October 3 Vallejo/Vacaville Arts and Entertainment Source: Every cast member a suspect in new Gaslighters comedic whodunit

It’s “awards season” for the Gaslighters Theatrical Company, and it may be a scream this weekend but most likely will be … gulp! … a murder.

The Vacaville troupe’s tradition of murder-mysteries makes its return as they “host” the annual Tonylou Awards beginning Friday at the Saturday Club.

No suprise, but with laughs included, the awards show turns into “Murder at the Tonylou Awards,” a good hour of murder, mystery, and, of course, whodunit comedy, director and actress Kerry Brown said during a brief telephone interview Monday just before another round of rehearsals began.

“All the characters are very big and over the top, in a melodramatic way,” she said, adding, “There’s a lot of tongue in cheek. Each character is very unique.”

Written by Tony Schwartz and Marylou Ambrose, the 90-minute play, which the Gaslighters performed 11 years ago, has all the trappings of Tony Awards or Hollywood-style awards shows, added the show’s producer, Mary Cornelison Muehlenbruch.

In relative short order, the plot engages amateur sleuths and murder-mystery fans alike to “solve” the untimely murder of one in a cast of characters. The show is audience-interactive and theatergoers will have a chance to question the suspects, then cast votes, toward show’s end, on who they believe committed the capital crime.

Some of the show’s comedic and spoof appeal rests with the characters’ names, and some of the actors are longtime Gaslighters players known for their annual Fiesta Days melodramas.

The show begins as celebrity gossip columnist Conrad Gabbles (Dave VanDegrift) greets each celebrity as they arrive for the festivities. He then turns the ceremony over to the evening’s host, T.J. Hardcastle (Bryan Pro), the heir of the famous entertainment Hardcastle family.

Other stars and celebrities attending the festivities include M.J. Hardcastle (Kerry Brown), T.J.’s jealous sister; Cecilia B. DeMilo (Barbara McFadden), the famous movie producer who is accompanied by her latest star-in-the-making, Lucy Lee Freebush (Isabella Sanchez ), who wants to be a movie star.

Monty Carlo (Oz Angst) is the Latin superstar popular in his own country now trying to break into the American market but whose English proficiency — or lack thereof — makes him difficult to understand; Funky Brewster (Alexis Velasquez) is the now-grown-up yet still totally adorable star of “Annie” who is set to star in a new musical, “Annie Takes Over the Orphanage.”

Then there’s Angelina Canoli (Lizeth Flores), T.J. Hardcastle’s wife who seems to “win” an award every year; and Lorna Lush (Cathy Knowles), a has-been stage star of years past who tipples a bit too much and is planning on writing a tell-all book featuring all of the celebrities attending the awards show. Leslie Jensen serves as mistress of ceremonies.

Brown, by day an area manager for the Sutter Medical Foundation and whose theater resume of directing and producing stretches back 40 years, said that “oftentimes” there seems to be one character “who everyone wants murdered.”

All the celebrities have secrets to keep hidden, said Cornelison Muehlenbruch, and Brown declined to reveal one or two short of a spoiler alert.

Cornelison Muehlenbruch said it is important for audience members to “keep their eyes and ears open to gather the clues necessary to solve the murder.”

IF YOU GO

• What: Gaslighters Theatrical Company’s “Murder at the Tonylou Awards”
• When: 7:30 p.m. Friday; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday; and 2 p.m. Sunday
• Where: Saturday Club, 125 W. Kendal St., Vacaville
• Tickets: Buy at www.gaslighterstheatrical.com — $22 for non-dinner shows; $45 for Saturday night’s catered dinner show.