Murder mysteries have to keep up with the times. The butler did it? Households don't have butlers now. What do they have? Oh, yes. The computer did it.

"Program for Murder," at the off-Broadway Variety Arts Theater, stars Jeremy (Anthony Cummings) as a computer wizard. He devised a computer game that made a lot of money. His then-wife Elizabeth (Mary Kay Adams) programmed it. Now he has devised a computerized talking encyclopedia. His girlfriend Brenda (Colleen Quinn) programmed it.But Jeremy doesn't like to share royalties. So he next devises a nasty little plan in which the computer will tell both these women to do things that will get them electrocuted. He programs it himself. And it works. End of Act 1.

Act 1 is clever and fun but the test of this kind of play is its Act 2. Will Jeremy get away with it? Will he cross his circuits and be brought low? Will he kill again? Can authors George W. George and Jeff Travers make us care?

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"Program for Murder" is for theatergoers who like their murder mysteries to be fluffy rather than fearsome.

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