The Play That Goes Wrong

The website still says he is an understudy

Saw this again.

Had a great time again especially with a packed auditorium roaring with laughter.

I did however feel it was lacking compared to what I wrote further up this page.

It's not the fact that I've seen the show recently. I expected that. It's just that yesterday's cast wasn't as strong as last time. Maybe it was because I last saw it not long after the show re-opened and they were going the extra mile performing to a reduced audience. But yesterday it did feel like they were going through the motions speeding through at times.

The strongest were the ones I saw last time. Jack Michael Stacey (now principal Max), David Kirkbride, Ellie Morris and Ciara Morris. It's clear they're the seasoned pros in this show. Liked Ross Green as Chris, especially his breakdown during the ledger moment.

It only exposed the lesser performances. Elan James as Jonathan and Oliver Clayton as Trevor could do with speaking up. Sally Chang made her debut just two nights ago as the first actress to play Dennis (or Denise). She did fine, but I could tell she needs to settle into the role and let the jokes land.

Overall though I had a good time.

She's playing a female actress (Denise) playing a male role. No lines have been changed

Thanks for your reply. Pre-covid I would have jumped on a train as soon as I heard about this very interesting understudy situation but sadly that's not possible nowadays.

I know exactly what you mean. I saw it years ago back when the original cast were in it, and again last week, and it just wasn’t the same.

When I read this I thought that I didn't recall the theatre in Eastbourne being that big. However looking it up I see there are 2 theatres in Eastbourne & the one I once saw a show at is the smaller one while TPTGW was at the larger one. It sounds like it would have been better in the smaller one. Are they still not miking the cast? When I saw the second UK tour back in 2017 at my local theatre (capacity 650) I had a chat to Chris Leask afterwards (temporaily playing Robert) & he said they had to really scale back their performances having been in a massive theatre Southampton the previous week where they were all shouting their lungs out. I would have thought that by now they would have started to mike the cast in the larger venues, given PPGW & MMN have moved from being originally non-miked to be miked over the last few years & TCAABR was miked on tour.


Given the amount of Mischief Sean has done I'd expect him to be good! Though as all the rest of the lead cast have also previously appeared either in TPTGW or other MIschief shows I'd also expect them to be good. The understudies maybe not so much, as they're all newcomers to Mischief. April Hughes is blonde while the understudy Sandra looks from photos to be brunette so if you can remember the hair colour once Sandra lost her wig then that might tell you!

There are in fact 3 theatres in Eastbourne. The Congress, where TPTGW was at today, holds 1680 people. Only the stalls and 'raised staills' were open though. I agree that it may have been better off in one of the smaller theatres. Having a look at pictures, I reckon that the Devonshire Theatre (capacity 873, with two circles) might have been a nicer fit to be honest. There's a particular image of the interior seating that reminds me of The Criterion.
I think the cast may have been miked (?), but I am struggling to remember. I don't remember seeing any obvious mics and the issues with the sound made it hard to tell. Apparently, this Eastbourne theatre has had a large refurbishment lately. People have been complaining on TripAdvisor about the sound though, which is now an issue and never was before... :/



Yes, Sean was good and definitely felt the strongest of the group to me. I think it was a combination of everything that just made it not a good experience. Maybe in a different setting it would have been a little better? I'm not sure.
The Chris Bean speech at the start feels, to me, like it should be an important part, with it being the set-up and first introduction. It failed to do that I thought and maybe that hindered my enjoyment as it really did start flat.
The understudy Sandra was definitely not blonde. I saw her walk out of the theatre afterwards. I think it must have been Aisha Numah.



As I've said, I haven't seen the original cast performing in this, but I can imagine that it works considerably better. I'm hoping there will be an opportunity to see them do so (though, unlikely I'm guessing).
I don't know if I'm "enthusiastic" about that particular tousing cast as such, I just remember finding the show hysterical at the time. It must be said that I knew next to nothing about Mischief though at that point. I went to see the show only having seen the Royal Variety performance clip of the play and that was all. We had just one understudy (I think!) on when we saw the 2018 tour for Trevor. Can't remember who it was though.

Well, I've just seen this show again. This time the uk tour in Brighton.

I join pianowithsam in saying the cast is the least of the three I've seen this year. They're good, they get the job done and the audience was laughing along. But not as hard as in the Duchess Theatre. And I feel its because the cast needs to tighten up the delivery of the comedy

And I'm not an expert on how comedy is delivered but it's fascinating how watching different casts can give you a perspective.

It was most clear with Tom Bulpett, whom I praised back in June when he was understudy Chris in the West End. I think he was amongst seasoned pros and was on point in his delivery. Here he milks the comedy by exaggerating and lingering on the punchlines. Though I did like how egotistical his Chris was and how snobbish he was to the audience in the ledger moment. I hate to imagine what his Chris was like during the rehearsals.

The strongest were April Hughes as Sandra and Gabriel Paul as Trevor. On point. April shows how to play a terrible actor without overdoing it. Leonard Cook was great as Robert, even if he likes to impersonate Henry Lewis. The snide remarks he makes during the show are hilarious.

Liked some of the choices Laura Kirman made as Annie. When she is forced to play Florence she reads the script and comments like she's watching a soap opera. Tom Babbage and Sean Carey too had their moments as Max and Jonathan. But otherwise the three could bring a bit more to the show.

Edward Howells never stood out as Dennis. I feel like no one wants to copy or differentiate themselves from Jonathan Sayer's performance because only Michael Keane in the current London cast has stood out to me and only because he is short and was the subject of some extra jokes in the show.

But to add to pianowithsam's comment that he didn't believe in what was going on, I feel the cast puts TOO much emphasis on the comedy and making the audience laugh, overlooking the story. And sure it's an implausible and ridiculous story. But what I really like about this play is the underlying tragedy behind the comedy as we watch these actors soldier on to their doom in this show. Watching their reactions when things go wrong and so on. Gabriel Paul for one is very good at that and I liked looking over at the box to see what he's doing.

But then I see the extras, playing the backstage crew, coming on stage to fix the set during the pre-show and smiling at the waving at the audience I was thinking shouldn't you be panicking that things not ready just minutes before the show starts. Couldn't take it seriously.

And there were moments like that during the show. Particularly the big set moment at the end, when everyone should be genuinely shaken. Even Leonard Cook looked shell-shocked. But soon afterwards he does this thing where he reacts to the audience laughs saying "come on, this is serious acting I'm doing here" which took me out of the moment.

Maybe I'm comparing this too much to the previous shows I've seen in the last few months, but seriously the West End cast sets a higher standard

I still enjoyed myself. I liked the extra things the cast brings to the show here and there. But yeah, needs tightening up

Touring again from April

www.mischiefcomedy.com/theplaythatgoeswrong-uk-tour/uk-tour/tour-dates

I'd say the front row has the most legroom in the stalls (I've never sat in the circle) & also a very good view. The stage is fairly high but I've never found it high enough to be a problem & as your partner is very tall he probably wouldn't find it that high either. As the rows get wider going back the seat at the end of each row has more leg room but they do also have restricted views. If you do go for the end of a row then I'd suggest go for the high numbers end as my personal opinion is that you miss less at that end. See also Theatremonkey, who I see also suggests front row stalls for legroom. www.theatremonkey.com/venues/duchess-theatre

For the purists, original cast to return.

www.whatsonstage.com/manchester-theatre/news/original-the-play-that-goes-wrong-cast-to-return_56451.html?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=6May2022

I’ve just booked for Manchester on the strength of this. I’ve seen the original team do Peter Pan and Magic, but not this one. It makes it well worth the return visit.