The Play That Goes Wrong

“My reactions ranged between thinking this play was exhaustingly funny to finding it just plain exhausting...Everything is pitched so aggressively, you wind up feeling as battered as the ensemble. I propose putting your rational mind into sleep mode, the better to savor tickling images of order-inverting bizarreness, straight out of Dada, in which suddenly nothing is in its customary place or being used for its customary purpose. There's a wild, redeeming poetry in such anarchy.”

“Under the go-for-broke direction of Mark Bell, its high-energy cast is comic gold and manages to sustain, with a never-ending series of diversionary tactics, its one-joke concept...It’s more lowbrow, interested in the gag and shameless in how it gets it: sometimes incredibly inventively, but sometimes going for the low-hanging fruit...Though it could benefit from some cutting, the production is an idiot’s delight...But it takes a while before the laughs come at full speed.”

“The show bears no small debt to Frayn’s classic farce, 'Noises Off,' but it pales by comparison...This effort is pure slapstick from first moment to last, and wears very thin over a two hour-plus running time...The production certainly fulfills its modest creative aspirations...There’s no paucity of wit to the proceedings, and Bell stages the action with clockwork precision...But for all the strenuous effort involved, the repetitive show evaporates in your mind the moment it concludes.”

“Depending on your tolerance for ceaseless slapstick, 'The Play That Goes Wrong' will either have you rolling in the aisles or rolling your eyes. It is certainly a marvel of coordination: The imported British cast deftly navigates the pitfalls of Nigel Hook’s ingeniously tumbledown set, and overacts with relish...But you may find it rather exhausting...It struggles to sustain interest in its series of absurdly unfortunate events. The show must go on, yes, but must it go on quite so long?”

“It’s so ridiculous it makes you feel almost ashamed to love it...The tumble from slapstick into absurdity is the best part of 'The Play That Goes Wrong'...Not that the stage tricks aren’t fun...But those tricks and carefully rehearsed ineptitudes are not, in the end, deeply satisfying, however well achieved they are...Though they let too much air out of the concept, shriveling somewhat its effectiveness and diminishing its buoyancy, I laughed at all of those things.”

“The greatest challenge becomes hearing the dialogue beyond the well-justified laughter...Silliness? Slapstick? Sure, but also a tribute to the valiant pseudo-professionalism of this imagined troupe...What Buster Keaton did with clock hands and Charlie Chaplin did with an old boot this cast accomplishes with murder...Mark Bell’s direction keeps an unrelenting pace that leaves the audience breathless and the actors clueless.”

“It’s funny. Sometimes it’s very, very funny, though you have to keep the faith through an almost appallingly tin-eared and flat-footed first act to get to the good stuff...An overabundance of non-sensical sight gags, slow burns, pratfalls, missed cues, wink-winks and the like dull the viewer’s senses and drag out a sophomoric sketch that would be sharper and funnier at an intermissionless 80 minutes. On the other hand...'The Play That Went Wrong' aspires to no higher goal than escapism.”

“An immersive, hilarious evening...Admittedly, two hours of nonstop pandemonium gets exhausting, and even with the intriguing character development (or degeneration), the curtain comes as a bit of a relief. (You can only cringe so many times before getting a cramp.) But on the whole, 'The Play That Goes Wrong' is just right: A ridiculously entertaining disaster.”

“The curtain rises and things go awry...It’s the stuff that makes for a funny 10-minute skit...Unfortunately, there’s another hour-and-a-half to go in this show. That’s a lot of time to spend trying to grin and bear it...The Mischief Theatre has a game cast that will try anything for a chuckle...But along the way they forsake the fact that comedy requires logic...A comedy that comes up short with laughs and overstays its welcome—now that’s murder.”

“'The Play That Goes Wrong' goes wrong so many times, in such mellifluous ways, and with such far-gone commitment to physical comedy...The rare farce with actual worth. A farce that bucks you up by reminding you of the great human capacity for resilience...The exceptional direction of the piece, by Mark Bell, embraces risk and danger to an extraordinary extent. That means 'The Play That Goes Wrong' never seems safe or comfortable in its own skin.”

“Forgoing pesky details like plot and character development, the two-act evening of visual gags - many worthy of a Mack Sennett silent - pieced together by bits of verbal silliness is one of those endeavors that charges onto the stage as a force of choreographed chaos...This reviewer found his enjoyment coming primarily from an appreciation of the comedic skills on display, rather than from the piece itself.”

“It’s official. We can laugh again. Time to go see The Play That Goes Wrong. Director Matt DiCarlo has let the cast loose on this wonderful farce with but one instruction: go for it. No laugh remains un-milked; no scene un-stolen; no wink un-winked. Not even the furniture is safe. At the zoo they tell you not to feed the animals, but for the actors of The Cornley University Drama Society, it is just the opposite. A steady diet of laughter and applause facilitates the breeding program. Thus the gags have gags, and double takes have given birth to triplets.”

“If it is cliché to say that a show has non-stop laughs, then this show is cliché in the extreme. If it is pat to say that this play lives up to its title, rarely have a talented crew of actors and technicians so seamlessly joined forces to make a ridiculously wrong piece of theater feel so very right...Director Matt DiCarlo, either a genius or a fool, pulls it all together with the nerves of a demolition expert handling a bomb with a dozen different triggers.”

““In this Henry Lewis-Jonathan Sayer-Henry Shields comedy where everything that can go wrong absolutely does, the result is one of the most laugh-filled works that has ever jollied a stage...The troupe of actors are not simply good; they’re gallant to the point where they should be getting hazard pay...Special mention goes to Johnson’s original sound design and to Falconer’s original music, which is everything the music to a thriller.””

““The rickety amateur-theatrical scenery is even more rickety than before; shoehorned onto a considerably smaller stage...The cast is new...The present troupe is more than satisfactory...'The Play That Goes Wrong’ still proceeds like a well-oiled clock that doesn’t actually keep time. But it is not quite up to speed...This will come, sure; but they are not quite there, yet...Even so, the comedic fever pitch as ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ remains rambunctiously boisterous.””

“If you're looking for a cure from the winter blues, a way to forget your personal troubles or just enjoy laughing until you're blue in the face for two hours, there can be little argument that 'The Play that Goes Wrong' has all the right stuff.”

“An uproarious theatrical experience unlike any other – and one that will have you laughing until your sides ache...Each cast member performs with unique comic flair...One thing is certain: 'The Play That Goes Wrong' will have you laughing nonstop from the first moment to the last. 'The Murder at Haversham Manor' may be a disaster, but 'The Play That Goes Wrong' is a brilliant success.”

““From its misprinted title on the Playbill program cover—which appears as if it had been erroneously offset by the printer—to its continual presentation of pratfalls and slapstick gags, ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ is a sheer delight. It should not come as a surprise that three of the eight cast members (Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields) wrote this escapist and frivolous entertainment, which presents a trite murder mystery called ‘The Murder at Haversham Manor.’””

“Under Mark Bell’s direction, the ensemble cast delivers a high-energy, brilliantly acted farce that celebrates the magic of the theatre by highlighting its foibles—a resplendent conception concocted by writers Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields...A gift to audience members: two hours to let their guard down and allow themselves to laugh again...Your brain will thank you for the resplendent release of endorphins and the boost in happiness and well-being.”

““A machine that grinds out laugh after laugh…Technically, the orchestration of sight gags and slapstick on Nigel Hook's brilliantly rigged set is highly impressive. But is it actually, y'know, funny? As a lover of British humor...I have to say that an hour of this stunt is plenty for me. Cumulatively, it's farce on steroids, without any brains. I'd be lying to say I laughed as much as the people around me. Glad they had a good time. Me, I need a little substance to ground the guffaws.””

“Little more than a procession of gags, sometimes executed with tremendous dexterity, but most of them unconnected to anything resembling reality. They are gags for gags' sake...The pace is so relentless and the absence of anything but gags, gags, gags quickly wore out its welcome...If you don't find the first ten minutes amusing, settle in for a long night. If you find yourself laughing early on, you've come to the right place.”

“Go see this play. There is NOTHING wrong with 'The Play That Goes Wrong.' Unless you've got something against laughing...My only quibbles with this production are that the last ten minutes or so happen so fast with so much falling apart on the stage that the intricate and hilarious story dissolves, along with everything else, before our eyes. What should have been fireworks is more like a fizzle...Nevertheless–get thee thither. Trust me. You need this much laughing.”

“Uproariously funny...I was uninhibitedly laughing aloud through much of the mayhem created on stage by this superb gang of actors who show themselves to be expert in physical comedy as well as dialogue meant to go with raised eyebrows...Under the direction of Mark Bell, the mayhem persists with ingenious complications at virtually every turn...I could bestow an ensemble award for the lot, so smoothly do they mesh into the overall hysteria.”

“An intricately planned fiasco...It takes incredible skill to pull off such bungling, and Mark Bell’s production nails every spit take and sight gag...Where Frayn went for three dimensions, Mischief Theatre settles for two—but that’s enough to sustain both acts, just barely. The show is pure comedic eye candy, and technically flawless. It’s closer to synchronized swimming or fight choreography than to its more contemplative theatrical cousins, revealing almost nothing about the human condition.”