"The Butler Did It" at Park Square Theatre

The Park Square Theatre summer mystery is back, and it's a good one! Summery mystery plays have been a tradition at Park Square for decades, with a few years off for various reasons. This year they're premiering a brand new mystery play by prolific local playwright and screenwriter Jeffrey Hatcher, an expert at the form. The title of the play - The Butler Did It - tells us that this play is not a whodunnit, but rather a "howcatchem," in which the fun is not in trying to solve the mystery, but rather in watching a smart detective figure out what we already know. In a note in the program, Jeffrey Hatcher explains that he had the idea for this story when writing for the 1990s reboot of the 1970s Peter Falk howcatchem TV series Colombo. He never got to write that episode, so now we get to enjoy it on the Park Square stage. This production is practically perfect in every way - direction, casting, acting, design, execution - and it's very funny, entertaining, engrossing, and still with some surprises in the details even if we do already know whodunnit. See it at Park Square Theatre in lovely downtown St. Paul now through August 16.

While the title does tell us that the butler did it, it doesn't tell us which butler. The play takes place at a school for butlers, so there are five butlers in this story. An experienced butler named Portman (Steve Hendrickson, a veteran of Park Square's summer mystery series) runs this "school for gentlemen's gentlemen" in a mansion in San Francisco, and runs a tight ship. Merriman (Pearce Bunting) is his right-hand-man, with a mysterious past. The students include Nicholas Lane (Peter Christian Hansen), who is about to graduate from this six-week course with flying colors, Emma (Anna Beth Baker), who saved her money through years of work in the service industry to take this course and find a better life, and Tony (Neal Beckman), the newest and greenest of the group. One of these butlers plots to murder another one of these butlers, with the perfect coverup (so they think). They would have gotten away with it, if not for Inspector Denise (Allison Vicent), who, like any great whocatchem detective, appears naive and inexperienced, but really has the murderer's number from the get-go, all she needs to assemble the evidence. Which she eventually does, with some help from a mysterious English woman (Norah Long) who shows up in the second act. Watching all of the pieces fall into place through the satisfying ending is a delight.

the cast of The Butler Did It (photo by Dan Norman)

David Ira Goldstein has directed several of Park Square's summer mysteries, and applies his expert hand to this play as well. The pacing and tone are just perfection, the right balance between humor and suspense, never a dull moment as the scenes progress, scene transitions accomplished smoothly to a great selection of music. The show is perfectly cast, in fact one wonders if Jeffrey Hatcher wrote some of these roles specifically for these actors. Particularly in the case of Allision Vincent, a #TCTheater favorite from many stages around town making her Park Square debut here. She is so funny as our hero detective Inspector Denise (her last name), so charming, so believable, so easy to root for as Denise works her first cast. Allison perfectly plays that Colombo thing where she acts as if she doesn't know what's going on, but you can tell that she knows exactly what's what. As one of the founders of Transatlantic Love Affair, Allison is an experienced physical theater actor, and although this role doesn't call for that, she still brings that physicality into the performance, with interesting and surprising and hilarious choices. The entire ensemble works together so well, and they each bring their character to life in unique ways, even those who don't have much stage time (because murder).

The entire play takes place in the mansion's library, which is painstakingly created on Park Square's stage. And did I mention it's 1975? Because why not, the '70s were fun. Every element of the design is perfection, and combine to create this specific place and time, with special effects that support the mystery. Bookshelves line the walls, dark woodwork and elegant transom windows give the room a stately air. On one side, a fireplace that glows when lit (a plot point), with a large painting above it concealing a safe (another plot point), on the other side, French doors that lead out to a garden. We hear sounds coming specifically from the garden, or the radio in the corner, and the lights brighten or dim as called for by the plot. The butlers wear identical butler uniforms which are classy and neat, if a bit boring. But when they change into their "street clothes" we get lots of fun '70s fashions, including Emma's red platform shoes, and Merriman's fab checkered suit. (Scenic design by Benjamin Olsen, lighting design by Karin Olson, sound design by Frederick Kennedy, costume design by Mathew LeFebvre.)

The Butler Did It is everything you want in a summer escapist mystery. The story is well-plotted, with Jeffrey Hatcher's signature wit, and the director and cast make the most of it, with incredibly detailed, thoughtful, and effective design. Take a break from the heat and poor air quality of summer, and enjoy watching a bad guy, who thinks he's so smart, get outwitted by a charming detective, who is smarter than she seems.