The story begins in a London music hall called the Music Hall Royale. The Chairman of the company welcomes the audience to the premiere presentation of The Mystery of Edwin Drood, a musical version of the unfinished final novel of Charles Dickens. The Chairman explains that later, because Dickens did not resolve his bizarre puzzle, the audience will vote on key questions that will determine the outcome of the story.
We are then whisked away to the ancient cathedral city of Cloisterham. On a cold December morning, the gloomy choirmaster, John Jasper, awaits a visit from his nephew, Edwin Drood, who is soon to be married to the beautiful young Rosa Bud. The plot, inevitably, thickens.
Probably the greatest novelist of all time, Charles Dickens (1812-1870) began writing Edwin Drood during the final year of his life. Like many of his novels, it was published in serial form. But by the time Dickens died, only six of the twelve planned episodes had appeared, and the author left no clues as to how the story would end.
This task was taken up by Rupert Holmes (b.1947), a noted singer and story-songwriter, who had always been fascinated by Dickens' unfinished novel. Born in Cheshire, England but raised in New York, Holmes created the book, lyrics, score and orchestrations for The Mystery of Edwin Drood. It premiered in August 1985 in New York's Central Park, in a production starring Betty Buckley, Cleo Laine and George Rose, and later transferred to Broadway. Hugely successful, the production garnered five Tony awards, including Best Book, Best Lyrics, and Best Musical. Since then Rupert Holmes has written two non-musical plays for Broadway: the comedy-thriller Accomplice in 1990, and another thriller Solitary Confinement in 1992.
Among the unique elements of this show is the fact that even the actors do not know how each performance is going to end. The author has created a variety of possible endings, but it really is up to the audience to decide "whodunit".
