According to an article in The New York Times "...Pat Carroll stars in this show...which had an airing at Goodspeed in 1973, will be on the tryout trail all summer long, making stops at, among others, the Lakewood Theater in Skowhegan, Maine..."[5][6][7][8] Something's Afoot received two Joseph Jefferson awards for its Chicago production.
Directed and choreographed by Tony Tanner, the cast included Tessie O'Shea (Miss Tweed), Gary Beach (Nigel), and Liz Sheridan (Lady Manley-Prowe).
A 1982 stage performance in London, starring Jean Stapleton as Miss Tweed and Andy Gibb as Geoffrey, was taped live with a theatre audience, for broadcast by Showtime Networks.
The guests—flighty Hope Langdon, proper Doctor Grayburn, black sheep nephew Nigel Rancour, supposedly French grande dame Lady Manley-Prowe, retired military Colonel Gillweather, and artist/detective Miss Tweed—express surprise at the presence of other guests, but look forward to their stay.
("A Marvelous Weekend") Soon after they arrive, Clive announces that a storm has made the estate inaccessible, the power is in danger, Lord Rancour is dead, and that dinner is served.
Miss Tweed, Hope, and Lettie comfort Lady Manley-Prowe about her fears ("Carry On") and the women patrol the mansion with ornamental spears.
("I Don't Know Why I Trust You") Nigel confronts Lady Manley-Prowe about a letter he finds from her begging Lord Rancour for money.
He recognizes the poison and diagnoses that he has five minutes to live, but most of his time is taken up by Miss Tweed confiding in him about Flint's "gripper" tendencies and the discovery of Nigel.
He is finally able to reveal Rancour's heir to Miss Tweed—Hope Langdon, whom he realizes is his daughter by Lady Manley-Prowe—before succumbing, dignified, to the poison.
Lettie panics at the mounting pile of bodies in the library and the survivors decide to pack up and leave as soon as climatically possible.
While the others are doing so, Hope expresses her joy at finding someone like Geoffrey ("You Fell Out of the Sky") and nearly misses being hit by the falling chandelier.
Lettie turns the gas on to make tea, but is distracted by Flint, who offers a means of escape by proposing they take his boat off the island.
He had killed her parents and himself so that she would never have the burden of a guardian, Clive because he had known of the existence of a child, Doctor Grayburn because he had delivered her, and Miss Tweed because she had been Hope's nanny.
Rancour explains that each murder was planned according to the victim's habits: Clive punctually announced dinner on the stairs at 7:15, for example, when the bomb was to be set off.