The Play That Goes Wrong
Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields
Directed by Matt Dicarlo
New World Stages
April 19, 2019
Production website
💉💉💉💉 out of 5.

The Play That Goes Wrong just keeps on going strong.  This zany, wonderful farce had a long full life on Broadway and has recently been planted at New World Stage for one last blast of life before heading out on the road to tour.  I was fortunate to see the production in the first few weeks on Broadway and was eager to see what had happened to it – with the necessity of greatly shrinking everything about the show.  Here is my take on seeing the show on Broadway: The Play That Goes Wrong 

The second time seeing any comedy – especially a farce like this – is a bit of a gamble.  Sometimes the fun of a show is the unexpected – and now, of course, I knew it was coming.  With The Play That Goes Wrong I was still finding myself surmised and laughing.  My thinking did drift off at times – more focused on HOW something happened – rather then on WHY it happened.    I did think that this draft of the play oddly looked a bit tired.  Those sustained silences where a character expresses, “I can’t believe he said that” did not seem as rich as they did the first time out.  These would be the hardest of moments to keep fresh – but still that is the actor’s job.

Set wise, the show did not suffer in its translation to a smaller space. It does seem that comedy works best in the smallest space that will accommodate its action.  The only drawback was the second floor study and all the “fear of the tumbling set” was not as intense in that this second story was much closer to the ground.  It was not as jaw-droppingly dangerous.

I love this play.  I love a play that has so much wonderfulness for both the eye and the ear.  Would I see it a third time?  Huh  ? ? ?