Theatre 2025: Clue on Stage

So many of the plays that we watch each year are dramas which are intense, sad or even downright tragic.  While these shows are enlightening and enjoyable in their own way, I often wish for a lighthearted, fun comedy whose only goal is to entertain and make me laugh.  The play "Clue: On Stage" more than fit the bill.

The basis of the play Clue is the same-titled board game that was originally developed in the U.K. in 1943 under the name “Cluedo” before being released in North America as “Clue” in 1949.  Through questioning and the process of elimination, players try to deduce which of six possible suspects murdered “Mr. Boddy”, with what weapon and in which room within his manor.  The American version of the classic game has made the suspects, including Mrs. White, Mr. Green, Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Mrs. Peacock and Professor Plum, part of pop culture.  The game tokens match the colourfully named characters. The potential weapons include a rope, a knife, a candlestick, a wrench, a lead pipe and a revolver.  The murder takes place in one of nine locations in a manor including the Bathroom, Billiards Room, Conservatory, Dining Room, Hall, Kitchen, Library, Lounge or Study.  There are secret passageways connecting various rooms, making it quicker to traverse between some of the rooms.

The board game has inspired many adaptations in various formats including book, video game, movie, television series, TV game show and live theatre both as a comedy and a musical.  Now considered a cult classic, the 1985 movie Clue featured a star-studded cast including Eileen Brennan as Mrs. Peacock, Madeline Kahn as Mrs. White, Leslie Ann Warren as Miss. Scarlet, Christopher Lloyd as Professor Plum, Martin Mull as Colonel Mustard and Michael McKean as Mr. Green.  Additional characters added to the plot of the movie included Tim Curry as Wadsworth the Butler, and other actors playing Mr. Boddy, the French maid, the scary cook, and several others who show up at the manor.

Six strangers, each being blackmailed, are invited to dinner at a creepy manor by the mysterious Mr. Boddy.  When he winds up dead, the guests and staff work together to catch the killer before anyone else is killed.  By the finale, six bodies have piled up and it is up to the butler Wadsworth to hilariously reenact all that has happened and reveal the killer.

Acting as a parody of classic murder mysteries, the movie plays as a farcical, slapstick comedy with intentionally groan-inducing jokes, pratfalls and slamming doors while cleverly incorporating all the characters, weapons and rooms from the game.  Three endings are offered and when the movie first played in theatres, one of the three endings was randomly used at each. 

Adapted from the 1985 movie, the 2017 play "Clue: On Stage" maintains all of the salient plot points and much of the dialog from the movie, but amps up the jokes, slapstick and farce. The stage actors play their characters more broadly and larger-than-life, leaning into the caricatures and archetypes established in the movie while further accentuating quirks and tropes.  Colonel Mustard comes across as a pompous buffoon who is hard of hearing, leading to many humorous misunderstandings and some exchanges reminiscent of Abbott and Costello’s “Who’s On First” skit.  Miss Scarlet is the tough, sarcastic, sexy vamp. Mrs. White is a cold, morbid “Morticia Adams” type and possibly killer of multiple husbands. Mrs. Peacock is neurotic, a bit batty and quick to hysteria, giving off blood-curdling screams.  Professor Plum is an arrogant lothario and self-proclaimed ladies’ man.

For me, the two most interesting characters were Mr. Green and the butler Wadsworth, but for different reasons.  Mr. Green is timid, anxious, klutzy, effeminate and quick to declare his innocence as each death arises.  He is also extremely physically agile and acrobatic as he dodges, rolls, flips and bends to avoid danger.  In one scene, to avoid a crashing chandelier, Green performs a “limbo” move that has his body parallel to and almost touching the floor.  Wadsworth is a quick-talking British butler and the scene where he reenacts the evening’s events while mimicking all the other players is a tour-de-force.  Yet what caught my eye upon his first appearance and the thought that stayed with me throughout the show was how much the actor (Jeff Skowron) playing Wadsworth looked and acted like iconic Canadian actor Martin Short.

The set design in this play is extremely clever as it has to change quickly to represent the many rooms within Boddy Manor.  The main set where much of the action occurs is in the front hall, featuring a front door which all the characters arriving at the manor come in through, multiple doors on either side of the stage representing the many rooms of the manor, and two large chandeliers hanging in the hallway, which feature prominently in the plot.  Throughout the show, the doorbell rings repeatedly as more and more characters arrive through that front door.

Set pieces roll onto stage or descend from above to represent the various rooms, while multiple doors on either side of the stage are opened and closed in farcical manner during scenes when the search is on for the murderer.  In particular, the lounge, where each guest is deposited as he/she arrives, is configured on a rotating turntable.  With each additional guest, the door to the lounge swings wider and wider, exposing more of the furniture and décor of the room, and revealing the accumulating people being asked to wait there.

The stage version is fast-paced and manic but must use theatrical techniques to simulate movement including running in spot while the set changes around them and the stereotypical “chase music” plays.  The excellent choreography dictating the movement of the characters adds much to the humour.  One sight gag, repeated from the movie, has Miss Scarlett using a glass against a wall to eavesdrop on Waddsworth talking to Mr. Boddy.  Each subsequent guest presses their glass against the previous person, as if that would continue to amplify the sound.  The final joke occurs when Colonel Mustard, who is at the end of the chain, puts the glass against the wrong ear.

Trumping the movie’s three alternate endings, “Clue On Stage” offers up six different endings and a big, climatic, uproarious finale, leaving the audience laughing, cheering and thoroughly entertained.  Mission accomplished.