REVIEW: Meryl Streep helps 'Only Murders in the Building' lean into Broadway roots

Meryl Streep doesn’t have a problem blending in.

In the new season of “Only Murders in the Building,” she’s a struggling actress who lands a part in a Broadway play, then becomes one of the suspects when the leading man winds up dead.

Because he’s an obnoxious celebrity, Ben Glenroy (Paul Rudd) has plenty of co-stars, friends, enemies and stalkers who would want him dead.

On opening night of their hoary drama, Ben drops over. The show can’t go on -- or can it?

When Oliver (Martin Short) gets the bright idea to turn it into a musical, the mystery finds new life and plenty of clues for his podcast with Charles (Steve Martin) and Mabel (Selena Gomez).

Streep’s Loretta Durkin is excited because it could be the big break she has been looking for. Even better, she gets a good number in the musical version.

So “inside baseball,” the new season fits the stars better than previous outings. It hints at retracing steps, but the over-the-top production numbers make it more of an original than even “Schmigadoon.”

Likely suspects? Oh yeah. Among them: Kimber (Ashley Park), who has an outside connection to Ben; a documentarian (Jesse Williams), who’s chronicling Ben’s return; a beloved makeup artist (Andrea Martin); and a stalker who has more paraphernalia than a museum curator.

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In the cast there are plenty of real Broadway regulars.. Wesley Taylor has a fun turn as a producer’s son (who’s funding the show with mom’s money); Tony winner Jeremy Shamos has great breakdowns as Ben’s manager.

Toss in Don Darryl Rivera, Gerald Caesar and, of course, Streep and this becomes a crossover of the highest order. For Short it’s a fertile playground. He finally gets back on Broadway and then must figure out how to keep a seemingly dead horse going.

When Loretta invites him to her apartment, “Only Murders” becomes the slapstick comedy Short has been longing for. Streep plays right into his hand. She has all the credentials (a cruise ship production of “Charlotte’s Web,” for example) and a way with a song that could land its creators an Emmy nomination.

Martin, meanwhile, finds himself in the heat of the production. When it shifts to a musical, he’s forced to do a patter song -- something non-singers get in a musical. That sends him into a tizzy and prompts him to find a way to remember the words. When he’s asked to complain about the script, he simply says, “I come from television and I was trained not to question the script.”

On so many levels, this season’s shows deliver.

Just when you think you’ve narrowed in on the killer, the field broadens. The show’s writers manage to drop plenty of insider intel (Bernadette Peters gets name-checked) and reference lots of New York regulars.

Thankfully, Rudd broadens the focus, borrowing a bit from James Marsden’s “Jury Duty” playbook to make Ben’s “Co-bro” the kind of Marvel character you’d love to hate. He toys with all the cast at the first read-through and appears enough in flashbacks to make this seem like another “Murder on the Orient Express.”

The success of other mysteries only adds to the suspense. While the podcast is faintly mentioned, Mabel, Oliver and Charles do get a chance to play amateur sleuths. They also find love interests and a way to make “Only Murders” the only smart mystery that doesn’t bear Rian Johnson’s fingerprints.

“Only Murders in the Building” airs on Hulu.