Littered with an abundance of fantastic stage stars, A Killer Party brings a musical whodunnit to our screens. 

Comprised of nine episodes, it is filmed entirely in each actor’s home and we follow the characters as Varthur McArthur - a failed West End actor and current artistic director of a Blackpool theatre - calls a read-through for his latest (and last!) murder mystery play, and winds up being murdered! 

The production values in the piece are exceptional. It keeps the use of green screen to a minimum and instead tries to select rooms that could be passed off as one another’s from each of the actors’ homes. It also uses a stop motion Cluedo-style board as the detective moves through the house to investigate each suspect. Cleverly, detective Justine Case mentions that each room looks the same which, in reality, she has been redressing a set of shelves to present different rooms.

The musical is silly, witty, tongue-in-cheek and exceptionally good. The filming at home makes the piece even more endearing and the actors really throw themselves into making the show the success it is. The script has some excellent mentions to the year we have had but there are also some great theatre ‘in’ jokes, such as “always ask the stage manager, they know everything that’s going on”. 

The music by Jason Howland and lyrics by Nathan Tysen are exceptional and there are some real stand-out songs in the piece such as ‘Today’s Detective’ and ‘Circus on the Sea’ amongst others. The music has a pop and vaudeville feel to it, with some 80’s ballads thrown in for good measure.

Jason Manford takes on the role of Varthur McArthur and although woefully under-used, his fleeting performance is good. Rachel Tucker is hilarious as Joan McArthur and effortlessly switches between accents. 

Emma Salvo spends a lot of time on screen as Justine Case but does an excellent job of controlling the tempo of the piece and also delivers great comic timing and facial expressions, along with her lovely singing voice... and a cameo from her dog!

Oscar Conlon-Murray as scenic designer Shea Crescendo is wonderful, as is Debbie Kurup as Vivika Orsonwelles, who has an amazing duet with Cedric Neal as George Murderer. Ben Forster also makes a hilarious cameo, which we won’t spoil.

A great musical and if you want to put a smile on your face, this is definitely the piece for it.

***** Five stars

Reviewed by: Emma Littler

Streaming until 30 May, there is still plenty of opportunity to catch this new musical here.