(Above: The cast of The Play That Goes Wrong, onstage at Oregon Contemporary Theatre Sept. 13-29, 2024.)

By Randi Bjornstad

It’s hard to imagine proclaiming that a show is “the funniest play Broadway has ever seen,” but that’s what a review in the Huffington Post said about The Play That Goes Wrong when the show opened at the Lyceum Theatre in New York City in 2017.

In his review, theater critic Christian Lewis wrote, “Their title promises that ‘everything goes wrong’ and they certainty didn’t lie. Every single conceivable thing that could go wrong did. Then after that a massive amount of more, inconceivable things also went wrong. Throughout it all the entire audience could not stop laughing.”

Audiences at Oregon Contemporary Theatre will be able to put that to the test themselves when OCT presents its version of The Play that Goes Wrong — purposely setting the show’s official opening night for Friday the 13th of September — and continuing the run through the 29th.

“It’s a fun challenge to take on such a physically — and structurally — demanding show in our intimate theater.” Willis said. “With the team of performers, designers, and theater makers we have in place, our 2024/25 season is starting in a spectacularly funny fashion.”

Here’s the storyline:

It’s the opening night of the Cornley Drama Society’s newest production, “The Murder at Haversham Manor,” and things have quickly gone from bad … to utterly disastrous. The troupe’s ambitious 1920s whodunit has everything you never want in a show: falling props, collapsing scenery, an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything…including their lines.

The production has been described in various reviews as “equal parts Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes” and “full of hilarious perfection.”

The OCT version is directed by John Schmor, with the assistance of physical comedy designer Kevin Inouye.

The cast includes veteran OCT actors David Arnold, Andrew Beck, Katie Worley Beck, and Russell Dyball as well as new-to-the-OCT stage performers Ethan Harmon, Chauncey Mauney, Spoon Meiers, Josh Simpson, and Phoebe Thompson.

Controlling all that mayhem will be a production crew that includes Emily Bolivar (lighting design), Annie Craven (properties design), Amy Dunn (scenic design), Chad Kushuba (sound design), Laura Tuffli (costume design), Inga Wilson (dialect coach), and Riley Allen (production stage manager).

The Play That Goes Wrong was written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields. It premiered in London in the small pub theater, the Old Red Lion Theatre, in 2012. It won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2015 and a Tony for Best Scenic Design of a Play in 2017.

The Play that Goes Wrong at Oregon Contemporary Theatre

When: Pay-what-you-can preview performances at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 11 and 12. Regular evening performances at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 13-14, 19-21, and 26-28, with Sunday matinees at 2 p.m. on Sept. 22 and 29.

Where: Oregon Contemporary Theatre, 194 W. Broadway, downtown Eugene.

Tickets: Online at octheatre.org or through the box office at 541-465-1506

 

The cast of The Play That Goes Wrong at Oregon Contemporary Theatre