Murder MysterY DINNER PARTY To DIE FOR!
SATURDAY, May 10, 2025
The MIllion Dollar Movie
Read about our legendary Murder Mysteries in Broadway world, AARP, The Boston Globe & the Bennington Banner
You are cordially invited to a Hollywood Glamour Dinner Party to DIE For!
Music, mayhem and murder is always on the menu...
Join the interactive fun and follow the cast of colorful suspects as you sing, dine and sleuth to solve case of The Million Dollar Movie.
Perched on the crest of a hill, the historic Wilburton mansion is the perfect setting for an elegant whodunnit in the style of an Agatha Christie or real life game of Clue.
Guests are encouraged to “dress to kill” in Hollywood star attire.
Prizes will be awarded for best sleuthing and most creative costume.
A professional photographer will take complimentary photos of all guests.
Three course dinner and mystery experience tickets are $75 plus tax and service.
Complimentary champagne toast. Cash bar with theme cocktails available.
SYNPOSIS:
“The Million Dollar Movie” is based on the real Hollywood history when RKO Studios owned The Wilburton for twenty years. Set in 1955, and the new owners of RKO Studios (famous for King Kong, Citizen Kane and the Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers movie musicals) are holding a secret board meeting at the Wilburton mansion. They are choosing the team for one last great movie. Everyone is dying to be a part of it! Will this swanky soiree include getting away–with murder?
The MIllion Dollar Movie is written and produced by Tajlei Levis, who creates original mystery events each year, inspired by Wilburton and local Vermont history. “These glamorous theatrical events add some sparkle to stick season,” says Levis. Wilburton mystery weekends began 30 years ago when innkeeper Georgette Wasserstein Levis wrote a murder mystery homage, The Brothers Rosenblood, to her sister, Wendy Wasserstein’s Broadway hit, The Sisters Rosensweig.
Perched on the crest of a hill, the historic Wilburton mansion is the perfect setting for an Agatha Christie style whodunnit.
Will this swanky soiree include getting away – with murder?
For the answers to these and other questions, join the fun at The Wilburton and try to solve The Case of the Million Dollar Movie.
Weekend Lodging package available.
Call for reservations 802-362-2500 ext 2 or.visit WILBURTON.com
Wilburton mystery weekends are a 20-year tradition that began when innkeeper Georgette Wasserstein Levis turned her sister, Wendy Wasserstein’s Broadway hit, The Sisters Rosensweig into The Brothers Rosenblood. Since 2013, Tajlei Levis, known for writing vintage literary musicals, like Edith Wharton’s Glimpses of the Moon, has created new mystery events each year, inspired by Wilburton and local Vermont history. The Case of the Bridesmaid’s Revenge is her 10th anniversary mystery musical! Each one is based on a chapter in Vermont and Wilburton history.
“The Murder at Wit’s End” is an original immersive musical mystery inspired by the true Vermont story of the literary celebrities who summered at Neshobe Island in Lake Bomoseen in the 1920s and 1930’s, when America’s most famous drama critic, radio host and literary influencer, Alexander Woollcott ran his exclusive club on the island.
Guests are invited to join Woolcott’s famous friends -Harpo Marx, Irving Berlin, Dorothy Parker and other witty members of the Algonquin Round Table- as members of the club for the coming season. A rave review from Woollcott could make any book a bestseller, any play a hit, so Broadway producers, authors and stars are competing for favor in battles of wits, songs, and parlor games. Prospective members will have to play Woollcott’s favorite game of croquet (he cheats) and solve The Murder Game.
Some are vying to win. Others are dying to get in..
THE CASE OF THE MISSING MUMMY
The mystery begins as the eccentric Manchester collector Doc tries to complete his collection of curiosities at his museum of mythology. Doc commissions cowboy archeologist Arlington Jones to find an authentic mummy from Egypt. Arlington’s expertise is expensive, so Doc appeals to the Vermont Explorers Club to underwrite the expedition in return for a share in the spoils. “Let’s be like Lord Elgin or Napoleon, and bring the treasure home in our luggage.” The dig foreman Cat and his local cousins stake out a promising site in the Valley of Kings. Meanwhile, Broadway musical sensation Mimi, recently retired from the Ziegfeld follies, is planning her film debut in a musical extravaganza Cleopatra, Queen of the Nile - a love story. To save money on scenery, her producer will film on location in Egypt. When Mimi and her entourage discover they have been assigned the same spot as Doc’s dig, the dirt starts flying. Local missionary priest Egitzio and his partner, Italian nun Febrizia, have an endless supply of authentic antiquities to sell at a very special price. Everyone is dying to get in on the action.
THE mystery at ‘the Orchards’
Last year’s saga, THE MYSTERY AT THE ORCHARDS, written by Tajlei Levis, was inspired by a true story of the glamorous Southern Vermont society set in the Gilded Age Southern Vermont Society set in 1920.
Industrialist Edward Everett, the Bottle Baron on Bennington, had previously invited friends and colleagues to celebrate the completion of his grand Southern Vermont mansion, The Orchards, and his 25th anniversary of marriage to his beloved wife Amy King Edwards. The invitations went out months ago- and all the society set is eager to attend.
However his house is not finished, (so the party will be at his friend James Wilbur’s mansion), the bottle business is struggling and his lovely wife is no longer in the picture. Who is to blame for these mysterious circumstances?
Was it the portrait painter or the pomologist? The harried housekeeper or the butler? The ambitious nurse? The jealous members of the garden club?
Attend a Gilded Age soiree and try to solve The Mystery of the Orchards.
Dress: Edwardian elegance or flapper flair.
Read all about last year’s mystery: The Dangerous Divorcee in The Bennington Banner:
Mark your calendar now: Mystery weekends are in November and April.
The Dangerous Divorcee
Last year’s saga (2018) was THE DANGEROUS DIVORCEE, written by Tajlei Levis, is inspired by Hollywood’s Golden Age movie musicals of the 1930’s made by RKO Pictures. RKO Pictures produced many of our favorite Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers musicals, with songs by Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin. RKO owned the Wilburton – and used it as an executive and celebrity retreat - until they sold it to the Levis family in 1987.
Return to the era of Hollywood glamour, in an immersive historical mystery whodunnit with professional actors and audience participation. Guests are invited to dress in 1930s finery, have a screen test, join the cast and crew of the film Dottie is producing. A photographer will be on hand to capture their style. Guests and characters dine together and join forces to solve the mystery.
Lovely Louise is tired of tea parties and golf. Seeking an escape from Vermont, she has been corresponding with a flamboyant European count. She yearns for a life of adventure and wants to take flying lessons. Her family wants her to marry a proper young banker in the social register, and sends her bossy friend Bernice (captain of the Barnard wrestling team) to make sure Louise shows up for the wedding.
Uncle Stewart is a captain of industry. Aunt Gogo is in show business, and has some experience at extravaganzas. Gogo has arranged for a photographer and a publicist, but the bridal party has its own secrets and jealousies. The champagne is being smuggled across Lake Champlain. But are those mysterious guests bootleggers or pirates?! And the groom is missing. Some people would do anything to stop a wedding…
Will this swanky soiree include getting away – with murder?
For the answers to these and other questions, join us at The Wilburton for a dinner party to die for, and try to solve The Case of the Bridesmaid’s Revenge.
