As the show concludes its Broadway run at the Lyceum Theatre January 6, join the cast as they look back at their experience in the hit comedy.
Cast
Marc J. Franklin
Throughout all the falling set pieces, slipping actors, broken props, and chaos onstage at the Lyceum Theatre, it is clear that something right has been happening at The Play That Goes Wrong. By the time the show concludes its Broadway run, it will have played 750 performances, making it the longest running play currently on Broadway.
Co-written by Mischief Theatre company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, The Play That Goes Wrong introduces The Cornley University Drama Society, which is attempting to put on a 1920s murder mystery, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong does as the accident-prone thespians battle on against all odds to get to their final curtain call.
But despite all the effort it takes to make the hilarious hijinks come to life every performance, the cast couldn’t be happier. “I think it is so important right now for people to go the theatre and forget about what is happening outside of the building,” Preston Truman Boyd explains. “And this is the perfect show for that. You can totally feel like a kid and laugh.”
Jason Bowen continues, “The fact that, after two hours in the theater, people leave feeling better than they did when they walked in makes coming to work really easy. We really affect people’s spirits. It’s a privilege to be part of the reason that’s happening.”
Flip below to get a backstage view of the cast:
Photos: Backstage with The Play That Goes Wrong
Photos: Backstage with The Play That Goes Wrong
15 PHOTOS
Cast
Marc J. Franklin
While The Play That Goes Wrong features a cacophony of finely tuned hijinks, the cast relishes in their own unplanned mishaps. “I swear the rug has hands because I have tripped on it more than 20 times!” Preston Truman Boyd laughs.
Marc J. Franklin
Harrison Unger points the finger, “There was this one time [Alex Mandell] burst into the door and one of his shoes came off.” Mandell chimes in “And instead of helping me, my castmates stood in the wings and took pictures!”
Marc J. Franklin
The cast members also get a kick out of watching their colleagues take their own turn in the spotlight to strike the funny bone. “I love watching Preston die every night,” Jonathan Fielding notes. “It’s just this one moment dedicated to somebody acting like a buffoon and he varies it and commits to it. And I have a front row seat to it!”
Marc J. Franklin
Mara Davi and Toccarra Cash
Marc J. Franklin
While Toccarra Cash has a lot of moments in the show she considers her favorites, her fight with Mara Davi stands out. “Mara and I just have such a ball making this choreographed fight look so crazy, when it actually feels like a dance.”
Marc J. Franklin
Even though the company is constantly in sync, the audience operates as their ninth cast member. “I love any aberrations in audience response because that affects our show tremendously,” Mandell explains. “We are allowed to play with them—I like seeing the brilliance of my cast mates and how their characters respond. They’re amazing!”
Marc J. Franklin
Preston Truman Boyd, Mara Davi, Jonathan Fielding, Harrison Unger, and Alex Mandell
Marc J. Franklin
Preston Truman Boyd, Mara Davi, Jonathan Fielding, Harrison Unger, and Alex Mandell
Marc J. Franklin
“When there are kids in the audience, watching them laugh is the best! People are like my belly hurts from laughing so hard. And I remember having that exact same experience when I saw it,” Davi reflects.
Marc J. Franklin
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The Mark Bell-directed Broadway production, produced by J. J. Abrams and Kevin McCollum, opened at the Lyceum Theatre in April 2017, going on to win a Tony Award for set designer Nigel Hook. Though the play initially announced an August 26 closing notice, it later pushed its final date to January 6, 2019, but it’s not going very far. The comedy will move to Off-Broadway’s New World Stages, beginning performances at the underground, midtown venue February 11.
In honor of the artists navigating the pandemic, the popular platform reunited over 90 performers to the theatre district in its portrait series with Michaelah Reynolds.