Can you turn a board game into a play? ‘Clue' at Mirvish tries, but doesn't successfully roll the dice

Toronto Star

6 days ago

Clue
2.5 stars (out of 4)
By Sandy Rustin, based on the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, directed by Casey Hushion. Until June 8 at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St. W. mirvish.com or 1-800-461-3333
'Clue,' the whodunit murder mystery now running at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, is itself a bit of a mystery. But the clue to cracking open this 'Clue' is right in its subtitle.
Sandy Rustin's 80-minute comedy is billed as being 'Live On Stage!,' a tag line suggesting it hews closely to its source materials: the popular board game of the same name and Jonathan Lynn's 1985 movie spinoff, which featured the likes of Christopher Lloyd and Madeline Kahn.
Indeed, for better or for worse, this stage product is a faithful translation of the board game and the movie, as if both were plucked out of their original mediums and dropped onto the stage. Fans of either will almost certainly delight in this latest adaptation, filled with rewarding Easter eggs and directed with exasperating physicality by Casey Hushion.
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But judged as a piece of theatre alone, 'Clue' plays it far too safe and, as a result, never completely satisfies. It's not just that Rustin's comedy rarely finds success in rolling the dice; often, it doesn't even dare to touch the dice.
The play's setup is simple enough: six individuals, each concealing their true identities with aliases, receive a curious invitation to a dinner party at Boddy Manor.
There's Colonel Mustard (David Hess), a blockheaded Pentagon official; Mr. Green (John Shartzer), a skittish government worker; Miss Scarlet (Sarah Hollis), a seductive brothel manager; Mrs. Peacock (Jennifer Allen), the wife of a prominent U.S. senator; Professor Plum (Evan Zes), who's employed by the United Nations; and Mrs. White (understudy Mary McNulty, on for Donna English on opening night), a serial wife whose husbands have been mysteriously murdered or disappeared.
The cast of the North American touring company of 'Clue.'
Evan Zimmerman/Mirvish
The guests all share one thing in common: they're Washington, D.C., insiders each being blackmailed by Mr. Boddy (Mark Jude Sullivan), who's arranged this meeting in an attempt to settle some scores.
The evening, however, stewarded by the buttoned-up butler Wadsworth (Jeff Skowron), soon goes south when the lights turn off and Mr. Boddy is turned into a lifeless body. And when the lights turn back on, it's up to the sextet — joined by Wadsworth — to deduce who among them is the killer, before the cops arrive and arrest them all.
Much of the fun of this production is seeing a top-notch cast embody these larger-than-life characters. Allen, especially, is a hoot as the haughty Mrs. Peacock. So too are Skowron as Wadsworth and an incredibly acrobatic Shartzer as Mr. Green.
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Lee Savage's scenic designs also do a lot of the heavy lifting. Boddy Manor is rendered here with brilliant detail — complete with side rooms, trap doors and mysterious passageways.
But none of these elements can quite help this production overcome the faults in Rustin's stilted script. Aside from the physical comedy, many of the jokes fall flat. And Rustin's dialogue seems more concerned about shuffling the characters from one part of the stage (or board) to another, than developing the play's narrative. When we're through, there are so many plot holes that the final twist ending feels like an easy cop-out.
Throughout, I wished the material took more risks and embraced its theatrical setting, instead of borrowing so much from Lynn's dated screenplay. (A running gag about Mr. Green being a homosexual Republican should have been excised long before this production ever made it to the stage.)
The cast of the North American touring company of 'Clue.'
Evan Zimmerman/Mirvish
Another missed opportunity: the play could have further explored the political subtext that's tantalizingly teased at the top of the show, then later all but forgotten.
In the end, if 'Clue' too neatly resolves its mystery, there remains one unanswered question hanging over this production: why did a hugely successful board game IP need to receive such a thoroughly mediocre theatrical brand extension?