By Maura Hogan mhogan@postandcourier.com
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Whether you’ve always been leery of Professor Plum’s tweedy pomposity or judgy of Miss Scarlet’s unapologetically wanton ways, there are abundant tells among the rogue’s gallery of suspects in “Clue” to offer fodder for finger-pointing.
For decades, the board game-turned-movie-turned-farce has enthralled those who revel in a good old-fashioned whodunit, one pinned particulate on the where and with what.
Gathering a charged cast that is more than game to maim with the help of a candlestick, rope or wrench, Charleston Stage now serves up the latter, “Clue: On Stage.” The theatrical rendition of the 1985 film, which debuted in 2022 at Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey, gets its first go at the Dock Street Theatre, running through Nov. 5.
For the stage version, Sandy Rustin wrote and adapted screenwriter Jonathan Lynn’s screenplay, folding in new bits and quips created by Hunter Foster and Eric Price. The Charleston Stage production also marks the main stage directorial debut of the company’s repertory member Colin Waters.
Over the past few years, Waters has been a ubiquitous Charleston Stage presence with an impressively wide-ranging track record as a performer on the Dock Street stage. For this production, he leverages his comic skills to harness the ensemble cast in a series of mishaps and murders that increasingly up the on-stage antics.
Much like the film it’s adapted from, this noteworthy departure from the famed Parker Brothers board game delves into the Cold War American politics that inform the plot. This “Clue” is set in 1950s at the height of McCarthyism, with the Red Scare somewhat folded into the goings on.
Before I parse those performances, due credit must be paid to a key agent in the production: the set. For this production, scenic designer Adam Jehle has devised a beauty. While suitably tricked-out burnished wood and oil paintings befitting the toney home of the well-to-do Mr. Boddy, it also brings to life the room-roaming board game in inventive ways.
Farcical forays play out in the genre’s multiple doors. Through them, characters pop in and out to enter and exit hallmark spaces from the game — the library, the billiard room, the conservatory, etc. — with paintings on a backstage wall flipping over to reveal each. But unlike the static structures in most farces, these doors have legs, with actors wheeling them hither and yon across the stage to comic, antic effect.
At the same time, effective use of color is deployed throughout, with each suspect swathed in the hue that cues up their name, compliments of costume designer Hayley O’Brien. Think a feather-topped teal for Mrs. Peacock, a boldly bedazzled fire engine red for Miss Scarlet, a swell emerald suit for Mr. Green.
Now, about those characters. This play works best when the performers go for the glory in their interpretation — and go for the gusto in physical comedy. As the butler Wadsworth, Justin Von Stein makes his Charleston Stage debut in fine, lithe fettle, smoothing over all of the mayhem with a mellifluous British accent as he nimbly navigates pratfalls and the like with deceptive ease.
Others among the famed suspects hold their own, too, among them Kathy Summer, who makes impressive performative hay with the prattling, sanctimonious Mrs. Peacock; Dominick Ventrella as a quirkily nervous Mr. Green; and Mike Hornacek, who has Southern-fried fun with Colonel Mustard. All in all, the cast delivers commendable wattage as they bustle and scamper, enter and exit, vamp and wilt, wielding some weapons while deflecting others.
But in this work, the clue is in the humor. This is not a murder mystery that trades in suspense. Instead, its motivation is black comedy — of the pleasant chuckle-eliciting variety more than rip-snorting guffaws. And it’s agreeable enough for the entire family, too.
Apart from a some mild, come-hithering from Brietta Goodman’s self-possessed Miss Scarlet, “Clue” offers both the requisite nostalgia and fast-paced repartee for parents, as well as some amped-up shenanigans sure to entertain the visually-savvy TikTok generation.
To wit, my 10-year-old daughter Beatrice and her chum Vivienne were beyond delighted with the show — solid testament indeed for a rare weeknight splurge likely to work its way into their tween banter in the weeks to come.
All in all, “Clue: On Stage” chugs along amiably, even while its requisite physical rigor is certainly more of a strenuous workout than its energized actors let on. At Charleston Stage, they are all-in for a fun, fangless evening at the theater, one certain to go down as easy as the wine in Mr. Boddy’s crystal goblets.
Click Here to view the full review on The Post and Courier’s website.