Published in the Asbury Park Press 10/10/03

Being among the oldest, most history-drenched precincts along the Jersey Shore, the Navesink-Locust section of Middletown tends to appear in a whole new spooky light this long-shadowed time of year. Nestled amidst the chilling/charming old farmhouses, relatively quiet backroads and miles of wooded trails, one of the local arts community's best kept secrets is in the process of marking an impressive run of history -- complete with coffee, dessert and a generous side of Murder Most Foul.

	When "A Murder Is Announced" at the Navesink Library Playhouse, Inspector Craddock (Charlie Deitz) and Miss Marple (Kay Martines) face off in a drawing-room full of suspects, including (clockwise from lower left) Jason Crystal, Rachel M. Scalzo, Dorothy Turner, Tammy Owens, Mel Evans, Lori Renick, Marge Taylor and Curt Foxworth.

Hard as it is to believe, it's been a full half century since the original Monmouth Players convened for the purpose of staging Noel Coward's urbane ghost story "Blithe Spirit." Since establishing a home base at the hauntingly quaint Navesink Library (tucked largely off the area's beaten path at the nexus of Sears and Monmouth avenues), the nonprofessional company has endeavored to toss at least one old-school mystery into the chill air each year (recent seasons have seen productions of "Deathtrap," "The Cemetery Club," "Web of Murder" and numerous other bits of fiendish whimsy). It's with that tradition in mind that the Players recently inaugurated their landmark golden anniversary schedule with the veddy-British drawing room whodunit "A Murder Is Announced," adapted by Leslie Darbon from the classic Miss Marple adventure by Agatha Christie.

If you've had any exposure at all to the oeuvre of the late Dame Agatha, you'll know what to expect when the dotty-but-deductive spinster sleuth Miss Marple encounters the requisite roomful of red herrings, fishy alibis and social-climbing bottomfeeders. Make no mistake, this is classically corny stuff that creaks like the floorboards of the Old Bates Place -- shots ring out in the dark, teatime refreshments are laced with poison, and the whole thing is resolved through an outlandish sequence of switched identities, false confessions and happy coincidences that will utterly boggle the mind of today's more methodical fan of "CSI" and its clinical, evidence-based approach to crimebusting.

Still, what of it? Under the direction of Ar Loecke and Monmouth Players president Paul Renick, the game cast (led by British native and recent Jersey transplant Kay Martines as the indefatigable Miss Marple) has fun with this dusty but still delectable petit-four; a confection so conventionally Christie (the program describes the story's setting as "Agatha Christie time") as to take place in not one but two conjoined drawing- rooms; equipped with secret door, even. A standout in the show's most comical role is Rachel M. Scalzo as the contrary Russian cook Mitzi, a turn that won this young Players veteran the biggest cheers from the opening-night crowd.