Speakeasy Dollhouse: Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic

The new edition of Cynthia von Buhler's immersive, interactive mystery has a 1920s showbiz theme and is staged site-specifically at the old Liberty Theater, a vintage venue hidden behind storefronts in Times Square. Between acts of a variety show, audience members may go to a room upstairs, where there are reenactments of the 1920 death of a Ziegfeld showgirl. It's an overpriced, underdeveloped mess: The space, though atmospheric, is poorly used, and ill-conceived interactive elements leave the audience perplexed and annoyed.