Crak, Bam, Dead!

For immediate release

Press release

Contact: The South Beach Players | info@southbeachplayers.com

Location: Melbourne Beach, FL

MURDER, MAHJONG & MAYHEM: South Beach Players Deal Their First-Ever Comedy Whodunit

“Crak, Bam, Dead!” brings a storm-battered mansion, a tile-tournament gone wrong, and a stage full of suspects to Melbourne Beach this November

MELBOURNE BEACH, FL — The tiles are set, the storm is rolling in, and somebody’s about to lose more than just the game. The South Beach Players — the Space Coast’s scrappy, sun-soaked community theater troupe — are raising the curtain on their first-ever murder mystery comedy, and they’re going all in.

Crak, Bam, Dead!, a wickedly funny new script by Clark Semmes, throws socialites, mobsters, and a cast of shady outsiders together for a high-stakes mahjong tournament at a private island mansion. Add a raging storm, a few buried secrets, and one very dead body, and a glitzy game night spirals into a locked-room mystery the audience has to help solve.

“We’ve done comedy, we’ve done drama — but we’ve never asked the audience to catch a killer,” said Pam Harbaugh, director of the play. “This one’s a game night nobody will forget.”

The Details

📍 St. Sebastian’s-by-the-Sea Episcopal Church, Fellowship Hall — 2010 Oak St, Melbourne Beach, FL

🗓️ November 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 20, 21 & 22

🎟️ Tickets are $20 and available via Eventbrite, at the door, or at Melbourne Beach Properties (6680 S Hwy A1A, Melbourne Beach)

A Note On The Game

Mahjong itself has real drama in its backstory. Born in the mid-to-late 1800s in Shanghai’s Yangtze Delta region, it built its early reputation as a fast-paced, mostly male gambling pastime before spreading across China’s cities. American businessman Joseph Park Babcock brought the game stateside in the early 1900s, and a splashy 1922 ad campaign launched its U.S. craze. By 1937, a group of Jewish women in New York City founded the National Mah Jongg League to standardize the now-beloved American rules — the same tile-clacking tension that fuels the mayhem on stage in Crak, Bam, Dead!

About The South Beach Players

Built on A1A with little more than optimism, duct tape, and a dream, the South Beach Players have grown from a wobbly first rehearsal into Melbourne Beach’s own homegrown theater company — fueled by sunshine, big laughs, and community spirit. Crak, Bam, Dead! marks their boldest production yet.