Murder at the Howard Johnson's

Written by a pair of writers who started out in television, Ron Clark and Sam Bobrick''s stage comedy Murder at the Howard Johnson's has the look and feel of a late-'70s sitcom, though the subject matter is a good deal darker than anything you'd see in a Norman Lear show. The story follows three people who take turns plotting to kill each other and/or commit suicide over the course of aseries of rendezvous at a dreary chain hotel. Directed by company co-founder Jane Flieller, In Tandem Theatre's production does an exceedingly good job of planting the comedy firmly in the context of the late '70s, right down the bad facial hair.