Review: ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ creates madcap energy to bring out the laughs
Every generation deserves a breakneck backstage farce about a doomed production, a thrillingly unintellectual piece where a hundred things go wrong in perfect order, at top speed and with actors expertly prepared to sail through “mishaps” that leave us helpless with laughter. These must be left to professionals; the moment amateur actors miss a cue or slow the pace or show the strain of performing, the illusion collapses.
My generation had “Noises Off,” the 1982 masterpiece I was lucky enough to see in its original Broadway run. Now we have its spiritual child, “The Play That Goes Wrong.” It’s no coincidence that each won an Olivier Award (London’s Tony) for best new comedy, and the touring cast that reached Knight Theater on Tuesday in the Broadway Lights series handles absurdity with aplomb.
Where the play-within-a-play in “Noises Off” was a door-slamming sex farce, the one in “Goes Wrong” is a mystery titled “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” On one level, you can enjoy the clue-assembling process — there really is a mystery, though it’s hard to follow among the chaos — but you’re really there to watch this production by the “Cornley University Drama Society” come apart at its threadbare seams.
Revealing any surprises would be a crime. Suffice to say that “Goes Wrong,” concocted by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, spaces them out cleverly, with hard knocks to skulls slightly outnumbering spit takes and pieces of the set falling down. (Nigel Hook earned his 2018 Tony for best scenic design.)
The show borrows from The Three Stooges, Monty Python, Buster Keaton, Red Skelton, the Goon Show and other classic comedies from the 20th century. Yet it has a vibe all its own. Director Matt DiCarlo, who has reworked the Broadway production directed by Mark Bell, understand that farces depend not purely on frenzy but on pacing: We need time to laugh between the big gags, and we need moments — though not too many — where the action stops completely for us to catch up with the calamities.
Eight madcap actors get help from a couple of stagehands who rightly take a bow for making everything go wrong. It’s impossible to single one out above the others, though Chris Lanceley deserves special mention for dressing down the audience with a well-placed, faux-spontaneous rant. He plays Chris Bean, director and star of “Haversham,” whose horror at the production’s collapse builds until he explodes. (Near the end, I thought I saw him express genuine surprise when an object almost too small to see landed on his head at the end of a gag.)
Be sure to read Chris Bean’s letter to the audience and bios of the Cornley cast. There’s even a wonderful fake program ad for Robert Grove’s School for Acting Perfectly, in which Grove promises to teach the “approved acting skills:” reacting, gesturing and emotioning. If you miss “Gone Wrong,” you won’t get a chance to see emotioning like this for a long, long time.
“The Play That Goes Wrong”
WHEN: Through Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday. Audio Description and ASL provided at Sunday matinee Nov. 24.
WHERE: Knight Theater, 430 N. Tryon St.
RUNNING TIME: 130 minutes with one intermission.
TICKETS: $20-$129.50.
DETAILS: 704-372-1000 or blumenthalarts.org.
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This story was originally published November 20, 2019 at 1:35 PM.