Before it all falls fabulously apart in The Play That Goes Wrong, and every sort of onstage disaster befalls the hapless cast of the play within the play, we have to believe that these members of a local drama society truly believe in their little production that could.
That indefatigable determination and showmanship was baked into the comic soufflé by the show’s creators Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields of London’s Mischief Theatre Company, and it courses through the gung-ho cast of Keegan Theatre’s new production of The Play That Goes Wrong, directed by Michael Innocenti.
This company captures the heedless resolve of the Cornley Drama Society players to soldier through opening night of the seemingly cursed whodunnit The Murder at Haversham Manor — hopefully, before the whole set caves in. For Innocenti’s sprightly staging, the set by Keegan’s resident scenic designer and technical director Josh Sticklin is a mechanical marvel… [and] the timing and execution of the play’s many mishaps are hysterically on-target, as is the precise choreography of the cast’s gag-a-minute slapstick, swooning, and swordplay.
Jimmy Bartlebaugh, elastically funny at the physical comedy, is full of surprises as Max, the cast member hamming it up in the murder-mystery as rich heir Cecil Haversham, brother of the murder victim. As the actor portraying said murder victim, Jared H. Graham makes a great running joke of constantly turning up un-murdered elsewhere in the play. In a fruitful gender-switch, Rebecca Ballinger is droll fun as doddering Dennis, the actor playing doddering butler Perkins in this Drama Society disaster. And Leah Packer practically exemplifies pluck as unstoppable starlet Sandra, determined not to be sidelined from her part as the murder victim’s lover, Florence.
Everything that can go wrong may go wrong for the Cornley Drama Society players, but they have a show to do, and, most importantly, they have an audience, so if the ceiling crashes in, who cares? Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.
