From the Casebook of Elliot Brick

The Case of the
Santa Sham Scam

A Full-Length Interactive Christmas Musical Comedy Murder Mystery

Even the North Pole has a naughty list.
A quiet North Pole workshop at night with snow outside, Santa's coat, Elliot Brick's fedora and notebook, a lantern, Publisher's Clearing House identification, and a candy cane tagged as evidence.

The Case

Synopsis

Private eye Elliot Brick has been drinking his way through the holidays ever since his secretary ran off with his partner—and the office furniture. When a wealthy divorcée pays him in Monopoly money to track down her ex-husband, Brick follows the trail from the streets of the city all the way to the North Pole, where he finds an operation in worse shape than his own. Santa's wife has been gone six months, “vacationing” in the Bahamas with a man named Jose. Half the workforce is down with Dutch Elves Disease. And Santa's black-sheep brother has just turned up looking for a handout—with a casino enforcer close behind him.

By the time the body turns up, impaled on a candy cane, everyone at the North Pole has a motive, and nobody's story adds up. It falls to the audience—recruited into six roles including a Bahamas-bound Mrs. Claus, a suspicious informant, and a police nemesis who's since joined the Mounties—to sort fact from alibi before the sleigh has to fly.

A holiday mystery told through musical parody and constant audience interplay, The Santa Sham Scam keeps its investigation moving at the pace of a Christmas Eve deadline no one gets to postpone.

The machine keeps running.

North Pole Operations Center

Every delivery. Every child. Every year.

A crowded North Pole operations board with flight plans, reindeer assignments, weather reports, workshop production figures, maintenance checklists, personnel files, and Brick's investigation notes.

Feature Artifact

Santa's Desk

An abandoned command post: route maps, Nice List pages, cocoa, spectacles, personnel files, and a dispatch binder still open to Christmas Eve. The office tells the story before anyone does.

Santa's desk with a sleigh dispatch binder, route map, travel authorization for Mrs. Claus, and Elliot Brick's notebook spread.

Items recovered from the case.

Evidence Locker

Evidence from the Santa Sham Scam including Brick's identification, a Bahamas postcard, sleigh schedule, Naughty List, casino marker, employee badge, candy cane evidence, travel authorization, and maintenance logs.

Six Guest Roles

The audience doesn't watch the investigation. They become part of it.

Elliot Brick recruits six willing guests before the mystery begins, coaches them privately, and gives each a small comic role designed for success—not embarrassment.

Mrs. ClausJoseThree FingersApple AnnieBlinkie the StoolieLt. Cleftjaw

From the Notebook

The craft behind the case

Production & Licensing

Bring the case to your audience.

If you're considering The Case of the Santa Sham Scam for your season, New Play Exchange provides complete production information, cast details, and availability. You may also contact Butch Maxwell directly to request the script or download the production excerpt.

Continue the Investigation

The Elliot Brick Collection