As much as I love seeing original theatre it’s also fun to see different takes on the same material. This is why I was excited to see what a national tour could bring to the oft performed Clue: Live on Stage. I have seen Clue in various forms many times over the last few years including a high school production and a musical and while I don’t think this national tour brought much more than those regional stagings I still had a good time with it and would recommend it as a fun night at the theater. There are some things that just work no matter the amateur or professional status of the company and Clue evidently is one of those shows.

My favorite part of this production directed by Casey Hushion is the cast. All 6 of the main performers are very funny and they bounce well off of each other. I was particularly impressed with the snobby condescension of Sarah Mackenzie Baron as Mrs White and the manic energy of TJ Lamando as Mr Green. Nate Curlott is also very funny as Colonel Mustard (he takes everything literally and they get a lot of humor out of that.)

The set by Lee Savage helps them keep the screwball antics going with the various rooms folding out from the main set so the library, study and kitchen fold out with ease. The costumes by Jen Caprio are also very impressive capturing the personalities and colors of our iconic characters. Although I do think of Mrs Peacock as more blue and Professor Plum as the purple character which they have reversed here but the costumes still stand out and are bold and colorful.

The only real problem with Clue: Live on Stage is that for all its strengths it doesn’t stand out as superior from the regional productions I’ve seen. If you see it, you’ll enjoy it, but you could also wait and see it at a regional theatre for far less and have just as good a time. It’s one of those straight plays that is seemingly hard to screw up. They don’t here but it’s also probably not worth the added price since it is not included in season pass to Eccles (it’s an add-on.)

Still, if you did add it on you’ll have a good time and will get some laughs. Clue: Live on Stage is playing through February 15th and tickets can be purchased here.

Clue: Live on Stage is a straight play written by Sandy Rustin based on the screenplay for the 1985 film by Jonathan Lynn. It is also of course based on the popular board game Clue. I believe this is a non-equity production. This play has different scripted endings unlike the musical where the audience picks an ending out of a hat enabling 216 possible endings (I do prefer the musical tbh but both are fun)

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