Get ready for a fun-filled murder mystery musical whodunit

Fans of musical theater will be happy to know that the young thespians of the Shelter Island School Drama Club are back this weekend with another ambitious production to brighten the spirit.

This time it’s “Curtains,” a musical with book by Rupert Holmes (of “Piña Colada” song fame), lyrics by Fred Ebb and music by John Kander. The play ran on Broadway in 2006 and director John Kaasik notes that it has much of the same energy and antics that audiences loved in last year’s production of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” but with a few dramatic differences.

“Curtains” revolves around a 1950s theater company attempting to put on a western-style cowboy show inspired by the tales of Robin Hood.

“But it’s not very good, and people keep getting murdered while its going on,” Mr. Kaasik explained in a recent interview.

Enter Lieutenant Frank Cioffi (played by Danny Boeklen), a detective who missed his true vocation — theater. Though he comes to solve the crimes, he can’t help himself from taking over the direction of the play.

“It’s a very rich character,” Mr. Kaasik said. “Danny is doing a great job.”

As Cioffi proceeds with his investigation, he also can’t keep himself from falling in love with the company’s ingénue, Niki Harris (played by Olivia Yeaman), adding to the complications of his job.

Mr. Kaasik notes that one of the big similarities between this year’s musical and last year’s is that both feature a show-within-a-show. While “The Drowsy Chaperone” had plenty of farcical action, it lacked the murderous streak of “Curtains.”

“The murders that are happening are done in a light, comical way, and it gives the play a plotline people can hang onto and follow,” Mr. Kaasik said. “I’ve seen comedy thrillers, and I’ve written one. A musical comedy thriller is a little more rare — there’s not too many of these.

“You’ll recognize the quirky style and see my fingerprints on it.”

Mr. Kaasik appreciates the melodic numbers in this play, and the fact that it has a lot of characters — including 12 supporting roles, which is useful when there are 37 kids on stage and another 15 or so helping out behind the scenes.

Mr. Kaasik admits he’s relying on a lot of younger cast members this time around — particularly the 8th grade boys, who he says are doing a lot of the heavy lifting with their dancing skills.

“They are learning fast. It took just three months to whip these guys into shape,” Mr. Kaasik said. “I think the kids are having more fun than ever. These boys could be my very near future stars. They’ve grown by quantum leaps this year, next year they’ll be ready to go.”

For senior Sophia Strauss, this will be her final musical production on the Shelter Island stage. Like “The Drowsy Chaperone,” this is another play she had never heard of prior to auditioning for it. But given how much she came to love that play, she had no such reservations about “Curtains” when Mr. Kaasik selected it this year.

“I was like, all right, I’ll give it a shot. The second you find out the name of the play you go on YouTube and see that other schools are doing it,” Sophia said in a recent interview at the Reporter.

At first, Sophia was hoping to play Niki, the ingénue, but in the end, she was happy to land the role of Georgia Hendricks. Her a character is half of a songwriting team with her ex-husband, Aaron Fox, who clearly still has strong feelings for her.

“But she has a love interest, Bobby (Taylor McNemar), who she’s dating to make Aaron jealous,” Sophia explained.

Aaron is portrayed by fellow senior Will Garrison. In real life, he and Sophia are good friends. She has found that their off-stage friendship has made it fun to play the songwriting duo on-stage.

“Will and I fight all the time, so I love that we get to fight in the play and go at each other,” she said.

When asked if their friendship makes it awkward to play a romantically linked couple in “Curtains,” Sophia responds: “It almost makes it easier. Will and I are both mature adults. It was awkward in the beginning, standing so close. But then we asked Mr. Kaasik if we could do a stage kiss.

“We’re such good friends, this isn’t crossing any boundaries, we thought let’s just joke around and have fun,” she said, adding that the kiss didn’t work out because of technical issues with the mics.

For Will, who was revealed to be a terrific dancer in “The Drowsy Chaperone,” playing Aaron (and a host of other characters in this play) is a matter of balance, both on stage and off.

Will also plays sports, and in recent weeks his schedule has been filled by baseball practice, play rehearsal and let’s not forget homework.

But he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I play a composer and songwriter, and basically I have gotten so entrenched in my music I have forgotten how important Georgia is to me,” Will said in a phone interview. “When I realize she’s moved on, I finally understand how important she was to me.

“That’s when you see a whole different side of my character,” he said.

In last year’s production of “The Drowsy Chaperone,” Will wowed audiences with his high flying dance moves. This time around, he describes his character as a forlorn songwriter moping about lost love.

For that reason, he’s glad to also have some secondary roles in the ensemble where he gets to take part in upbeat western-themed song and dance numbers.

“I have a lot of fun with it,” he said. “Last year, I had huge dancing scenes. This year it’s more ensemble dancing with a few small solo pieces. At the same time, I get to be really creative with the small parts. I try to make those more memorable. I like that more than having just one big scene.”

Over the years, Will has learned a lot about theater. He first appeared in the school’s production of “Oklahoma!” as a 7th grader and is finding it hard to believe this will be his last musical at Shelter Island.

“It is unbelievable I’m a senior,” he said. “I never thought I would have to stop doing this.”

He points to Mr. Kaasik as being a true inspiration, especially when it comes to pulling off some spectacular effects and creative stagecraft in a relatively small space.

“Mr. Kaasik is incredible,” Will said. “The things we do on a very small stage with what we have seems like it wouldn’t be possible. From giant planes, to cars, to the helicopter scene from ‘Miss Saigon’. He’s a genius to figure out how to do these things

“If he thinks it will work, he wants to try it. He doesn’t shut things down because it seems too hard,” Will said.

“He listens to what we say and says, ‘We can try that! Let’s see!’”

The Shelter Island School Drama Club’s production of “Curtains” will be performed Thursday, March 30 at 7 p.m., Friday, March 31 at 8 p.m., Saturday, April 1 at 8 p.m., and Sunday, April 2 at 3 p.m. in the Shelter Island School’s auditorium. For details, call the school at (631) 749-0302.