Olympia Little Theatre has harpooned a Moby-Dick of a show with Red Herring. Its production opens on Maggie, a brassy Bostonian cop. Her partner in love and heroism, Frank, is trying to convince her to marry him. She pumps the brakes, claiming eagerness to solve the case of a body at the pier. And we take off from there, meeting characters from nordern Wiscahhhnsin, Soviet Russia and northern Texuhs who take us on an escapade of humorous proportions.

No production is perfect, so (as I heard a comedian say recently), let's build this up like a sandwich: compliment, constructive criticism, compliment. The script is witty and sharp, and the show's opening moves quickly with help from actors Kathryn Philbrook and Alex Johnson. Their chemistry is great, and both have a feel for the timing of a one-liner. Their Bostonian accents are enjoyable, too, but not so thick that I couldn't understand them. Bravo! Other standout performances included Stephanie Kroschel as the naïve Midwest girl whose fiancé asks too much of her, and Phil Folan as a Russian bad boy who does what he does only for love (or vodka).

The biggest challenge for the show and its director, Toni Holm, was the execution of multiple scene changes. (Were there really 41?) It made me wonder what the playwright was thinking. The cast of 12 helped move the set around, and there were some clever transitions, but I felt the overall conception of these changes was a missed opportunity. Since we're in the realm of comedy, it would've been very effective to add humor to the scene changes as well. Instead of having set handlers waiting in the wings for a drunken character to clear the stage completely, have that character maneuver his way through the moving set pieces. Make it a ballet, if you will, and let's see some hustle in the set movement. Scene changes probably take up a fourth of the running time, so either make them interesting, or make them move quickly! 

I mentioned the cast of 12. This again makes me question playwright Michael Hollinger's sanity, as some characters were on stage only for a minute. There were definite highlights among these bit characters. Rick Pearlstein is the gold nugget of the show, using his whole body to transform completely into three different people; he had the audience in stitches. We also wanted more of Andrea Weston-Smart. Her short scene was a highlight, so I would love to see her tackle a larger comic role.

You want comedy? You want mystery? You want drama? You get a little of everything in a true crowd pleaser.

RED HERRING, 7:55 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, 1:55 p.m. Sunday, through Nov. 9, Olympia Little Theatre, 1925 Miller Ave. NE, Olympia, $10-$14, 800.838.3006