by joel martens
Somebody must have been watching a whole lot of musical theatre growing up—steeped in a whole lot of murder mystery, farce and slapstick. Murder for Two is a kind of Agatha Christie meets The Producers meets Marx Brothers, touched with a bit of the board game Clue. It’s a mash-up of fun and farce, requiring a whole lot of energetic output, especially for the two actors who portray the main characters. One, a piano playing investigator and the other, who plays “the suspects”—all ten of them. The Rage Monthly had the chance to sit down with
the creators of the hysterical show, Kellen Blair and Joe Kinosian, who told us how they came up with their touring musical murder mystery. Co-writer and lyricist, Kellen Blair began with an
explanation of their story process, “The truth is, we wanted to create something that was an experiment in minimalism. Something we could take anywhere, anytime, as long as we had two actors and a piano. I’m a huge believer in creativity through limitation. So, with those constrictions,” he continued, “we started brainstorming things we both loved. Old fashioned murder mysteries and zany comedy were both very high on that list. We came up with a bunch of ideas for musicals and I think idea number four was ‘a murder mystery where one actor plays the detective and one actor plays all the suspects and they both play the piano.’ I think the moment we started talking through a potential plot we realized we were on to something.” Joe Kinosian, who co-wrote the show’s music and for this production plays the
AND KELLEN BLAIR DOUBLE JEOPARDY AND MURDER FOR TWO
JOE KINOSIAN
piano and all of “the suspects,” followed with his specific take on what it took to get to a finished product. “A murder-mystery farce was one of many ideas and because of its inherent structure and the opportunity to utilize me as a piano-playing actor, it seemed like the logical one to start drafting.” He went on to say, “We were also very influenced in our bookwriting by slapstick and screwball comedy films of the ’30s. At the onset, we planned only to do the show at various New York cabaret spaces, in the hopes that it would lead to a bigger, produced show. It was quite a wonderful, humbling surprise that this is the show that has not only gotten produced, but ran for a year in New York and is now touring the country.” I asked them to talk more about how they work together as a team and for Blair it
looks like this, “I never thought I’d collaborate on bookwriting before I met Joe and now I can’t imagine it any other way. We both bring a different piece of the puzzle to every scene we write. We both definitely hold each other accountable to do our best work. My favorite part in the process is when we’ve got a draft of everything and Joe and I spend hours combing through every single word. If a joke is only getting a chuckle, we bounce ideas back and forth until it makes the other one crack up.”
50 RAGE monthly | FEBRUARY 2015
” … there’s no way to describe what it’s like without making it sound like a marriage.
Although—and I don’t want to shock any Rage readers—Kellen is a hetero- sexual!”
It’s always interesting to have a counterpoint from
each of the show’s creators. Kinosian offered his perspective, “Technically speaking, we divide the bookwriting, plot and dialogue between us and do as much of that in the same room as possible. Then, I write the music and Kellen writes the lyrics for decid- ed-upon song spots. Beyond that, there’s no way to describe what it’s like without making it sound like a marriage. Although—and I don’t want to shock any Rage readers—Kellen is a heterosexual! We bicker and make up, we push each other to do better and just push each other in general, but ultimately, we bring out the best in each other every time.” As for what’s next for Murder for Two the two had
this to say, “I feel like we’ve already had our dreams come true with Murder for Two with a great Off- Broadway production and now, this tour across the country,” says Blair. “I just hope it’s a show that keeps making people smile for a long time.”
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64