Question about the voting in Drood

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 1:28am

A friend and I were talking about the possibility of a revival or Encores production of Drood a few weeks ago when she brought up the voting. I could've sworn that the production she and I saw just used applause to determine the murderer and Datchery, but she seems to think cast members actually counted our votes by having us raise hands. Therefore, she said she thought it would be tough to do it in a theater as large as City Center. So, I was wondering how they voted in the original production, or how different productions some of you have seen conducted the voting.

Updated On: 6/1/10 at 01:28 AM

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 2:22am

In a (very good) regional production I saw about a year ago in an intimate, easily accessible house, chorus members went to each section and actually tallied individual votes, I believe, for the murderer by raised hands. Datchery and the lovers at the end may have been done with applause. But with a house that the cast can easily get around (which is really the kind of theatre the show needs anyway) individual votes can be counted by the raising of hands fairly easily.

[roseaddams]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 4:13am

In the original production the votes were only tallied by hand for the murderer. Datchery and the lovers were determined by applause.

I saw a totally rigged production of Drood a year or so ago at a local high school where the murderer votes were tallied by hand by chorus members who didn't actually make any marks on their papers and then never did anything with said papers. Datchery was picked by applause and then the stage manager character went up to a random audience member and told her to pick two lovers. It was a little awkward.

[givesmevoice]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 10:41am

That's probably why we remembered two different things, since now I do remember raising our hands to vote for the murderer and picking Datchery and the lovers by applause.

Isn't it fairly common for amateur and smaller theater companies to rig the show? Although they could've been a little less obvious about it.

[roseaddams]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 2:28pm

I wasn't surprised they had rigged it -- it was a friend of mine in a high school production and I doubt they had the time to rehearse all the endings. But it was kinda painfully obvious. =/

[theatremom4]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 4:23pm

BWfan7000, where did you see Drood? I also saw a wonderful regional production last year where they tallied the votes that way.

[Jon]

Posted: 6/1/10 at 7:24pm

You have to tally the murdered votes by having the ensemble count hands in the different sections of the audience - that way it will be a surprise when the murdererer is named.

I have heard of theatres rigging the Datchery and lover applause votes by piping in recorded applause.