"Showdown at the Kara-OK-e Corral" by The Mystery Cafe at Majestic Oaks Golf Club

The good news is that The Mystery Cafe is back with another new original comedy mystery theater immersive dinner experience! The bad news is that after 37 years, this is the final season of The Mystery Cafe. If you've attended one of their shows before, you know that they hold a unique space in #TCTheater. Unlike traditional theater, where the audience sits in the dark and watches a story happening on a stage, the story, and storytelling, is all around you. There's no separation between audience and cast, we're all experiencing it together in an informal, fun, and playful way. If you've not had this experience before, you might want to get out to Majestic Oaks Golf Club in Ham Lake for Showdown at the Kara-OK-e Corral, playing on select dates through February 15. Or to the Sheraton Bloomington to see a remount of recent hits A Cruise-mas Carol and 'Til Death Do I Die, playing in rep with this show and featuring much of the same cast. It's your last chance to solve a mystery!

"Alma Murder" by The Mystery Cafe at Sheraton Bloomington

I went to my first high school reunion last weekend. No, not my actual high school reunion (I was a nerd with few friends, no need to revisit that), but something much better - an immersive comedy murder-mystery dinner-theater reunion! At Alma Murder (now playing in the downstairs ballroom at Sheraton Bloomington), you're greeted by the principal and secretary of Mellencamp High School as if they know you. You're asked to fill out a nametag with your name and graduation year (class of '92 here) for this all-class reunion on the eve of the destruction of our beloved Mellencamp. The jock and cheerleader/class president/party planner drop by your table to say hi and reminisce. And like all reunions (I assume, never having attended one before), you also get served a delicious three-course meal, have a few drinks with friends old and new, and solve a murder! As with all shows by The Mystery Cafe, it's a fun experiential evening of theater with no separation between audience and performers, rather we're all part of this fun and wacky reunion. Alma Murder continues through January 31 in the South Metro, with their other show, the immersive wedding show 'Til Death Do Us Die (which I saw last year) opening this weekend and playing through February 8. Click here for info and tickets for both shows (dinner included in the ticket price).

"I'll be Homicidal for Christmas" by The Mystery Cafe at Sheraton Bloomington

This holiday* season brings us not one but two mystery dinner theater experiences with The Mystery Cafe. The troupe has been around for over 35 years, but I only just "discovered" them last year. As their performance season is just a few months around the holidays, I had to wait a year before seeing them again. But the good news is they have four shows this season at two locations: two holiday shows currently playing, and two more coming up in January. It's a fun immersive experience that goes beyond traditional theater, obliterating the separation between audience and performers, with broad campy comedy (and too many bad puns to count) performed by some of the best comedy/improv folks in town. A few weeks ago I saw their new show A Cruise-mas Carol at Majestic Oaks Golf Club in Ham Lake on the north side of town, and last night I drove across the city to their new south metro location, the Sheraton Bloomington, for the returning show I'll Be Homicidal for Christmas. Set during a taping of a Christmas TV special in the '70s, things go off the rail when someone(s) end up dead. There are just a couple more performances of the Christmas shows left before they start their new shows in January, and they've got a 25% discount for the Sheraton shows running through December 28. It's a fun group outing that's maybe a little less intimidating than theater can sometimes be for the uninitiated.

"A Cruise-mas Carol" by The Mystery Cafe at Majestic Oaks Golf Club

Even though they've been around for 35 years, this is only my second year attending the immersive mystery dinner-and-a-show experience that is The Mystery Cafe. While much different than the type of theater I (and probably you) usually attend (no sitting in the dark passively observing, no separation between audience and performers, no fourth wall at all), it's still theatrical storytelling, and there are some familiar faces from the local theater/comedy/improv world. But it's less about the plot or the mystery, and more about the fun, food, and immersive experience. Last night I attended their new show A Cruise-mas Carol at Majestic Oaks Golf Club in Ham Lake on the north side of town, which runs through January 4, followed by the wedding-themed 'Til Death Do Us Die, which I saw last year. They've also got two shows playing at the Sheraton Bloomington, with a special Black Friday deal for 50% off tickets good though Monday. Check out one (or more) of these shows for a fun, accessible, and unique theater outing.

"Some Assembly Required" by Theater Latte Da at the Lab Theater

In the second production of Theater Latte Da's series NEXT: New Musicals in the Making, there is Some Assembly Required. That assembly is done in front of the audience's eyes and with their help by comedy/music/theater/improv experts Jill Bernard, Madde Gibba (who, sadly, did not perform the night I saw the show due to weather-related travel difficulties), Brian Kelly, Doug Neithercott, and Michael Ritchie, with improvised musical accompaniment by Todd Price. The result is a fun, silly, and surprisingly cohesive one-of-a-kind musical.

The show begins with a text solicited from someone in the audience. For the show I saw, this text was "do you know anyone who could sell us a used pontoon?" (only in Minnesota, right?). The cast then ran with the theme of "used pontoon," which is actually a pretty cool title of a musical. I can just see the marquee: Used Pontoon: The Musical (the ubiquitous tag added so that people don't think it's a watercraft sale). Three of the performers made up a song on the spot, ranging from sad ("I feel as useless as a used pontoon," my personal favorite)  to spirited (building an army and overthrowing a dictator on a used pontoon). The audience voted and chose the latter as the basis of the musical. And so the show begins.

The cast created scenes and characters and slowly built a plot that mostly made sense, sort of. The Russian generalissimo living in a castle tower is planning to conquer the small village lying at the foot of the tower, as a present for his wife. The scrappy townspeople gather together to find the generalissimo's weakness and stop him from destroying their little town. There are secrets, betrayals, acts of bravery, a recurring theme of earthworms, a love story, and a really awkward Dallas Buyers Club reference. All of it made up on the spot, although the cast did have time to converse and plan for Act II during the short intermission. It's really remarkable to watch them create something brand new and entertaining right before your eyes. But remember, these are professionals, don't try this at home!

One final performance of this music-theater experiment remains, which will differ slightly from the two previous performances in that they will take the best bits from each and put them together in a somewhat planned, although still improvised, musical. If you're free tonight - check it out for a one-of-a-kind music-theater experience.