I will never say no to a crazy adventure.  So when Mysteriously Yours Dinner Theatre invited me to come check out their new show, Speakeasy: A Roaring 20’s Murder Mystery on June 6, of course I said “YES!”

Shawn loves travelling to Toronto, so he took it upon himself to book our hotel.  He surprised me by booking a suite at the Toronto Marriott Bloor Yorkville.  Located at 90 Bloor Street East, this hotel has fantastic service and comfortable, spacious rooms, and is literally steps away from the gorgeous Yorkville shopping district.  Our suite was on the top floor and had a huge sitting room, a big comfy bed, two flat screen televisions and lots of storage space to spread out in.

The hotel has valet parking and a very helpful staff, who catered to our every need.  I mentioned on Twitter that I was excited about our upcoming mini-getaway, and their Twitter team (@MarriottBloor) wrote back right away!  It’s always nice to connect with hotels before you go there, in case you need to ask questions or request something special.  The only drawbacks that I noticed is that there is no swimming pool in this hotel, and wireless internet is available in-room, but it’s not free.

The drive to Toronto was ridiculous… there is a lot of road work going on at the moment, and the commute took much longer than it usually does.  However, the Marriott has a staircase that takes you straight down to the subway, and just a few minutes later I was at Mysteriously Yours to meet up with my friend Maggie, who was my date for the evening.  (Shawn went to Mysteriously Yours with me back in August 2013, so he suggested I bring someone who’d never been before… I suspect that there was a hockey or baseball game on that he wanted to watch!)

Maggie is a Toronto native, but had never been to Mysteriously Yours before.  I didn’t give her much in the way of details, other than letting her know that there is definitely audience participation involved in a murder mystery dinner!  Like I said in my last post about Mysteriously Yours, “Murder mysteries are not for the shy or faint of heart — the actors will come right up to you and start a conversation, no matter how much you try to hide!”  The characters (which included Al Capone, Sam Spade and Mae West, as well as a Doctor who looked eerily similar to Doc Brown from Back to the Future!) all interacted with us, giving clues and dropping one-liners and innuendo all night long!  Many of the characters were particularly interested in Maggie’s tattoo!

I remember the food at Mysteriously Yours being excellent the last time I attended, but this time we had a different situation: Maggie is vegan, and I definitely wanted to make sure that she would be able to eat the food there!  What’s the point of attending a dinner theatre if you can’t eat the dinner?!  I emailed ahead to let them know about our needs, and they were more than happy to accommodate us!  We were served a vegan potato soup to start.  My main course was salmon with aioli, quinoa and asparagus, and Maggie was served risotto.  For dessert I got the salted caramel brownie, and Maggie got a ridiculously yummy sorbet.  How they got the flavour to be so strong, I have no idea!

The current show, Speakeasy, is set in the 1920’s at the “Emerald City Night Club” with a twist — the slogan “Flappers and Gangsters and Guns… Oh My!” gives it away, don’t you think?  Well, I must be a slow one, because I didn’t notice the Wizard of Oz influence until Maggie pointed it out!  (Duhhhhh…)

The actors give clues throughout the night and it’s up to the audience to figure out whodunit!  All the audience members are given a ballot near the end of the evening to guess who the murderer is, and what clues brought you to your solution.  I won’t reveal any spoilers, but know that if you guess correctly, you can win a prize!  Maggie solved the mystery and was one of the prizewinners — her prize consisted of a reusable Mysteriously Yours shopping bag, a travel mug, and lip balm.  After dinner, the cast is available to take photos with the audience members — of course, I couldn’t resist a photo op!

After dinner, Maggie and I met up with Shawn at Three Speed for some post-mystery drinks before we headed back to the Marriott for a good night’s rest.  Shawn and I returned to our room to find this awesome surprise on the desk:

Totally unexpected… but what a treat!  Yummy chocolates, strawberries, raspberries, grapes and blueberries, bottled water and a lovely note.  Thank you, Marriott team!  That’s great service!

The next morning we headed out for some retail therapy in Yorkville (although we didn’t buy much!) and checked out all the fancy designer shops at Holt Renfrew.  I don’t think Shawn could ever fathom spending ____ amount of money on a single shirt or pair of pants, but it’s fun to browse and daydream!

We had so much fun… I wish we could have stayed longer!  But we’ll be back soon, I’m sure!

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend the Mysteriously Yours event free of charge.  Hotel was booked through Hotwire.com.  All opinions are my own.  Photos taken by me with my iPhone.