Whether It's Right or Wrong, It's Really Funny!

By Darlene Donloe

The hilarity starts immediately in The Play That Goes Wrong, the Tony Award-winning hit Broadway comedy currently playing at the Ahmanson Theatre through August 11, 2019.

While the audience is walking into the theater, several stagehands are putting the finishing touches on the stage. There’s a problem with the main door continuously opening and a mantelpiece that won’t stay put.  That’s just the beginning. Things get worse!

Hang on to your hats - it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

This Los Angeles debut is everything it has been hyped up to be.

The madcap production is a comedy about – what else - the theatre.

So the story goes like this - The ‘Cornley University Drama Society’ are attempting to put on a 1920s murder mystery called, The Murder at Haversham Manor, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong…does.  I mean this show makes the Keystone Cops look like Scotland Yard. One after the other the actors and even some of the crew become a clumsy, bumbling bunch of thespians.

One of the funniest bits is when Jonathan (Yaegel T. Welch), the man who was allegedly murdered, doesn’t know how to stay dead. He reacts when an actor steps on his hand. He reacts again when an actor sits on the couch, drops a tray on his head and more. You get the idea. He gets so tired of actors stepping on his hand that he slowly moves it – as if the audience can’t see him moving. At one point he even sits up, he pushes people off of him, and he even comes in on scenes where he is not supposed to appear.  At one point two characters are supposed to remove his body from the stage but to no avail. Jonathan hilariously removes himself by slinking out the room on the floor and eventually even standing and just walking out.  Welch is brilliant in his delivery.

Jamie Ann Romero plays Sandra, Jonathan’s fiancé, who keeps getting knocked out of the play. While unconscious, Annie (Angela Grovey) a stagehand who has a lot more girth than Sandra, appears in a similar dress to take over the role.  It’s frickin, off-the-charts funny because Annie doesn’t know the lines or the blocking. Eventually, Sandra makes her way back to the show – but by that time Annie is all-in and doesn’t want to relinquish the role. Zany doesn’t even begin to describe the chaos.

Ned Noyes brings the funny. Smelling himself, he keeps playing to the audience for laughs.  He gives himself kudos throughout the show bowing frequently and cheesing to the crowd at every turn.

Another hilarious bit is when four actors say the same lines about eight times in a row – as they try to get the one actor to say the right line. Because he keeps missing the line, they are forced to go around and around saying the same thing until the actor finally figures out his mistake.

Kudos to the set designer who is the integral reason why Peyton Crim was able to pull off a brilliant bit. As the second floor slowly starts to collapse, Crim is trying to keep a chair, desk, plant, and globe from crashing to the floor, all the while trying to keep himself from doing the same. It’s a hoot and a holla and one of the best scenes in the show.

What a disastrously, entertaining night of theater. This play within a play has so many rip-roaring, slapstick moments that it’s hard to write about them all. The two-act play is a nonstop chaotic romp that moves from one frantic moment to the next.  From the very beginning, things fall, they break, the move, they collapse and they crash. People drop lines, upstage each other, give each other the stank eye, whisper under their breath, move when they are not supposed to, forget to move when they are supposed to, mishandle props, move props, and drink things they are not supposed to.

Some bits wear out their welcome – but other bits and pieces make up for it.

The cast is in constant motion. They have to be athletic, have great timing, and of course, be able to deliver the comedy. 

Everyone in the show brings their A-game!

The Play That Goes Wrong co-written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields is directed by Matt DiCarlo, with original Broadway direction by Mark Bell.

The national tour features Scott Cote as Dennis, Peyton Crim as Robert, Brandon J. Ellis as Trevor, Angela Grovey as Annie, Ned Noyes as Max, Jamie Ann Romero as Sandra, Evan Alexander Smith as Chris and Yaegel T. Welch as Jonathan. The cast also features Blair Baker, Jacqueline Jarrold, Sid Solomon, and Michael Thatcher.

Kudos to Nigel Hook (scenic design), Roberto Surace (costume design), Ric Mountjoy (lighting design), and Andrew Johnson (sound design).

The Play That Goes Wrong, Ahmanson Theatre,135 Grand, Los Angeles, 8 p.m. Tues-Fri; 2 and 8 p.m. Sat.; 1 and 6:30 p.m.; no performance on Mondays: added 2 p.m. performance on Thurs., Aug. 8; no 6:30 p.m. performance on Sun., Aug. 11; through August 11;  $30-$135; 213 972-4400 or www.CenterTheatreGroup.org

Running time: 2 hours and 15 minutes, including intermission.

On the DONLOE SCALE: D (don’t bother), O (oh, no), N (needs work), L (likable), O (oh, yeah) and E (exceptional), The Play That Goes Wrong gets an E (exceptional).