‘Death…The Final Frontier…May the Corpse Be With You’

MIDVALE — All I knew going into Death…The Final Frontier…May the Corpse Be With You was that it was a comedy and dinner would be served.  I ended up getting a lot more than a few laughs and a meal; I got to be part of an adventure.

It began the moment I stepped away from the ticket counter and was greeted by Captain Dave (Andrew Lenz), the charismatic and philandering leader of the Galactic Alliance.  He welcomed me to the galaxy using a lot of space terminology, confiscated my “communication device” (a cell phone—which I happened to be using at the time), and warned me about the perils of asteroid attacks.  He also hit on at least five other women, inviting each of them to a private tour of his quarters, all while welcoming me and taking over my phone call.

And so the laughter began.

Instead of just watching the show, you can be part of the show, every step of the way.  As a delegate from an alien planet you will meet with members of the Alliance aboard the  Death Star Mark III to determine the fate of the universe.  No labyrinthian plot here—just a the typical murder mystery.  You know there will be a murder and it will be your job to determine who did and why, but the villain isn’t as obvious as you might think.  Could it be Klaa’tookie (Criss Rosenlof), the skilled and experience warrior? Soola (Jamie Denison), the doomsday prophetess? Android (Justice Jex) who was designed to serve the Alliance but seems to think he is superior to every other species and doesn’t offer any assistance when all on the ship face destruction? And what about Ensign Guy (Jeremy Tuttle), a mediocre young space school grad who likes to play simulation games where he is the hero, but in reality seems afraid of everyone? Or is it Zam Aran and Dr. What (Kevin Dennis), a male and a female sharing one body—now that’s just weird!  Or is it Captain Dave himself? After all, you can never trust a womanizer!

The cast did a stellar job and interacting with them was very entertaining. This show is perfect for the aspiring actor because you can role play with the characters all night.  It’s also a great family-friendly activity, though young children might get a little bored.  We weren’t too impressed with the costumes, props, etc., but you’ll be OK if you have a great imagination.  Just don’t be disappointed if the aliens very closely resemble humans. The background music was also way too loud and drown out quite a bit of what the actors were saying, but it was opening night, so I’m sure they’ll fix that for future performances. The Midvale Main St. Theater was a decent venue.  It was small enough that everyone could sit relatively close to the stage.  There wasn’t a lot of aisle room, so it was difficult to move around and interrogate the suspects after the murder took place.  In fact, there were two characters I didn’t bother to talk to at all because getting to where they were was so inconvenient and that proved to be detrimental to my ability to solve the mystery, so make the effort and you may win a prize.