I took a jaunt out to the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel to see the Mystery Café for the first time. It’s actually been around for decades, and I’d long heard about the company, which mixes comedy and theater with an audience interactive element and dinner. This season, the company offered four different plays, and I went to see “Alma Murder: A Killer Class Reunion” as my entry point. 

From the very beginning, the conceit of the show is that you aren’t just watching a play, you’re a participant. Two actors, Rita Boersma and Paul Somers – who played school staff members – greeted my partner and I, smiling and telling us we didn’t look at all different from what they remembered. We were shown to our table and advised to write our names and graduation years, and place our meal choices at the top of our place settings. 

What followed was about an hour and a half experience framed around a high school reunion, complete with characters such as the former football quarterback, prom queen, school nerd, and various staff members filling up the story. It’s a broad comedy performed by an able cast of experienced comedic actors, with the curves to the plot thrown in just before each course of the meal is served. Audience members became part of the story throughout the show, and were called on to solve the murder at the end, with prizes offered to whoever correctly guessed the villain. 

The group has had a number of different locations over the years – the Venetian Inn, the supper club that closed in 2001, Benchwarmer Bob’s in Burnsville and Nicklow’s. Now they perform at Majestic Oaks Golf Club in Ham Lake, where they’ve been for 13 years, and the Sheraton in Bloomington, the group’s newest location. 

“Most of the places we’ve historically been at don’t exist anymore,” said proprietor Brian Kelly. “The supper clubs and things like that are just a thing of the past, so it’s been a little difficult finding a home, and the pandemic certainly didn’t help that.” 

Kelly took ownership of The Mystery Café in 2016 from previous owner Lee H. Adams.

“The history is that The Mystery Café was born in Boston in 1988,” Kelly told me. “Adams was one of the creators of that Boston version of the show. In 1989, he moved to Minneapolis and started the Mystery Café here.” He noted that while the original Boston Mystery Café has franchised the business, the Minnesota version is independently owned and operated. 

Kelly’s been acting with the troupe since 1994. 

“It was one of my first professional gigs,” he said. Kelly’s career has long centered in the comedy and improv world, with ComedySportz being his first entry point. 

“ComedySportz taught me that I was maybe funny,” he said. “The Mystery Café taught me chops.” His career has also included acting in more than one production of “Tony & Tina’s Wedding” and “Triple Espresso.” 

When he first took over the company, Kelly figured he could cast himself in the shows, but quickly realized the production side of things took up more of his time, and it was best if he had an understudy role. He does generally come up with the concepts for the different shows, and writes the scripts, often with a co-writer. 

“I’m always working with somebody else, because I find that there’s a much better bank of ideas,” he said. “And I have no ego about the thing. I just want the best idea.” 

A lot of the actors in the show are folks who’ve been at this for a long time and have got chops not only in playing off each other, but playing off the audience as well. Gene Larche was particularly funny playing multiple characters.

It’s all very interactive. The actors double as servers, and they also come up to your table at various points in the show. You can even bribe them (with fake money) to get more information.

“It’s very interactive, and in that way, it’s not necessarily directed at the average theater goer,” Kelly said. “I like to think of it as being kind of a gateway to people who maybe don’t do a lot of theater. I get a lot of people coming up to me who say, ‘My partner dragged me to this and I wasn’t sure, but you guys are really funny. I really enjoyed it.’ And ideally, they’ll go to see other theater (performances) as well.”  

Sitting at my table were two super-audience members, Sarra and Candice Beckham-Chasnoff. They’ve been married for 30 years and had just celebrated their anniversary. They have been going to theater in the Twin Cities since 1999, when they took their daughter to a Shakespeare production in the park. Their daughter ended up becoming an actor, and the couple stepped up their theater-watching game when she was in high school. 

“She went off to college, and then when we were empty nesters, so we started just going to a lot of theater every week,” Candice Beckham-Chasnoff told me. “We ended up following a bunch of actors in town.” The two see about three shows a week, and have twice won the Beverlee Award, at the Minnesota Fringe Festival for their endurance theater watching-abilities. 

Like the Beckham-Chasnoffs, the Mystery Café tends to get repeat customers, who come not just for the story presented in the play, but the added experience this kind of interactive performance offers. 

“Alma Murder: A Killer Class Reunion” runs for three more shows: Friday, Jan. 17, Saturday, Jan. 18, and Friday, Jan. 31 at the Sheraton Bloomington Hotel, 5601 W. 78th St. Tickets are $78. More information here.

The company’s other show, “Til Death Do Us Die,” has shows Fri., Jan 17 at 7 p.m., and Sunday, Jan. 25 at 12 p.m., at Majestic Oaks Golf Club, 701 Bunker Lake Blvd. N.E., Ham Lake. More information here.

Sheila Regan

Sheila Regan is a Twin Cities-based arts journalist. She writes MinnPost’s twice-weekly Artscape column. She can be reached at [email protected].

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