THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONg

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONg

at the Emerson Colonial Theatre, Boston MA

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONg is the Tony-Award winning London import now touring across America. Currently enjoying multiple extensions in New York, PLAY introduces an amateur theatre company attempting to produce a murder mystery.

As the title suggests, what can go wrong will go wrong in this relentlessly hilarious production that opened Wednesday evening in Boston MA. 

Anchored by the deliciously dry Evan Alexander Smith, portraying the play-within-the-play’s director and star, the audience is welcomed by his charm. He is paired with a stellar cast who re-examines the argument for a Tony Award for Outstanding Ensemble. 

Scott Cote, Peyton Crim, Brandon J. Ellis, Angela Grovey, Ned Noyes, Jamie Ann Romero, and Yaegel T. Welch display not only impeccable timing and precision, but also ultimate trust with and dependability on one another. It is truly impressive to witness the actors sustain this level of physicality as well their characters’ attempts to remain professional and under control.

Director Matt DiCarlo has choreographed the ultimate Schadenfreude meets Noises Off! on acid.

Then we have the well-deserving Tony-award winning Set by Nigel Hook. Not only has he created a set that looks like it was built by a local theatre troupe, but also it must endure the treatment it receives during each performance as well as convey safety to the audience members.

One of the reasons why PLAY works so well is the script penned by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. Despite the title, they manage to keep the show from being a one-joke wonder by peppering it with word play, on-stage drama, missed cues, and organized chaos. Yes, there is plenty of physical humor, and all of it very creative and original.

Another reason why the play succeeds is because there is actual script within the show! And in spite of – or maybe because of – the action, we can still follow the murder mystery and are never truly distracted!

Those of us who perform in the theatre can certainly relate to occasional hiccups that sometimes occur during performances. One hopes that it would never reach this extreme!

This English farce will certainly have you laughing – or at the very least smiling – for over two hours, because it gets everything right!