INDIANAPOLIS — Perhaps you’ve noticed the 3 by 10-inch ads in the Greenfield Daily Reporter promoting an upcoming Broadway Indianapolis production of something called “The Play That Goes Wrong.”
It’s “A gut-busting hit!” according to the New York Times. “Hilarious. Non-stop pandemonium” claims Entertainment. Excuse my name-dropping, but having seen this show on the Broadway stage in the heart of New York City’s theater district, those two one-sentence reviews are an understatement. If you love good theater, phenomenally-timed slapstick, chaos and disaster, then you should immediately pick up your phone and call Ticketmaster to reserve your seats. I’ll wait.
And now that you have your tickets, here is a Viewer’s Guide to “The Play That Goes Wrong.” And yes, there are a few spoilers ahead, but I promise, just enough to whet your appetite for more.
Don’t be late
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In fact, get there early — at least half an hour early. The show starts before the show. You’ll see the stage crew doing sound and light checks and stagehands making repairs to the set. And if you’re sitting in exactly the right place, you may even be asked to help. Yep. And you better have a good sense of humor about it because you won’t be up there just to help pass the time until curtain.
That had to hurt
They say it’s only funny until someone gets hurt. That may be true, but actors in this show get up (for the most part) and continue the show in spite of being rolled off a couch and onto the floor face first, getting whacked in the head by a painting that falls off the wall and being in the wrong place behind a door thrown open in surprise. The poor, unsuspecting actress behind the door tumbles to the ground and stays there, as actors deliver lines in her direction such as “Calm down!” and “You come back here!” and “She’s run off.” The play continues as several other actors reach through an open window and struggle to surreptitiously remove the actress from the stage. What follows is a lengthy, mangling, manhandling of her limp body as they try repeatedly to pull her out of sight of the audience. The actress’ ability to maintain her unconscious appearance as she is bashed, pulled and finally pretzeled through the open window will leave you wondering what kind of dislocations and tendon damage they are now treating off stage.
What fourth wall?
Most theater operates under the abstract concept of the invisible fourth wall — that is, we as the audience, view the three walls of the room on the stage, the fourth wall — the one we look through — is invisible. Most theatre calls for the actors on stage to ignore the audience in order to give the allusion that we are observing their lives from the outside. Some actors — Tevye in “Fiddler on the Roof,” Fleabag or Deadpool — break the fourth wall by looking at or speaking to the audience or acknowledging in some other way that we all know this is just a play. The actors in this show continually shatter the fourth wall with a sledge hammer. At the beginning of the show, one actor is caught looking straight out at the audience — as the lights come up — before he’s in position as a dead body on the couch. Another actor joins in the applause when the audience claps, until another actor smacks his hands down. Later, he glances at the crowd and takes a quick bow in recognition of the laughter he’s getting. Audiences absolutely eat this up because they are in on the joke.
How did they do that?
And there is so much more. Stunts the require precise timing and placement, repeated spit takes, missed lines, light and sound miscues, collapsing scenery, an incredible balancing act and laughs upon laughs. There’s not a show I’ve looked forward to seeing more than “The Play That Goes Wrong” — and that includes that historical musical that played a few weeks back.
Truth be told, it’s a theater-person’s theater experience. “The Play That Goes Wrong” is one long hysterical tribute to community theater, but the slapstick, the technical malfunctions and how the cast survives the show will appeal to everyone who loves to laugh in the face of disaster.
