Theater Reviews : Murder and Music Are Also ‘Afoot’ : Placing the witty, Christie-esque whodunit in the context of the London Blitz makes a nice point about survival and the value of entertainment as escapism.

SANTA ANA — As almost everyone knows, it’s not enough to do a whodunit anymore. There has to be a why along with a who .

Despite its purely unaffected entertainment value, “Something’s Afoot,” a musical-ized amalgam of Agatha Christie plots at Rancho Santiago College, isn’t content with being a singing Christie-gram.

In its own modest way, it’s about survival and the theater.

Possibly the best irony in the book by James McDonald, David Vos and Robert Gerlach (who also wrote the music and lyrics, with added music care of Ed Linderman) is that while death is more or less universal in the play, the world of the British music hall that frames the whodunit carries on.

We like to see rich people get knocked off in a mansion but don’t like the idea of Nazi warplanes blitzing London and its theaters.

The second-act tune “You Fell Out of the Sky” isn’t about the destruction that may or may not be coming down on the music hall, but a ballad, weakly warbled by Lisa Hallsted as the young love interest, Hope.

The connections between the war and the escapist fare remain fairly subtle (especially by brawling music-hall standards), but they make the point about how escapism has a real value.

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Which, in another irony, makes “Something’s Afoot” more than just escapist fare. Just as the plot is heating up with guests at Lord Dudley Rancour’s Lake District estate being knocked off one by one like 10 little Indians, the air-raid alarm erupts, bombs erupt and the lights momentarily dim.

Then stalwart company leader Cathy Newman takes command and leads her comrades, and the audience, in the wartime morale-booster “The White Cliffs of Dover.” So this is how the Brits got through.

Ronald Harwood, to mention one, has dealt with this world before in his fine play, “The Dresser,” but there’s something special about watching Newman hold the reins of the theater and the show.

Director Chuck Ketter also plays the music-hall manager (and the butler), but Newman’s the boss as amateur detective Miss Tweed, the human Rock of Gibraltar. She’s also a loony cut-up who can kick up her heels while booming out the score’s more charming tunes, including the title number, “Carry On” and the frolicsome tribute to dear Agatha herself, “I Owe It All.”

Unfortunately, Newman’s young cast members struggle visibly to keep up. Although they have moments to shine, Hallsted, Melinda Avent as Lady Grace Manley-Prowe, Arme Caballero as the maid, Jon Breeden as Hope’s new love Geoffrey and Randy Rock as the “dissolute cousin” Nigel lack the musical comedy tools to take real advantage.

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But--as always with students-in-training--patience, patience.

Tom Brand keeps a firmer hold on his rascally seeming caretaker Flint, and Ketter is all proper business as the butler. Michael Allen serves up good camp as the stern Dr. Grayburn, and James Rice’s Col. Gillweather appears to have popped right out of a Rudyard Kipling tome.

They’re all having fun, but probably not as much as set designer Ketter and lighting designer D. Silvio Volonte. They have arranged a house of lightning and electrical fires, traps and falling chandeliers, all of which may be too elaborate for a wartime music hall but which deliver the goods nonetheless.

Return to your seats well before intermission ends to get a taste of the music-hall atmosphere, including a mini-show of period songs with help from musical director Michael MacMullen.

If it worked during the London Blitz, it might work during a recession.

* “Something’s Afoot,” Rancho Santiago College, Phillips Hall Theatre, 1530 W. 17th St., Santa Ana. Thursday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, 2:30 p.m. Ends May 15. $8-$10. (714) 564-5661. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes. Cathy Newman: Miss Tweed

Lisa Hallsted: Hope Langdon

Jon Breeden; Geoffrey

Randy Rock: Nigel Rancour

Chuck Ketter: Clive

Melinda Avent: Lady Grace Manley-Prowe

Tom Brand: Flint

James Rice: Col. Gillweather

Michael Allen: Dr. Grayburn

Arme Caballero: Lettie

A Rancho Santiago College Theatre Arts Department production of the musical by James McDonald, David Vos and Robert Gerlach. Additional music by Ed Linderman. Direction and set: Chuck Ketter. Musical direction: Michael MacMullen. Lights: D. Silvio Volonte. Costumes: Laura Deremer Bonsall. Sound: Justus Matthews.