GOING WRONG NEVER FELT SO RIGHT

Like any great farce, the success of The Play That Goes Wrong depends on the utmost precision and skill of the actors, crew, and design team to make everything go right while simultaneously making it all appear to the audience to be going woefully wrong. It’s all in the timing, as they say, and this pure delight of a Greater Boston Stage Company production has that impeccable farcical timing in spades.

The conceit is a play within a play. An under-rehearsed yet determined drama society is doing their very best to get through opening night of their production of Murder at Haversham Manor. Unfortunately for them, the sets and props could use some work, the actors could use some lessons, and the whole production needs a good tightening up. Fortunately for us, the play we get to enjoy is spot-on.

In this ensemble piece where deft physical comedy balanced with more nuanced, smaller moments of humor abound, every actor gets to shine. Paul Melendy as the flamboyant and beleaguered director of the drama society and murder detective of their show, Jeff Mahoney and Ceit Zweil (the backstage—and at times onstage!—team trying to keep the show together), Stewart Evan Smith (the victim and would-have-been groom), Sarah Gazdowicz (hysterical would-have-been bride), Mark Linehan and Liam Grimaldi (brother and best friend of the corpse, respectively), and Sarah Morin (servant to the family), all excel at playing those different shades of humor. This is doubly impressive because each actor we see onstage is simultaneously playing their character (someone who loves being part of the theatre world so much as to be involved with this patch-work drama society) and also playing their role in opening night of the murder mystery being mounted and going awry.

To this end, the design team and crew deserve huge credit as well. The sets (Danielle Ibrahim), lights (Katie Whittemore), costumes (E. Rosser), sound (James Cannon), and props (David Allen Prescott), must all be designed, utilized, and manipulated to serve two shows in one. They succeed with great aplomb, with a special nod to the multi-layered set.

The script by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields & Jonathan Sayer offers meaty opportunities for performers to impress. It was especially nice to see scenes written for two women to shine in broad physical comedy with each other, blessedly doing something other than fighting over a man or even anything romantic. It’s thanks to the acting chops of Zweil and Gazdowicz, the expert direction of Tyler Rosati, and Samantha Richert’s wonderful work as Intimacy/Violence Designer that those choice scenes play so well.

Without saying any more to spoil the fun, The Play That Goes Wrong runs until April 19. Laughter is medicine, and this show is exactly what the doctor ordered. With a surefire prescription like that, what could go wrong?

photos by Maggie Hall Photography

The Play That Goes Wrong
Greater Boston Stage Company
395 Main Street in Stoneham, MA
ends on April 19, 2025
for tickets ($25-69), call 781-279-2200 or visit GBSC

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston