Murder In The Express Line

How many characters is James Odom playing in "Murder for Two" at TheatreSquared?

"Let me double check, I have to count," Odom says, mumbling the characters' names in order: "Dahlia, Barrette, Dr. Griff, Steph..." until he gets to a total of 10.

It gives the musical mystery comedy more depth than the description as a two-man show might suggest and plays on TheatreSquared's speciality of selecting actors who can rise to the occasion of becoming a different character for nearly every scene.

In "Murder for Two," small town police officer Marcus aspires to the post of detective and realizes his chance when great American novelist Arthur Whitney winds up dead in his home. Odom plays the revolving door of suspects that the budding detective interviews, and the two work in tandem, alternately acting and performing musical numbers by voice and piano.

"It wasn't an easy show to cast," says Morgan Hicks, TheatreSquared education director, who is directing the show. "You have to find actors who play and sing really, really well; to find very strong competent musicians; and two guys who work together with great energy, chemistry and can tell a story."

But Hicks seemed to hit the nail on the head with Odom and Brian Walters, who plays Marcus.

"It's one of those shows that features what I can do as an actor, with developing characters, while using all the other tools in my toolbox," Walters says. To "sing, play piano, do comedy that I haven't used in a while. It's definitely the most challenging thing I've ever done."

Walters studied musical theater at Pace University in New York and has done his fair share of it since, most recently in a national tour of "Titanic" the musical, "Who's Tommy" and other concert tours and tribute shows.

Odom earned his MFA in acting at the University of Arkansas and has appeared in productions at the Portland Repertory Theatre in New York and the Gainesville Theatre Alliance in Georgia. He's played in other TheatreSquared shows that required him to be multiple characters, such as "One Man, Two Guvnors" and "Amadeus" -- but nothing like this.

"Murder for Two" "is a unique experience," Odom says, mainly because the two characters carry the weight of the show with little room to take a break or change a costume. "I'll be playing one character and by the time the dialogue comes back to me [I'm someone else.] You don't have the luxury of having five other people on stage who take up time."

It's fast paced and difficult at times for even the two actors to keep up. During rehearsals, Odom's been known to call out to the stage manager "Who am I?" for a quick reminder before getting back into the script.

"It's hard to remember who's who and where are we going now," Walters says. "It's like playing tennis with 12 different people. It requires a marathon of different skills and different ways to bring them" to play.

That unpredictability is part of its charm, the actors agree, making it equal parts vaudeville, musical theater, drama, mystery and comedy. Little costume items, such as glasses, a scarf of hat, will further reinforce the changes that Odom makes from character to character for the many suspects -- such as signature gestures, tone and register of voice, height, gait and facial expressions.

Odom "is able to make really strong bold choices [about these characters] that are still believable," Hicks says. "His characters go from 9 years old to 60, as a kid in a boys' choir, psychiatrist to a firefighter. He definitely does different walks of life."

And the songs help anchor the storyline, piecing it all together.

The play is for anyone who loves reading Agatha Christie or gravitates toward film noir, the company agrees.

"It's a tribute to all the different types of murder mystery novels and movies that we're all familiar with," Walters says. In Murder for Two "there are funny moments while there's a dead body on the floor. It's Agatha Christie meets Scooby Doo."

Cast and crew predict audiences will love the playfulness of the script, the relationship of the two actors and the thrill of the conceit. You'll want to figure out the mystery, each say, but you won't be able to. It might be ideal for the here and now.

"When you have a murder mystery and so many things you can play with, people have fun and get to laugh," Odom says. "People want to feel good and not think about the crazy things happening politically at home and on a national level.

"I think they'll enjoy it and want to see more of that."

NAN What's Up on 05/13/2016