Laura and I were talking today and realized that 17 years ago tonight, Friday October 15, 1993, we opened our first show in Richmond. Those days we performed at the Holiday Inn Koger Center, right off of Midlothian Turnpike. Roy Proctor, the theater critic for the Richmond Times Dispatch had written two very nice articles about this crazy couple from Minneapolis, Jim Daab and his wife, Laura Daab, who moved to Richmond to open a mystery dinner theater. The exposure helped get the word out and we opened our first show, “Let’s Kill the Boss!” to sold out houses.
Our first cast was great! Frank Minor, Flora DeCastri, Terry Lee Adams, Eric O’Brien, Mark Wells, and, of course, Ronald Blankenship. What a bunch of troopers. They took our wacky form of theater and ran with it. We considered casting a young actor named Harry Kollatz, Jr, but he decided to take himself out of consideration because he’d just been offered a new job at Richmond Magazine. Our actors have become like family, and as in any family, we have sadly lost members over the years. Paige Keinel, Carlton Candler, and Mary Sue Carroll, all left us too soon, and are missed terribly.
There were several other theaters in Richmond that formed in 1993, including The Firehouse Theater Project (there’s Harry again) and The Triangle Players. We were fortunate enough to hook up with these companies, and others such as The Barksdale and Theatre IV, to help form the Richmond Alliance of Professional Theaters (RAPT). It helped us integrate into the local theater community, and form friendships that are still strong 17 years later.
Sometime around 1995, I came home one day and Laura said, “We had a woman call and asked if we could do a medieval show, and I told them you’d write one.” So since that time I’ve been writing our shows. I have about 30 shows in my catalogue, and have been licensing the performance rights to groups all over the country. You can currently see “Frankly Scarlet, You’re Dead” at the Great Smoky Mountain Mystery Dinner Show, and “Marriage Can Be Murder!” at the Savannah Murder Mystery Dinner Theater, in Savannah Georgia.
In 1998 we expanded to Williamsburg in what is now the Clarion Inn and Suites. 1999 found us opening at the DoubleTree in Virginia Beach, and six years down the road, we opened a location in Northern Virginia, finally settling into the Sheraton Crystal City.
Laura often points out that running a business is sort of like raising a child. Like a child, we’re amazed at how it’s changed, and grown. And despite the grey hairs it has caused, we still love it.
Jim Daab
Audience comments/review blog
Monday, September 20th, 2010If you have ever been to our shows, you know that we place a comment card at each audience member’s seat. It gives you the opportunity to tell us how you enjoyed (or didn’t enjoy) your evening with us, and it gives us the information that we need to keep your updated on special promotions and events at our theater. Your comments are key to helping us maintain and improve our product – to know what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong. The cards have been an invaluable resource for us in the 17 years that we have been collecting them. Because of them, we currently have an updated, active database of over 10,000 audience members and a wealth of information that keeps our theater relevant in an ever-changing social, economic and cultural landscape. Your comments make that possible. Now we want to share those comments with you.
In a few days we will be rolling out a new feature on our website that will post real-time, unedited audience comments and reviews from our show. We will set up a link on our home page and location pages to the review stream so that you can see what people are saying about a particular show, location and date. Jim and I want you to know that we are listening to what you have to say, and that we want to share that with the public.
There are many online review sites for people to post comments about their experiences, but often, these sites don’t capture a real overview of the majority of customers for any business. As much as sites like Tripadvisor, Yelp, Citysearch, Yahoo, and Google would like you to believe that they post legitimate & accurate comments, their reviews are more of a “thumbprint” of opinions that are mostly anonymous, some vitriolic to the point of libel, and it’s hard to verify authenticity. On the other hand, businesses post reviews selectively to enhance their online reputation. It is perfectly understandable for a business to do this, and one of the tenants of Marketing 101. Conventional wisdom dictates that pulling info from the two sources, a consumer should get a general idea of whether or not they want to do business with someone.
So, why would we want to post comment cards on our website?
Well, first of all, we don’t get many “bad” comment cards. Most of our comment cards are very favorable, and when they aren’t, we see them as constructive criticism. It’s an opportunity for us to do better, and it’s a chance to have an honest conversation with you about our business. The comments that we will be posting are from real people with real names from real places that really came to our shows. Some of our audience members will post a review online, but most will not, and we want you to see what they are saying without us sugar coating it.
For privacy reasons, we will be posting the person’s first name and surname initial along with the city and state (i.e. Karen M, Boulder CO), unless they have given us permission to post their full name.
Let’s get started. Here are some comments we’ve received within the past few weeks:
“Three of us came up this past weekend and saw “And the Killer
Is…” [Richmond] and “Fashion to Die For!” [Williamsburg]. We had a
great time. I was hoping to meet you, but I could see you had a great
crew in charge and you did not have to be present. Congratulations on
too very funny shows!”
Sincerely,
J. Tom Coleman III
Director, The Savannah Community Theatre
“Keep up the good work. You’re on the right track.” Tryone D., VA Beach VA
“This dinner/show is great. My husband & I are loving it. It is very funny and the food was gret. We will be back:) Lindsay C., Chesapeake VA
“We love your Murder Mysteries.” Ellen C. VA Beach VA
“Excellent night! Thanks!” Jared. C., Easton MA
“Actors were fun – even the one reading script during the show. Sodas in the same room would be nice.” Abby D., Germantown MD
“Loved it! Had a GREAT time. I will come back!” Rachel Y., Clinton OH
“Had a blast” Jennifer M., Springfield, MO
“Thank you for maintaining the progress of the show with all the disruptions of our loud table” Claire M., NJ
“Excellent with everything” Mary M., Reading MA
“Soda should be included. Play was hysterical! Loved interaction.” Debby G., Glenmoore PA
“I don’t like the fashion designers or Pollo. Only liked Eddie, Rachel and the food.” Nanii, Richmond, VA
“Need a microphone to hear better.” Everette E., Falls Church VA
“Loved it:)” Brett K., Hornell NY
“Bigger portions.” Brandon W., Castorland NY
“Fun! I look forward to the next mystery!” Glenn K., North Palm Beach FL
“Thank you for a wonderful evening.” Linda G., Annandale VA
“I had a blast!! I will return for another mystery.” Valerie L., Arlington VA
“Too expensive.” Barbara S., Hawleyville CT
“What a different but fun night out!” Meredith W., Alexandria VA
“Such a great time! Wonderful B-day celebration” Sara W. Nyack NY
“Serve food a little earlier” Noel S., Martinsburg WV
“Great show! Will tag comments on i-net Good Job!” Karen K., Ninnekah OK
“Very good. I used to act in dinner theater in Colorado. This was great! Summer B., Washington DC
“This is the 12th time we have been here & we enjoyed ourselves.” Grace D., Ventnor NJ
“Laughter is the best medicine. We laughed a LOT.” Jim DB., Bradford PA
Tags: Blog, Comment Cards, Social media, Website
Posted in Mystery Dinner Playhouse, Richmond | 1 Comment »