MUSICAL COMEDY MURDERS OF 1940, THE

by Bishop, John

The creative team responsible for a recent Broadway flop (in which three chorus girls were murdered by the mysterious ‘Stage Door Slasher’) assemble for a backer’s audition at an isolated country mansion. The house is replete with sliding wall panels, secret passageways, nazi spies, a bumbling police inspector and a German maid who is apparently four different people - all of which figure in the intrigue and comic mayhem which follows when the ‘Slasher’ reappears, striking again - and again, and again. While the composer, lyricist, actors and director prepare their performance and a blizzard rages outside cutting off any possible retreat, bodies start dropping in plain sight and suspicion mounts with the demise of each new victim until the ‘Slasher’ is finally unmasked - much to the relief of the audience, who will need a rest following the non-stop barrage of laughter. “Imagine a 42nd Street with corpses where the songs ought to be.” [Punch]