That is not to say that the show was phenomenal. It wasn’t. It was a solid show, and that’s a big win in my book.

Here are the facts:

The show, by Joseph Kesselring, took to the stage for the first time 70 years ago, but then a film came along and brought the show to the masses with a skilled performance by Cary Grant.

This version is set in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1941. It centers on Mortimer Brewster (played by Mario Penalver), a New York theater critic who finds himself finally set to marry his girlfriend (Valerie Jolibois), who lives next door to his aunts. 

 

It all seemed so simple. He stops by to tell his aunts the news only to find that they have an odd little hobby. They poison lonely men who visit their house in search of a room to rent. They see their murder streak as a service to their victims since the men are lonely and would be going to a better place. 

The bodies started piling up as did the gags and double takes. All of this happens in a living room of the house, so the set is fairly plain. But Paradise stocked it well with homey little things such as framed photos and the like. And springing off my column from last week where I complained about theaters staging shows with eating or drinking scenes only to have empty plates and coffee cups, it was nice to see that when these actors talked about biscuits they actually seemed to have some sort of bread product on their plates.

Such details are what made the show work. Nuance is everything. That is doubly true in the case of the real anchors of the show, Abby (Mary Lou Mills) and Martha Brewster (Liz Tomski), the murderers of the story. They steal each scene they are in with their performances, which are filled with little looks and gestures that make them perfect.

Toss in a brother who thinks he is Theodore Roosevelt (Howard Knickerbocker) and another one who seems to be a bit like the love child between Marquis de Sade and the bride of Frankenstien (Mike Schiller) and the show is rounded out and full of entertaining moments.

[Paradise Theatre, Arsenic and Old Lace, through Oct. 5, 7:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 3 p.m. Sunday, $8-$18, 9911 Burnham Dr. N.W., Gig Harbor, 253.851.PLAY, www.paradisetheatre.org]

Also on stage

• Broadway Center for the Performing Arts marks its 25th anniversary by staging A Salute to Vaudeville: Voice of the City, featuring Kevin Joyce of EnJoy Productions and the best of regional novelty artists. The idea behind the show is to transport the audience back to the age of vaudeville through music, comedy, acrobatics, and much more.
  
  
  
  [Pantages Theater, Saturday, Sept. 27, 7:30 p.m., $25-$65, Ninth and Broadway, Tacoma, 253.591.5894
  
   


• I Hate Hamlet, written by Paul Rudnick, centers on Andrew Rally, an up-and-coming actor who is coming off a successful TV role. He finds himself in a gothic apartment in New York City that was once owned by the legendary actor John Barrymore. 
  
  
  
  [Olympia Little Theater, through Oct. 5, 7:55 p.m. Thursday-Saturday, 1:55 p.m. Sunday, $10-$12 available at Yenney Music Co. on Harrison Ave. (360. 943.7500) or www.buyolympia.com/events, 1925 Miller Ave. N.E., Olympia, olympialittletheater.org]
  
   


• Lakewood Playhouse continues its run of the very funny Lucky Stiff, a show about a dead dude who tours the gambling world of Morocco as his last party before he gets planted into the ground. 
  
  
  
  [Lakewood Playhouse, through Oct. 5, 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday, $21-$24, 5729 Lakewood Towne Center Blvd. S.W. in the Lakewood Towne Center off exit 125, Lakewood, lakewoodplayhouse.org]