Mystery of Edwin Drood - Voting Logistics

I find Rosa Bud's confession the most dramatically satisfying. Though, upon comparing the OBC confessions with the revised ones for the revival, I feel the revival gives several cast members better material. I particularly like Helena's revised confession.

My inner director wants to play with the staging of the confessions. Having Rosa throw Jasper to the ground, or the Landless siblings try to comfort each other. Though with so many, and so little chance to see them, I understand why many productions just let the actor park and bark.

Updated On: 12/15/19 at 08:26 PM

MrsSallyAdams said: "Just saw a production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood. I still adore it, though the reliance on patter songs tells me why some folks got lost on a first viewing. I was digging through old Drood threads and was curious about the logistics of the voting process. Both times I've seen it live the chorus has come into the house with clip boards and asked their section of the audience for their votes. Then tallied them in the wings.

Is this how it was done in the Broadway productions? It seems problematic for larger houses. Has any production ever given the audience a chance to drop votes in a hat or enter votes on a phone app? Schools producing shorter runs of the show, do you try to balance out your actors "turns" or do you let the votes fall where they may?

The lovers and detective were voted by applause today, and with similar applause for several I'm not sure how the Chairman chose his candidates."

If you're talking about Chicago's Blank Theatre's production,  I just saw it and I'm not convinced they were actually taking down people's votes. Maybe in a non-equity theater like that it's too much to ask the cast to memorize so many different endings. Having Neville be the murderer also seems much to pat.

 

Question for those who directed it/played in it.  Do you pull John Jasper and/or your Dick Datchery out of the voting for a lover?  Is that something that is in the script?  It feels to me that pulling Datchery out ends up limiting the choices for the lovers a bit much.

The first production I saw of Drood had the audience vote for one female character, and then one male character for the lovers. I'm thrilled to hear new productions allow for same sex pairings. Does the script offer any bonus dialogue for such situations?

I saw the 1988 tour with Jean Stapleton at the Muny in St Louis with 10,000 seats--I have no remembrance of how the voting was handled, but it must have been by guessing how the audience was voting. 

Good cast also featuring Clive Revill, Jana Schneider, Mark Jacoby, Ronn Carroll, John Deluca, Paige O'Hara and Kathleen Marshall in the ensemble.

I don't think so...however, there are a number of leads that cannot be Datchery.  

darquegk said: "The most circulated bootleg of the Broadway revival (is it the closing performance) ends the lovers sequence with an implied threesome with Rosa, Helena and one of the men. I don't know if that was something that happened regularly or if they were just clowning for the cast that day, but the crowd went nuts."

 

I was at the closing of Drood at Studio 54 and I don't remember that ending, but I could be mistaken, as my clearer memories are of the Facebook/Durdles night, the night the Westminster Kennel Club winner was the dog Stephanie carried off when Drood storms off, and the night I got to stand on stage with Chita Rive and Will Chase as part of the opening number.

I saw BHT's recent production a number of times and the funniest lovers were Durdles and Helena.  I missed the night it was Puffer and Deputy.

 

The instructions to mix up the selection order is included as a note in the licensed script as it is a really good safeguard against the same murderer being picked twice in a row. (the Theory goes the most likely person to be voted for is the 3rd, 4th, or 5th suspect in the line up)

When I did Drood, and this was WAY back in the day, I remember there was one evening when Jasper was voted the murderer and on this particular occasion we very quietly awarded the prize to the second-place winner as to not cheat the audience of the full show. We ran for six weeks, and Rosa, who is one of the most frequent choices for murderer, was only voted for once. The run was split pretty evening between Puffer, Neville and Helena, with I think two performances where it was Durdles and at least two or three where it was the Reverend. I don't think Bazzard was ever the murder but he was almost always Datchery, as is standard. 

When I saw the show on Broadway during previews, I got Durdles as the murderer which was apparently a first for this production.