Web Video / A Killer Party

A Killer Party is a 2020 musical web series written by Kait Kerrigan, Rachel Axler, Nathan Tysen, and Jason Howland. The series was released on Vimeo after COVID-19 shut down all Broadway theaters.

The series follows a group of theatre people putting on a murder mystery show... that is, until the show goes off-script and the host gets killed. A new detective makes her way through the group, trying to find the murderer, as they explain their innocence through song.

---

Tropes in this series include:

• Aerith and Bob: The names of the characters range from Lily and Clarke to Vivika and Varthur.
• The Alibi: Several of the suspects give Detective Case one of these.
• All Musicals Are Adaptations: Averted. A Killer Party is an entirely original musical web-series.
• Always Identical Twins: Varthur and Arthur McArthur are identical twins, to the point of being played by the same actor.
• As Himself: Jeremy Jordan portrays himself in a one-off appearance for the song "Big Cat" to inspire Cameron.
• Asshole Victim: Nobody likes Varthur—not even his wife—and his death is not necessarily met with tears.
• Bad Boss: Varthur, the director and owner of the cast's theater, is widely disliked due to his narcissism.
• Beneath Suspicion: Played straight with Cameron, who, despite being seen near Varthur's dead body with a knife in a threatening pose, having the most obvious motive, and acting EXTREMELY suspicious when questioned by Detective Case, is never suspected of committing the crime, due to his neurotic, yet charming disposition.
• Best Served Cold: Arthur McArthur killed his twin brother Varthur out of revenge for Varthur claiming authorship of the plays Arthur wrote.
• Classically-Trained Extra: Cameron Mitchelljohn is always in the chorus, and is cast in "A Circus Steamboat Murder" as a mute steward who communicates in A.S.L.; This unsurprisingly frustrates him, to the point of getting a duet with Real Life Broadway actor Jeremy Jordan, where Jordan teaches him how to find the confidence to get a lead role.
• Closed Circle: Detective Case isolates the suspects in rooms throughout the house as they wait for interrogation, referencing the quarantine that was in place at the time of its development and release.
• Clueless Detective: Detective Case is far from a Hardboiled Detective. She's unprofessional, untrained, unprepared, awkward and humorous. She nearly forgets her handcuffs, and she doesn't even have a gun. By the end of the story, though, Case solves the case all on her own, and goes on to have a successful career as a detective.
• Cowardly Lion: Cameron Mitchelljohn has an entire song about his neurosis, stumbles into sounding guilty when talking to Detective Case, stress-eats, can't bring himself to refuse to carry his castmates' coats, and is a constant source of hapless comic relief.
• Cozy Mystery: A Killer Party fits all the characteristics of a Cozy Mystery: It features an Asshole Victim being murdered offscreen, and a relatably silly, young female detective solves the case, in which all the suspects already know each other.
• Dark Reprise: "A Killer Party (Reprise)" is one of these.
• Driving Question: "Who killed Varthur McArthur?" and "What happened in the 60 seconds of darkness?" are, in order of relevance, the questions that the plot is centered around, and the climax of the story answers both of them.
• "Eureka!" Moment: Detective Case has one of these when finding the stamp in Varthur's study.
• Everyone Is a Suspect: All of the cast members, along with Joan, Varthur's wife, have motives and means, making all of them suspects.
• Evidence Scavenger Hunt: Detective Case has a few of these, notably when she gets the handprints of all the suspects to compare with a soup handprint on the tablecloth near Varthur's body.
• Evil Twin: Varthur's identical twin brother Arthur is revealed to be the killer in the last episode.
• Fair-Play Whodunnit: The mystery is entirely solvable from the audience's point of view if they pick up on the Foreshadowing hidden in the seemingly unimportant details.
• False Confession: Both Vivika Orsonwelles and George Murderer confess to the murder, genuinely believing that they did it, but it was actually neither of them. Vivika and George poisoned Varthur with two different drugs, and the two drugs cancelled out each other's effects, meaning neither Vivika nor George were really responsible for the murder.
• Foreshadowing: Due to being a Whodunnit story, foreshadowing is all over the place, usually in the background, or otherwise not focused on.
  • Varthur has a painting behind his seat at the table that, at first glance, looks like a portrait of himself smiling at his reflection in the mirror. However, the "reflection" is wearing a button-up shirt, while the real Varthur is wearing a turtleneck, foreshadowing the existence of Varthur's Evil Twin.
    • Joan later states that Varthur only ever wears turtlenecks.
  • "Shipload of Fools" is filled to the brim with foreshadowing about Arthur's existence and Varthur's plagiarism, which Arthur directly points out in The Summation. However, most of the foreshadowing details are not very clever, as Arthur's scripts are stated by the cast to be badly written (Arthur claims that the twine mentioned foreshadows his existence, because "Take the 'E' from the word 'twine', you get 'twin'." This is a bit of an Ass Pull on his part. On the flipside, Cameron's character, the mute steward, signs the word "twin" in A.S.L., which is about as blatant as it gets, if the viewer actually knows A.S.L.).
  • Even the show's logo foreshadows the climactic twist; The red 'A' in the title, Arthur's first initial, is the same as the red 'V' stamp, Varthur's first initial, on the byline of "A Circus Steamboat Murder," just flipped upside-down.
• Genius Ditz: Despite his outward stupidity, George Murderer is a very talented composer and songwriter. He could use a book writer, though.
• Girl Next Door: Detective Case is cute, witty, kind, and seemingly unaware of her good looks, as opposed to the Femme Fatales that make up the other women in the cast. She also has a dynamic with Cameron reminiscent of this trope's dynamic with a male protagonist, though, in this case, Detective Case is the protagonist.
• Handsome Lech: George Murderer makes passes at nearly every woman in the show, and is never successful, aside from his ongoing affair with Vivika. His rejections from Detective Case and Lily Wright prevent him from being The Casanova.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: All of the details Foreshadowing the climactic twist are hidden in plain sight, either in the background or in the foreground, but never given much focus, as to make the viewer question their importance.
• Hidden Villain: Arthur McArthur.
• Hide the Evidence: Lily Wright tries to hide her hands under her gloves from Detective Case when Case is getting everyone's handprints. She eventually takes off her gloves, though, revealing her unmanicured hands, which she's embarrassed of.
• "I Am Becoming" Song: Detective Case sings one of these in the second episode.
• Improbable Antidote: The drugs that Vivika and George poisoned Varthur with were actually antidotes to each other, cancelling out the other's effect.
• The Ingenue: Subverted with Lily Wright, who at first appears to be the innocent new female lead, but is later shown to be a savvy, driven actress, moonlighting as a real estate agent, and even screams at Vivika as she loses her temper at the end of an episode.
• Jerkass: Varthur, George and Vivika are all rather terrible people who are disliked by their colleagues.
• Let's Duet: There are several duets throughout the show, including "Boom! Shout! Reprise!", "Never Miss My Mark", "I Did It For You", "Big Cat", "Hands Out!", and "Sleuth in Duluth (Reprise)".
• Lights Off, Somebody Dies: There are 60 seconds of darkness after the power goes out in the first episode. When the lights turn back on, Varthur is dead.
• Lost in Character: Shea Crescendo's in-universe Method Acting continues even after Varthur's been killed.
• Lotsa People Try to Dun It: Vivika Orsonwelles, George Murderer and Arthur McArthur all attempted to kill Varthur, but only Arthur was successful.
• Method Acting: In-Universe. Shea Crescendo is in character before and during the reading of "A Circus Steamboat Murder" and remains in character even after the reading's been cut short by Varthur's death.
• Minor Character, Major Song: Cameron Mitchelljohn has a duet with the Real Life actor Jeremy Jordan called "Big Cat," which, while being Jordan's only appearance, is one of the most memorable moments in the season.
• Motive = Conclusive Evidence: Because Varthur is an Asshole Victim, everyone who was in the house at the time of the murder is a potential suspect, as they all have a bone to pick with Varthur, or something to gain from his death.
• Murder Ballad: There are many of these, given that the plot revolves around a murder. "Sleuth in Duluth" is technically the first example of this, being a song focusing on Justine Case writing her memoir on Varthur's murder.
  • "Boom! Shout! The Lights Went Out" is the song Clark Staples sings about what exactly happened leading up to and during the murder.
  • "Boom! Shout! Reprise!" is a duet between both versions of Detective Case, where Case tries to analyze the information she's gotten so far regarding the murder.
  • "Never Miss My Mark" is a duet between Vivika Orsonwelles and George Murderer, where they both recount their attempts to murder Varthur and their motives for doing so.
  • "Process of Elimination" has Case ruling out suspects and singling out the culprit.
  • "A Killer Party (Reprise)" is the Dark Reprise of "A Killer Party," where Arthur McArthur details his history with Varthur and his plot to kill him.
• The Musical Musical: A Killer Party is about a group of theatre people involved in a real murder mystery, as opposed to the fictional murder mystery play they were supposed to be performing.
• Mysterious Stranger: Before the twist is revealed, we see the killer's sillhouette try to move Varthur's body in the shadows while Detective Case is examining Varthur's soup.
• Narcissist: Varthur McArthur is explicitly stated to be this.
• Never Suicide: In "Process of Elimination," Detective Case introduces the possibility that Varthur was his own killer, but almost immediately dismisses it to focus on the other suspects.
• Never the Obvious Suspect: The audience most likely suspected the killer to be Joan or a cast member, all of which had motives and evidence both for and against them, but the killer was actually a character the audience didn't even know existed until The Reveal.
• One of the Kids: The suspects briefly behave like this as they parody TikTok dances in "Stuck," Played for Laughs. The instrumental underscore in this section, predictably, does not actually sound like the genre of music typically used on TikTok.
• Only Sane Man: Detective Case is the only person in the house during the case who isn't a theatre person (or in Joan's case, an ASMR roleplay actor), and is constantly either amused, disturbed or frustrated with the antics of the rest of the cast.
• Post-Stress Overeating: Cameron has two incidents of stress-eating, the second of which is interrupted by Jeremy Jordan's celebrity appearance.
• Public Secret Message: Arthur hid clues about his existence and Varthur's plagiarism in the script of "A Circus Steamboat Murder".
• Rags to Riches: Detective Case was a meter-maid before being given the opportunity to solve a murder case, leading to an expansive career, notable enough to motivate her to write a memoir about her first case, decades past when the story takes place.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Varthur McArthur, who pisses off nearly every other character, wears a red sequin suit jacket over a black turtleneck. Arthur McArthur, the killer, wears this same outfit in his attempt to impersonate Varthur in the final episode.
• Red Herring: Since it's a murder mystery, there are several of them:
  • The cinematography suggests that Varthur was killed either by the soup he ate shortly before his death or the dart found in his shoulder after the 60 seconds of darkness, but neither of these were what really killed him.
  • Cameron Mitchelljohn is immediately a suspect, as he was seen holding a knife over Varthur's dead body when the lights turned back on, but he's ruled out in "Breathe" when he says he "can't even act innocent, even when [he is]." Because this is a soliloquy, he has no reason to lie.
  • Lily Wright has a motive in that she handles the real estate to Varthur's theater, but George knocked her to the floor at the time of the murder, so she couldn't have done it.
  • Joan McArthur is suspected due to her excitement over Varthur's death, as well as Varthur's finances going to her after his death in his will, which Joan wrote herself. However, she has an alibi in the ASMR roleplay video call she was doing at the time of the murder.
  • Vivika Orsonwelles and George Murderer both individually confessed to the murder and really believed they did it, but the poisons they used in their attempts cured the other's effects, so neither of them could've done it.
• The Reveal: In the climax of the story, Arthur reveals his identity as Varthur's twin brother and the killer.
• Sanity Slippage Song: Cameron Mitchelljohn sings one of these called "Breathe," where he descends into madness over his anxiety and insecurities, even chiding himself in the second-person.
• Sequel Hook: The ending sequence clearly suggests that a second season is on the way.
• Show Within a Show: Varthur's titular "Killer Party" is accompanied by a reading of his murder mystery play, "A Circus Steamboat Murder," though the reading is cut off before it can even begin, as Varthur is killed soon after the party starts.
• Sibling Rivalry: Varthur and Arthur McArthur have one of these taken up to eleven.
• Silly Love Songs: George Murderer and Vivika Orsonwelles have a silly romantic duet called "I Did It For You," written In-Universe by George, where George and Vivika roleplay as Clyde and Bonnie, in that order.
• The Smart Guy: Clarke Staples is characterized as being organized, intelligent and prepared, albeit slightly neurotic. This comes with his job as stage manager, and he somehow manages to memorize and document the movements of the cast before, during and after Varthur's death. He also gives a detailed account of the sounds he heard during the 60 seconds of darkness.
• Spontaneous Choreography: As it's a musical web series featuring famous Broadway performers, this is to be expected.
• Spot the Imposter: Arthur impersonates Varthur while wearing his clothes in a final gambit to get off scot-free, but is almost immediately found out by the rest of the cast.
• Stranger Behind the Mask: The killer is revealed to be Arthur McArthur, a character who the audience was previously unaware of.
• String Theory: Shea uses string on a big board to make the connections between the plot of "A Circus Steamboat Murder" and Varthur's murder.
• The Summation: Subverted by having Arthur, the killer, tell the rest of the cast how and why he killed Varthur, instead of having Detective Case give the summation.
• Summation Gathering: Detective Case does one of these as she gathers the suspects just before the song "Process of Elimination".
• Switching P.O.V.: The story is primarily viewed from Detective Case's point of view, but the P.O.V. frequently switches to the suspects before or after Case interrogates them, and there's even a brief scene from the killer's point of view.
• Tenor Boy: Playing the White Male Lead in Varthur's play, George Murderer is a young and handsome actor who sings in a high tenor range, particularly in his two duets with Vivika, "Never Miss My Mark" and "I Did It For You".
• Twin Switch: After killing Varthur, Arthur switches clothes and impersonates him in the last episode.
• Unfortunate Name: George Murderer is briefly assumed to be the killer, due to his surname, but he clarifies that "It's a family name." This is actually a Bait-and-Switch, as George confesses later that he attempted to murder Varthur, but he learns that he wasn't the killer after all, as Vivika's poison dart reversed the effect of the poison he used when trying to kill Varthur. Maybe he should've been named George Attempted-Murderer?
• Unholy Matrimony: George Murderer and Vivika Orsonwelles are both pretty terrible people who happen to be having an affair.
• Unwanted Spouse: Varthur and Joan McArthur are not in the happiest of marriages. Joan is actually enthralled when she learns that Varthur is dead, enough to make her burst into song, which makes her look even more guilty than she already did.
• Villainous Harlequin: Vivika Orsonwelles is dressed as a clown for half of the season, and attempted to murder Varthur.
• Villain Song: Arthur performs one of these in the form of a Dark Reprise of the eponymous song, "A Killer Party."
• Whodunnit: The story focuses on solving the mystery of Varthur McArthur's murder.
• Who Murdered the Asshole: Because Varthur was a Jerkass Asshole Victim, the killer could've been anyone, and the plot focuses on eliminating the suspects one by one.
• World Limited to the Plot: The town of Duluth is the only setting shown, with the only references to The Outside World being discussions of Broadway.