Staying Alive- Murder Mystery Dinner

This was the first murder mystery dinner we hosted, having given it to Mike's mom as a Christmas present since she's quite the thesbian! We also figured the 70's would be a fun theme to work with. These scripted murder mystery dinners usually do need to be snazzed up a bit!
"Story line: This mystery occurs in 1979 at the trendy Studio Manhattan, a chic and glamorous New York discotheque frequented by the rich and famous. Tonight's exclusive crowd of celebrities is feverishly dancing the Hustle to the throbbing rhythmic beat of disco. The music stops abruptly when the club's owner, Jackie Fever, is found murdered in her backstage office. The flamboyant Ms. Fever was fatally stabbed- obviously by someone she knew. You may be a suspect!
Suspects: John Revolting: New York City's reigning Disco Dance Champion, John is at the club to demonstrate his crowd-dazzling new version of the Bump. Athletic and handsome, Revolting seems to be making all the right moves in his quest for dance perfection.
Diana Rush: Chart-topping songstress Diana Rush is at Studio Manhattan to celebrate her new hit single "Won't Be Missing You". At the peak of her musical career, Diana has record company executives lining up at her door and fans screaming out her name.
Andy Warthog: A hip new artist creating quite a stir in the art world, Andy has streaked his way to celebrity status by painting portraits of trendy objects such as pet rocks and soda bottles. He believes everything and everyone deserves at least 15 minutes of fame.
Gloria Stunnem: An outspoken leader in the feminist movement, Gloria moved to New York to publish an exciting new women's magazine called "Sisterhood". Her burning passion is to teach women how to take control of their lives.
Bruce Leap: An international movie star and martial arts expert, Bruce is in New York to film his latest movie, Feet of Fury. Bruce, skilled in the use of every martial arts weapon known to man, insists he is a master of self-discipline and never loses his temper. Aieee!
Lyza M.: Professional dancer, singer and Broadway producer, this lady has it all. Lyza is high energy and loves to be center stage in every crowd. When not working, Lyza is the ultimate party girl who can be found in one of New York's hot spots almost every night of the week.
Sunny & Share: Popular singing duo and TV celebrities. Rumor has it they are splitting up and going their separate ways. Share wants to be a solo singer and movie star, while Sunny has political ambitions. I don't got you babe! "
We served the dinner at the dining table, but had the basement decorated like a 70's Disco. We hung a disco ball from the ceiling and had a projector displaying lots of pretty colors on the wall. At Deseret Industries we found plenty of 70's era records which we hung from the ceiling also, and hung their groovy covers on the walls. We tried to make everything colorful!
Everyone came in great costumes and really got into their characters! We even had Andy Warthog pull a surprise signature streak by running shirtless through the Disco (thank goodness my brother-in-law who played him is a modest guy and that's as far as it went)!
For the dinner we wanted to do fondue. However, we've eaten at the Melting Pot before and as yummy as the meat was it took a while to cook in our little fondue pot and we were pretty hungry while waiting for it. That was with just four people, and this was a party of eight. Plus we didn't have a burner in the middle of our table like those restaurants do. To simplify things, we cooked up some bite-size chicken pieces and just had several different dipping sauces available, BBQ, sweet and sour, marinara, ranch, and teriyaki. For dessert we had our chocolate fountain with a variety of stuff to dip.
In order to add some pizzazz to this theme, we had a disco dance-off between each round, first for the guys, then for the girls. I'd made a CD of sweet 70's music and had my little brother-in-law be the announcer and judge... just like that scene from Starsky and Hutch where Ben Stiller battles another guy on the dance floor. I think our moves were just as amazing!