A Meal to Die

The Morgan House hosts live murder mystery dinner theater

TTAKING A PAGE out of a history book – the 1950s, to be exact – The Morgan House, in coordination with the Murder Mystery Company, is presenting its third season of murder mystery dinner theater.

“Death at the Doo-Wop” takes place at the restaurant every Friday and Saturday through Sept. 1.

Chris Meadows, executive chef at Morgan House, handles the food for the performance. He prepares three different entrees that guests can choose from: chicken divan, cheese-filled manicotti or a stuffed pepper.

“The chicken divan is a sautéed chicken and it’s been topped in hollandaise and steamed broccoli,” he says. “The cheese-filled manicotti uses ricotta cheese and a flat pasta. We do a meat sauce with olive oil and marinara. The sauce has fresh mushrooms, onions and ground beef. The stuffed pepper is a red pepper that we roast first and it is stuffed with a vegetable rice pilaf.”

Guests are treated to an orangestrawberry salad at the beginning of the show and dessert toward the end.

“We try to have the salads served before the first act begins,” Meadows says. “It’s a spring mix with celery, purple onions, mandarin oranges, fresh strawberry slices and poppy seed dressing. For dessert, we serve a brownie and ice cream.”

The chefs have to be on top of their game each night of the dinner theater, Meadows says.

“This is just another facet of being a chef,” he says. “We’re serving a large group and our timing has to be impeccable. If we’re a little bit off, then the whole night is shot, but we know what we are doing. We’ve got our act together. We can serve the entrees to the entire audience of 100 in about 15 minutes.”

Dispersing the courses can be complicated due to the unpredictable nature of the show.

“We try to correlate with the show, but it’s an improv show, so they can be on time, behind or ahead on any given night, depending on the audience,” Meadows says.

Vera Cremeans, director of the Ohio branch of the Murder Mystery Company, says this show sets itself apart from any other form of entertainment.

“The audience can expect to be completely immersed in the show instead of just watching it,” she says. “They could be playing a character themselves and they won’t know it until they get there. Our shows completely hinge upon the audience actually acting. The audience will have props, clues, secrets and goals. They become full, rounded characters.”

Guests are encouraged to dress as if they were attending a 1950s doo-wop prom.

“You dress up, socialize, sit at a table with your friends and play an interactive, live game of Clue,” Cremeans says. “The show unfolds right in front of your eyes.”

Tickets are $60 and guests should arrive 30 minutes early to be seated.

For more information, call the Murder Mystery Company at 888-643-2583 or The Morgan House at 614-889-5703 or visit www.morganhse.com.

Stephan Reed is a contributing writ er. Feedback welcome at laurand@ pubgroupltd.com.

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