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August 11, 2021:

Murder on Mute reviewed by Rob Stevens

Murder on Mute, a comedy in one act, is streaming at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Chauncey Ledbetter III, Esq. (Jonez Jones) is the executor of the estate of the late Clementine Bailey. He has called a Zoom meeting of her survivors to determine who will take possession of her treasured cat, Dickie Verbich (U.V.). Her bitter, inebriated sister Lydia (Anna Hinsley) is her only blood relative. Self-published mystery writer R.J. (Meitav Marom) is her ex-husband while Mac (David Ohlsen-Esparza) is her scamming tenant. Nestor (Flavio Cangemi) is the celebrity chef with one client in seven years who finds out his meals were actually for Dickie. Nestor (Jesse Merrill) was Dickie’s groomer and Clementine’s boy toy, conducting most of his grooming calls at 3 a.m. Student and neighbor Nora (Andrea Ohlsen-Esparza) is used to sitting with Dickie and knows all his medicines. No one except Nora wants Dickie until they find he comes with $23 million. Then mayhem and murder run rampant as one by one the Zoom screens go mute.

It sounded interesting; sort of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians on an internet call. Instead, it mostly resembles a boring business meeting on Zoom that you think will never end as you keep glancing at your watch off camera. Marom, Cangemi and Hinsley are listed as the writers with Cangemi also directing. The two most interesting characters, the chef and the groomer, are the least developed. Instead, we are left with the cliches of a drunk sister, a money-grubbing ex, a shifty tenant and the sweet as pie student. It comes off as amateur hour in front of your laptop. There is not much mystery or suspense and U.V. probably gives the most natural, and best, performance.

https://www.hollywoodfringe.org/projects/7169

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