Theater review: A clever script for ‘Clue’ delivers laughs, but one-note performances diminish the farce
By Donald Munro
I had no clue about “Clue.” Seriously, I got the newish, non-musical, 2017 version that opened Saturday evening at the Saroyan Theatre mixed up with an older, musical version written a couple of decades earlier. I walked into the Broadway in Fresno production expecting, say, Professor Plum and Mrs. Peacock to sing a duet about meeting in the conservatory, or for Miss Scarlet to give us a second-act ballad about candlesticks and lead pipes.
What I got instead is a rapid-fire farce that plops the beloved characters from the Parker Bros. game into a mysterious-dinner-party scenario involving disguised identities, blackmail, deception and murder, all against a backdrop of 1950s Red-Scare politics so old-fashioned you can practically smell the tooth powder on the actors’ breaths. It’s fast-paced, supremely silly and sometimes downright dumb. (Col. Mustard has an IQ less than the condiment.) It’s like a cross between “Laugh In,” “The Traitors” and “Weekend at Bernie’s.” And it’s almost touchingly non-cynical, with very little of the self-aware, ironic humor that permeates our entertainments today.
But the broadness of the direction and one-note campy acting style blows out the speakers, so to speak. Sandy Rustin’s script, based on Jonathan Lynn’s screenplay and additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price, does have a lot of comic spark, and the brisk staging keeps up the slapstick feel, but it’s all overwhelmed by going too broadly too quickly.
I don’t mind exaggerated caricatures of the six beloved Clue characters. (Sarah Mackenzie Baron has some delicious deadpan moments as Mrs. White, and Joseph Dalfonso’s cheery physical humor is great.) The biggest offender is Adam Brett as the butler, Wordsworth. He’s too broad from the start, braying his lines instead of scissoring them into the action.
In order for farce not to burn out too quickly, it has to build, and there has to be some force on stage pushing back at it — some character that is somewhat above it all, even aloof. The butler should be a bit of a stand-in for the audience’s bemusement, offering a nudge-wink camaraderie in terms of “look at these crazy people.”
Brett starts off in this standoffish mode, but far too soon he’s just as bonkers as the rest of the cast. And that’s when the comedy gets too big. It reminded me of a bunch of first-graders dissolving into fits of giggles; there’s nowhere really to go after that but check for pee incidents and declare naptime.
Fresno occasionally gets Equity productions coming through town in its Broadway series. Equity actors tend to be more experienced. (Usually, it’s only the bigger shows with longer runs, like “SIX,” that boast Equity casts.) I’ve been very impressed with some of the non-Equity tours that have come through town recently. But “Clue” is one of those cases when experience matters. The show is written with not one but two comic tour de force extended moments for the butler character — a (very long) plot recap sequence and an extended moment of demise. The problem is that Brett hadn’t earned those over-the-top moments. He just felt too green in the role. And I’m not talking about Mr. Green. With a rope. In the library.
The Munro Review has no paywall but is financially supported by readers who believe in its non-profit mission of bringing professional arts journalism to the central San Joaquin Valley. You can help by signing up for a monthly recurring paid membership or make a one-time donation of as little as $3. All memberships and donations are tax-deductible.
