The time is right to see THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, Broadway's funniest and longest-running play! This Olivier Award-winning comedy is a hilarious hybrid of Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes. Welcome to opening night of The Murder at Haversham Manor where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. With an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can't play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines), it's "A RIOTOUS EXPLOSION OF COMEDY!" (The Daily Beast) and "TONS OF FUN FOR ALL AGES!" (HuffPost). Ben Brantley of The New York Times calls THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG "A GUT-BUSTING HIT," and Cindy Adams of the New York Post has just one word for you: "GO!" Get tickets now – it would be WRONG to wait!
Trying to describe why a comedy strikes you as unfunny is about as fruitless as trying to describe why it had you in stitches. 'The Play That Goes Wrong' falls squarely into the category of things that you'll like if you like that sort of thing. (See: The Three Stooges, performance art involving self-mutilation, cruises aboard megaships.) I can't say I had to climb over patrons rolling in the aisles as I made my way out of the theater, but duty demands that I report that portions of the audience appeared to find the antics worthy of exercising their diaphragm muscles, even as the authors return to the shallow waters of their comic well repeatedly. (A joke about whiskey being replaced, for no logical reason, with a more toxic brew, causing the actors to sputter and spew, was worn threadbare well before intermission.)
All the context you'll need to deal with at the Lyceum's latest offering, Britain's Mischief Theatre import, The Play That Goes Wrong, is right there in the title. Forgoing pesky details like plot and character development, the two-act evening of visual gags - some worthy of a Mack Sennet silent - pieced together by bits of verbal silliness is one of those endeavors that charges onto the stage as a force of choreographed chaos, bombarding the audience with so many jabs to the funny bone that even if only a third of them strike properly you're in for a sufficient number of laughs.
2017 | Broadway |
Original Broadway Production Broadway |
2019 | US Tour |
North American Tour US Tour |
2021 | West End |
West End Transfer West End |
2021 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway Transfer Off-Broadway |
Year | Ceremony | Category | Nominee |
---|---|---|---|
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Direction of a Play | Mark Bell |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Play | The Play That Goes Wrong |
2017 | BroadwayWorld Awards | Best Sound Design of a Play | Andrew Johnson |
2017 | Drama Desk Awards | Outstanding Set Design for a Play | Nigel Hook |
2017 | Drama League Awards | Outstanding Production of a Broadway or Off-Broadway Play | The Play That Goes Wrong |
2017 | Outer Critics Circle Awards | Outstanding Set Design (Play or Musical) | Nigel Hook |
2017 | Tony Awards | Best Scenic Design of a Play | Nigel Hook |
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