Drood Question (May contain spoilers)

[husk_charmer]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 5:28pm

Ok, even though I'm sure most people know the gimmick of the show, I didn't wanna get balled out for asking this without a spoiler warning.

I've never seen a production, only heard the OCR and read the script, and I was curious. In the original, were certain characters picked to be Dratchery or the murderer more often than others?

[best12bars]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 5:47pm

I can only go by what I heard at the time the show was running on Broadway. Since there were no Interwebs back in the Stone Ages of the '80s, you had to use the really weird thing called word-of-mouth. I know who I saw the two times I was in the audience.

Rosabud was picked a lot for the murderer. Patti had a great way of standing very coquettishly and batting her eyes when it came time for the voting. She really milked it, too, but so did everyone else during the voting. She was very funny.

[singtopher]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 6:42pm

Good. Rosabud's confession is amazing.

[Jon]

Posted: 7/6/09 at 7:15pm

The script is definitely slanted so that Bazzard (the understudy who longs for a bigger role) is most often picked to be Datchery.

[once a month]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 8:32am

Funny, when I saw it....as well as the majority of pals who also saw it, Cleo Lane was the culpret who was the obvious choice.

[philcrosby]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 12:02pm

It tends to be different in every production ... although Cleo Laine was the Opening Night murderer, more often than not audiences during the run picked Rosa Bud or Helena Landless.

During the long run of a production, the most often picked murderer was Reverend Crisparkle. It all depends on how the actors mug for the audience!

And if you listen to the various endings, there is less difference in the lyrics than one would imagine!

[Leia947]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 12:06pm

Okay, I've never heard of this before, but now I really want to see it. Revival, please!

[Reginald Tresilian]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 12:19pm

First of all, Husk, the phrase is "bawled out." I don't want to think what yours might mean.

But as to your question, I'd heard that Laine was often picked simply because people wanted to hear her sing another song.

[ColorTheHours048]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 12:27pm

The president of my high school saw DROOD 10 times during its run with the original cast and he said that each time he saw it, the murderer was either Puffer or Rosa. He preferred seeing Rosa as the murderer.

[MTVMANN]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 12:58pm

I think that Puffer has the best confession song if she is chosen as the murderer.

Slight thread jack but...looking at the awards that it was nominated for just about ALL the leads were nominated except for Betty Buckley. I've only listened to it...never seen the show.
Can anyone speculate why all the leads BUT the title character was nominated for a Tony/Drama Desk Award?

[BDrischBDemented]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 4:11pm

What I was curious about was the selection process... was there just like a paper ballot someone had to tally up quickly? Wouldn't that take a while?

[lull89]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 7:01pm

I never saw it, nor do I know anything beyond the concept, but if I would imagine they either did a "show of hands" type thing and hoped for a strong majority, or did an applause-o-meter type thing. I don't think getting the vote scientific was incredibly important.
Updated On: 7/8/09 at 07:01 PM

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 7:42pm

Judy Kuhn talks a bit about the voting process in her downstage center interview on itunes which I just happened to listen to today. Check it out for some Drood stories.

Updated On: 7/8/09 at 07:42 PM

[Smaxie]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 7:50pm

Actors were dispatched to all areas of the theatre and votes were taken and the process was pretty thorough. I think it was done by a show of hands for the respective candidates, though I don't remember exactly. They did have a blackboard in the lobby that had the tallies of votes for each of the murderers for each performance. When I saw it, I voted for Helena, but Rosa Bud was picked as the murderer. And since Patti Cohenour basically got to go berserk in her confession, it certainly was entertaining, though I was momentarily bummed that Helena didn't win.

[NakedMaid]

Posted: 7/8/09 at 8:30pm

I did a professional regional production about 2 years ago.
~Bazzard was voted Datchery 90% of the time. If not he was a lover
~We had every possible choice for the murderer go on except Durdle's son (for get the character name). We even had Jasper picked and were out of the stage door 10 minutes early!
~The lovers (and there are SO many options) were typically:
Durdles/Puffer
Durdles Son/Puffer
Nev/Helena
Durdles/Helena