“Murder on the Orient Express” is a crowd pleaser at Indy’s Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre.

“Murder on the Orient Express” is a crowd pleaser at Indy’s Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre.

By: Kevin Vickery 

In full disclosure, I must admit that prior to last week,  I had never read Agatha Christie’s classic, “Murder on the Orient Express” from 1934, nor had I seen any of the movie versions from 1974, 2001 or 2017.

I should also admit that I had never attended a show at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre in Indianapolis despite the fact that they’ve been open for business nearly my entire life.  I decided that the January 6 – February 6 running of the stage play adapted by Ken Ludwig would be the perfect opportunity to remedy both of those situations.

Even though I know I should have started by reading Christie’s original novel, I didn’t make the time.

I instead began by watching the 2017 version of the film which star studded cast includes; Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfeiffer, William DaFoe, Penelope Cruz, and Director, Kenneth Branagh who also stars in in the lead role of Hercule Poirot, a world renowned detective.

All versions of the story feature Poirot traveling on the luxury train home to London from the Middle East before a heavy snow stops the train in the European mountains.  While they await assistance, a murder occurs and Poirot is then enlisted to solve the case.  I won’t spoil the ending to this classic “whodunit” in case you haven’t seen it and might want to watch it for yourself.  I did enjoy the film version and would recommend it if you’ve not seen it.

I watched the movie the same day that I went to see the stage production thinking it would help me better understand the live show.  In some ways that was true but in others, not so much. There are more principle characters in the film so the stage adaptation combines some of the traits of those characters into a fewer amount of rolls.  To be fair, maybe the stage adaptation follows the original novel more and it’s the film that expanded the characters.  I would know that if I had just made the time to read that pesky book.

Either way, despite their differences, the stage show was still very entertaining and I enjoyed the production very much.  The cast includes many Beef & Boards veterans like Andrew Kindig, Eddie Curry, Suzanne Stark, and Devan Mathias as well as Bailey Blaise making her debut performance at the dinner theater.

I particularly enjoyed the way that Ludwig’s stage adaptation, directed by, Mark Robin used comedy throughout the character’s interaction. The crowd laughed along at times to a plot line that was still serious, even sad, and generally intriguing throughout the sold-out play.

I found the entire Beef & Boards Dinner Theater experience to be both delicious and entertaining.  The in-the-round and tiered level seating means there’s not a bad seat in the house. They obviously have a good budget for set design as the several different locations represented on the train were very believable and the stage’s ability to move forward and retract added to their ability to create different looks throughout the performance.

The theater, located at 9301 Michigan Road in Indianapolis is now in its 52nd season and  has a diverse line up in 2025 including: The Jersey Boys, The Little Mermaid, Waitress, Heartbreak Hotel and Tootsie among others.

I had the chance to speak with show-goers, Claire Rauck and Evan Russell from Carmel who are well seasoned veterans of attending shows at Beef & Boards. Evan who grew up attending every show each season with his parents said, “I’ve seen the movie at least five times and have been looking forward to seeing the stage play enough to miss football tonight.” He admitted that comparing the movie to the stage production was unfair given the level of production budget for a movie adding, “ If you like the story, you’ll enjoy the show.”

Claire added, “The staging is really cool and the actors have all done a very good job with the characters.” And that she, “Enjoyed seeing actors that they’d seen in previous productions, playing different rolls.”

Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre will continue running “Murder on the Orient Express” through February 9th with tickets still available for some shows.  Maybe by then I’ll finally crack the cover on the book.

For more information about upcoming events at Beef & Boards Dinner Theatre visit their website at beefandboards.com