Disco fans may want to “hustle” and get their tickets to the Wagon Wheel Community Theatre’s production of “The Last Dance of Dr. Disco” before being “bumped” out of the opportunity to see the audience participation murder mystery.
Set in the 1970s, Todd Lucas, who plays Dylan Wanker in the show, said, “So, definitely disco theming is kind of what we’re leaning heavily on, of course. It’s heavily integrated into the show, and also ... because it’s an audience participation murder mystery - we’re hoping that a lot of people will come dressed, they’re encouraged to come dressed in their ’70s best.”

    Todd Lucas
  

Show dates are April 24-26, with doors open at 6 p.m. and show starting at 7 p.m. All tickets, which are still available, are $21, including fees, and can be purchased online at wagonwheelcenter.org, by phone at 574-267-8041 or at the box office.
“This is a fun, silly show, so there will be some characters with some sillier names or whatever,” Lucas said.
Wanker is one of the characters who show up at the disco when “everything happens,” he said, careful not to reveal too much because it is a murder mystery.
Melissa Jordan plays Dawn, an ensemble member in the show.
“The premise of the show is, it’s a disco contest at a disco club, and there might be a murder. You’ll have to come to find out,” she said.
Lucas said, “So there are a lot of people in this disco club, from audience members in the club, so there are people on stage, part of the show, who are in the audience at this disco club, and then there are others who are a little more active participants. There are dancers who are here to compete in this dance competition at the disco, as well.”
Jordan clarified that the show isn’t a musical, but there is a lot of music in it.
“We do have quite a bit of choreography,” she said. “Our choreographer is Ian Connor. He is teaching for the Conservatory, and he also was in ‘Miracle on 34th Street.’”

    Melissa Jordan
 Melissa Jordan   

Lucas said, “There are dancers, who are competing in the contest, who have choreographed dance moves to show off, and then there are also some what I’ll just call dance sequences - there are some places where dancing happens, which is interesting because for the Community Theatre group, this is new to us to do something like this.”
Jordan said they not only have to think about their lines of dialogue, but also timing in the music.
“It’s just been a challenging marriage of theater experiences,” she said.
Lucas said it’s given the Community Theatre actors a lot of appreciation for what the cast of the summer season’s shows deal with for the full-blown musicals as they have dialogue, singing and dancing.
“We’re just doing dialogue and dancing, and that’s been a challenge, but it’s interesting how everybody’s risen to that challenge,” he said.
People will recognize the music in “The Last Dance of Dr. Disco” as it includes 1970s disco hits.
“Even if there’s a song that they don’t recognize, they’ll probably recognize the artist,” Lucas stated.
The show will have more music in it than the Community Theatre has probably had previously in a production, he suggested.
Jordan explained the audience participation aspect of the show.
“That all happens during intermission. It’s an hour-long intermission. They’re going to be given a packet of clues, and they will go on a clue hunt around the theater. Once they find all of their clues, they’ll figure out the puzzle, and then they’ll have a solution sheet where they’ll have to basically say who the killer is. They’ll turn that in. All of the winners will be put into a pile. There will be one top prize winner, drawn at random, from the people who answered it correctly,” she said.
Lucas said the audience will be encouraged to mingle with the actors, in character, during the intermission to ask questions.
As far as difficulty in solving the murder mystery, Jordan estimated a 5 or 6 on a scale of 1 to 10.
“We want people to have fun and enjoy themselves, and have success in solving it,” Lucas said.
“It’s a really fun opportunity for groups of friends and families, co-workers. It’s kind of a bonding experience to do the clue hunt together and figure this out,” Jordan said.
“The Last Dance of Dr. Disco” also is a fundraiser for the Community Theatre.
Previous murder mysteries were one night, but they proved to be so popular that they went to two nights and now are three nights, Lucas said.
Jordan said Community Theatre is a “really great opportunity for Wagon Wheel Junior kids who have graduated. We have three current seniors, who have aged out of the Junior program, and they’ve been in Wagon Wheel Junior shows who got cast in the murder mystery with us, so that’s really fun to have them involved and for them to know they have future opportunities here.”
Lucas, who is in his ninth Community Theatre show, touted the Community Theatre as a great opportunity for adults in the community to have a creative outlet.
“It seems like about every time we do a show, we get new people who come out for auditions and new people who end up in shows. So there’s some faces in this show that have not been in our Community Theatre shows before. That’s exciting, too,” he said.
Jordan, who has been a part of about 15 Community Theatre shows, said the Community Theatre has formed a great community within itself, too, with everyone growing really close. Community Theatre celebrated its 10th year last fall.
Thomas Squires is directing “The Last Dance of Dr. Disco.” Jordan said he played Cogsworth in “Disney’s Beauty & The Beast” and works at the Murder Mystery Company in Chicago, so Squires is very experienced and skilled at doing murder mysteries.
The playwright of the murder mystery, Eileen Slattery Moushey, died Nov. 17, 2024. Every murder mystery that the Community Theatre program has performed was written by her.
She was very active in all phases of the theater at Weathervane Playhouse in Akron, Ohio, according to her obituary. She was very active in all phases of the theater at Weathervane including acting, building and painting sets, designing props, lighting and sound effects and directing. She won several awards in all categories over the years and also wrote five stage plays based on well-known fairy tales.
She discovered audience participation murder mysteries as they were being introduced to Northeast Ohio. She formed a company and wrote, directed and produced over 30 mysteries, many debuting at the Akron Civic Theatre. Her Mysteries by Moushey are performed today across the country and internationally.
Lucas concluded Friday’s interview by encouraging people to come out on one of the three nights of the show and bring their friends.
“Come and just expect to have a fun night,” he stated.