The Butler Did It Singing

by Tim Kelly, Arne Christiansen, Ole Kittleson

5 males, 5 females, optional chorus This is a delightful, audience pleasing, one-set, musical spoof based on Mr. Kelly's enormously popular hit The Butler Did It. Miss Maple, a flaky society dowager, invites a pack of zany detective writers to a spooky house on an isolated island and forces them to impersonate their fictional sleuths. For entertainment, she arranges some "classic" touches - a hairy face at the window, the threat of an escaped lunatic, no communications with the ou

86 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

Mr. Kelly, who was born in 1931, wrote more than 300 comedies, dramas, one-acts, mysteries, melodramas, children's shows and musicals, making his living writing for the stock, amateur and educational markets.

He wrote under his own name, and also at least four pseudonyms (Vera Morris, J. Moriarty, Robert Swift, Keith Jackson), for publishers such as Samuel French, Pioneer Drama Service and Contemporary Drama Service, among others.

Pioneer alone has 130 scripts by Kelly, according to Pioneer publisher Steven Fendrich. "It covers the gamut," Fendrich told Playbill On-Line Dec. 10. Mr. Kelly was the first playwright to sign up with the Colorado-based Pioneer when it was founded in 1967 by Fendrich's father.

Reviews

[Floura Aarion Lokkii]

My school put this play on for our spring play (minus the singing). It was so much fun. The characters were witty and clever all while not being witty and clever. I would definitely put this production on again!