Between a missing princess, a chance to marry Prince Charming and the death of Snow White, Weber State’s Once Upon A Murder dinner left you guessing until the very end.
If you’ve never been to a murder mystery dinner before, here’s how they usually go. Once all the guests have arrived, everyone is encouraged to talk to the suspected characters while grabbing dinner.
Often, each person at every table is given money. This can be used to bribe the characters for more information that will help you gather better clues to solve the mystery. Although bribing is always fun, you also want to be one of the few that come out of the murder mystery with the most amount of cash to win some prizes.
All the characters are given a small amount of information at different times throughout the night but do not know who has committed the crime.
WSUSA members brought some of our favorite characters to life. Fan favorites, such as Prince Charming, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Belle, were up and about mingling with the guests. Although most of these royal members were a part of WSUSA, some were volunteers for the event.
“There was a point in the night when we were talking to one of the characters, and they said something funny,” said Madisun Murphy. “I started laughing so hard that water came out my nose, and they were laughing with me. It was a lot of fun, and I can’t wait to come back for the next one.”
Perhaps it was the authenticity of bringing characters to life that brought so many people to the dinner.
The decor also tied in with all the participating characters. There were iconic pieces on each table, which meant to represent the characters. There were books for Beauty and the Beast, a house made of candy for Hansel and Gretel and even the Genie’s lamp from Aladdin. Little Red Riding Hood could be found walking around carrying a basket of fresh cookies that she was going to give to the prince.
“We thought it was a niche,” Hayley Tomney, Davis campus vice president said when asked about the Disney theme. “Disney is really big right now. It’s something that everyone knows and can identify with.”
She went on to say that this year was the biggest turn out they’ve had. 120 people attended the dinner versus last year of about 70 dinner guests. Tickets had completely sold out by 4 p.m that night. Tomney wished to give a special thanks to the actors and the Davis programming board.
The annual tradition will continue next year, and they hope to bring another 120 people to the event.
