Killer evening

Hamilton, OH - Retro rocks.

The Carruthers Signature Ballroom turned into the Showroom at the Sands circa 1960 for Rat Pack and Poison, the killer conclusion to the 2024-2025 Fitton Center's Jazz & Cabaret series.

Spoiler alert! The Johnny Carson character committed the crime, murdering Lauren Bacall with a spiked cocktail just before intermission, a fact 25 members of the audience correctly deduced.

(It may or may not have been hurtful to see the audience vote a pair of Fitton Center staffers as possible killers, despite being specifically told they were not suspects or part of the show.)

Gossip columnist Hedda Hopper served as chief interrogator, while a cast that also featured characters based on Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Marilyn Monroe, Bobby Kennedy, Shirley MacLaine and a Vegas gangster mixed and mingled with the audience during a fundraiser supporting the Berlin Airlift.

Sinatra, Martin and Monroe performed standards from the Great American Songbook. Monroe even replicated her famous presidential birthday number for Fitton Center Board Chair Woody Fitton.

With the season complete and crime solved, we're looking ahead to the 2025-2026 Jazz & Cabaret season. Stay tuned for an announcement coming soon.

Meantime, enjoy some more images from Rat Pack and Poison in the photo gallery below.