mystery Players at Dave & Buster's. This time around, amateur sleuths can take their time while dining to solve the murder of bridegroom John Thomas' homosexual cousin, Butch St. Marie.

St. Marie raises loud objections to Thomas' marriage to Mary Christmas, and by the time diners have received their entree, he's made it known that he'll reveal at least one dark and damaging secret about someone if they don't call off the nuptials.

But, as expected, St. Marie pushes things too far when he bursts in on the ceremony just as the minister is asking if anyone has any objections. Yes! -- of course he does, but then, bang! bang! -- goodbye Butchie.

As luck would have it, the minister is a former homicide detective and he asks the audience to help find the person who paid for the killing.

The script is another boilerplate mystery that gives the director space to customize it with references to local places and personalities. And so, in addition to standard one-size-fits-all one-liners about Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, dumb blonde women, gays and Britney Spears, director Andrew Meader slips in a reference to someone named Dufi Banemann, and has the Rev. Richard Richards wear an aloha print wrap and kukui nuts.

The Rev. Richards uses a different and elongated comic Hawaiian name each time he introduces himself.

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RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Oliver Thomas (William Boynton) gets a whiff of the Rev. Richard Richards' (Elitei Tatafu Jr.) liquored breath.

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THE OTHER characters are similar broad stereotypes, like the ditsy air-head bride (Arlette St. Romaine Meader), the surfer dude groom (Thomas Burling), the loud and belligerent father of the groom (William Boynton), the hard-as-nails mother of the bride (Lisa Konove) and the aforementioned and wildly effeminate St. Marie (Colin Miyamoto).

Miyamoto displays good physical skills in several scenes in which St. Marie gets hit, slapped or kneed. With Miyamoto's thick mane of hair, slight build and androgynous costume, it is hard to tell at first what St. Marie's actual gender is, which adds an interesting twist to the mystery. (Note to future sleuths: At last week's performance, Butch was male.)

Murder Mystery regulars Boynton and Konove are again well-matched as tough-talking adversaries. Burling is instantly likable as the unambitious dude and St. Romaine Meader adds a bright spark of energy to her dumb blonde with a short temper.

Elitei Tatafu Jr. provides most of the localized humor with his portrayal of the pidgin-speaking, alcoholic Hawaiian minister.

"Murder I Do" becomes fully interactive when the suspects make their way from table to table for one-on-one questioning. The rules are simple: The characters are not allowed to lie, and they are required to answer any question except any variation of the obvious two of "Are you the murderer?" and "Is someone else the murderer?"

Each dining table works as a team. Each member of the winning team -- drawn from those teams who have correctly identified the killer and have come reasonably close to his or her motive -- receives a $5 Dave & Buster's Power Card for helping bring the killer to justice.

And there are several possible outcomes to the story. Anyone who caught the opening night performance last Saturday could conceivably uncover a different killer on any other given Saturday.

Interactive dinner theater is the best compromise between "dinner" and "theater," and those in the mood to participate in a light melodrama will find this dinner show package enjoyable and a reasonably affordable early evening's worth of entertainment.