It's the final Wednesday of February on Ozarks at Large, and we're not going to let this month get away without one more trip with Becca Martin Brown.
Kyle Kellams: Becca, welcome back.
Becca Martin Brown: Hey, Kyle. This one is perfectly weirdly what we do.
Kellams: Well, I'm glad it's perfectly weirdly what we do, because I called it "the other side" instead of "The Other Way." So I'm already off to a perfectly weird start.
Brown: That's all right. We're going to talk about a tiny little theater company that does tableside theater and is, oddly enough, called Tableside Theater. And they're doing a St. Patrick's Day show. You want to hear the title?
Kellams: Of course I do.
Brown: It's called "Who Killed Granny McCoy's Boy Toy."
Kellams: It sounds like there might be some laughs involved in this.
Brown: I would think so. And it's old friends of the theater community, Pam Marks and Mark Beasley. So we can get Mark on the phone and he can get Pam on the phone, and we can talk to them. And now, not just one, but two people on the line. Mark and Pam, you're here, right?
Marks/Beasley: That's right. We're here.
Kellams: I'm here with Becca Martin Brown. We want to know more about "Who Killed Granny McCoy's Boy Toy."
Marks: Well, sure. Tableside Theater has been around since about 2012, where a small group of local actors — we have some regulars, and then sometimes we have some new additions to our troupe — we just put on these fun little murder mystery shows. We've done other formats, but this is the format that has been the most popular. We are currently regulars at the Grove Comedy Club in Lowell. It's a really fun murder mystery where the audience gets to participate and help solve the crime, and we give away some prizes — a prize for the best correct guess, a prize for the most outlandish or funniest answer, and a prize for the best costume. And this one is an Irish-themed one for St. Patrick's Day.
Brown: So do you guys write the scripts?
Marks: We write some of them. This one is actually one that we've done several different adaptations for. It was written by Mike Mondo quite a number of years ago, and he gave me permission to change it up. So Sarah McKinney and I did some rewrites on it so that it would be Irish-themed and also to personalize it for today and for the venue that we're at.
Kellams: OK, so we know it's a murder mystery, but I'm going to guess from the title that it's not perhaps a conventional murder mystery.
Marks: Granny's been seen with a gigolo and he winds up dead, and the detective comes to the restaurant to talk to the family about it because he's investigating the crime, and a whole lot of family secrets and scandals are unearthed during the investigation. Granny's not the only McCoy who's been up to some shenanigans. You will find out a lot about what's been going on with the McCoy clan, and you will eventually find out who killed Granny's gigolo. But we need the audience's help to solve the mystery. Just a good time.
Beasley: We like to say, "Shakespeare it ain't." And in these times, nothing's off limits — but we do stay away from things like politics. There's enough of that in your news broadcast every day. So we're a little bit of a break from that.
Brown: I assume people get dinner with this?
Marks: Yes. When you go to the Grove's website, grovecomedy.com, and buy your tickets, your ticket will include your choice of the selections — for this show, shepherd's pie, corned beef and cabbage, or hummus and veggie plate — and a non-alcoholic drink. And then you are welcome to purchase alcoholic drinks once you're there. And you should have a few, because we're even funnier if you have a couple of drinks.
Brown: You mentioned there are prizes — for best guess, maybe best guess of motive, but did you say best costume?
Marks: Yes. We invite you to dress up in your best Irish finery and enjoy some fine dining, as we say in our little blurb. Come dressed up if you want to dress like a leprechaun, if you just want to dress like some Irish character — whatever. People get really creative and we love to see what the audience shows up in. Usually their costumes are better than ours, so we're always impressed.
Brown: One more question. I understand that you've shoplifted a couple of folks from our Northwest Arkansas Audio Theatre show.
Marks: Absolutely. Yes, they are Jennifer Martin and Robert Mayfield. Jennifer has been part of Tableside Theater for some time now. Robert is new to our group — not new to the stage, of course. He's done a lot of things locally, but he's been a delightful addition. And I will be playing Granny, and Robert is my very disapproving son. He does not approve of my shenanigans or my boy toy, but he's got some secrets of his own. You have to come and check that out, because he's not one to point fingers.
Beasley: Speaking of comedy, it is at The Grove. And if you've ever been to The Grove, usually that's inherently a space for comedy — one person, one microphone stand, maybe a stool. That stage is about eight feet deep and about 20 feet wide, and you get sometimes six or seven characters on it and sometimes set pieces. So the fact that we do this at The Grove lends its own uniqueness to it.
The audience is good. We have a lot of repeat offender audience members and they've gotten used to us. We'd like to invite all the new people who have maybe been to The Grove but not seen a play — which it was never supposed to have done there. We just love to invite everybody out. And we know it's a school night — it's going to be a Tuesday — but we love to have you attend.
Kellams: How do we get tickets?
Marks: You can go to grovecomedy.com, or search for the Grove Comedy Complex tickets, and you can buy your tickets online.
Brown: We'll see you on the 17th at 6:30 at The Grove in Lowell. Thank you all, and break a leg.
Marks/Beasley: Cheers. Thanks. Appreciate you guys.
"Who Killed Granny McCoy's Boy Toy" runs Tuesday, March 17, at 6:30 p.m. at The Grove Comedy Club, 808 S. Bloomington St., Lowell. Tickets, which include dinner, are available at grovecomedy.com.
