To See or Not to See: The Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong, a transfer from London to Broadway, is a slapstick comedy that makes for a lighthearted theater outing.

Written by Henry Shields, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Lewis, three of the actors in this play-within-a-play, The Play That Goes Wrong has been running on the West End in London for several years and won an Olivier Award for Best New Comedy. Considering the general lack of good comedies on stage—and that it had the audiences in stitches almost the entire time—it makes sense why this play is such a hit.

The conceit of The Play That Goes Wrong is a familiar one: an amateur theater company is putting on a show. In this case, it is the Cornley University Drama Society’s production of a murder mystery entitled “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” It is a typical whodunit-style murder mystery in the vein of Clue and Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap.

From the start, things begin to go wrong. Charles Haversham (Greg Tannahill), the manor’s owner, is found dead in his study by his butler Perkins (Jonathan Sayer) and best friend Thomas Colleymoore (Henry Lewis). The actor playing Charles has trouble acting dead. He fidgets, he gets his hand stepped on, and he opens his eyes to peek around stage. To discover how Charles died, Perkins and Thomas call in Charles’s dramatic fiancée (and Thomas’s sister), Florence Colleymoore (Charlie Russell), and Charles’s brother Cecil Haversham (Dave Hearn). They arrive on the scene after much trouble with a stuck set door. They are soon followed by the arrival of Inspector Carter (Henry Shields).

As the Inspector tries to find out what happened and we learn secrets about some of the characters, many set pieces fail, break, and fall down (inducing many audience laughs). So, Trevor (Rob Falconer), the play-within-a-play’s sound and lighting manager, and Annie (played by Bryony Corrigan when I saw it; normally played by Nancy Zamit), their stage manager has to step in. They pretend to be mantelpieces and scurry onstage with forgotten props, sometimes with hilarious results. And, when the leading lady gets accidentally knocked unconscious during a scene, Annie must fill in for her. Naturally, lines are flubbed throughout the play by several cast members, and the audience is acknowledged. The fourth wall is broken many times particularly by the hilarious Cecil (a superb Dave Hearns). Once he gets a laugh for his performance, he turns—in awe of himself—and promptly does the same performance to get another laugh. It does. Every time.

Director Mark Bell certainly has worked tirelessly with the cast to get the physical comedy and technical comedy of the show down to an exact science. In fact, the entire cast excelled at physical comedy—which is no small feat. Making getting hit in the face with a door and promptly collapsing look entirely believable takes skill. There were, however, a few jokes that were too sustained (like the inspector looking for the ledger in the couch, or using paint thinner as a prop to drink instead of whisky or colored water). While those type of gags were tiresome to me, though, many audience members continuously laughed. Overall, the play was finely executed at a brisk pace that makes you admire the entire cast and crew of The Play That Goes Wrong for making it all look so seamless and easy.

For more information and to buy tickets, click here.

Photo Credit: Alistair Muir