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Hot on the heels of all the musicals I have reviewed recently based on films I have never seen comes a comedy murder mystery Cluedo 2 based on the Hasbro board game – now 75 years old – Cluedo (I have never played) and the 1985 Paramount Pictures motion picture Clue (which, you’ve guess it haven’t you?, I have never seen). Nevertheless, as the introduction in the programme suggests: ‘Professor Plum in the library with the lead piping. It’s one of those phrases which – unless you’ve managed to avoid popular culture for the past three-quarters of a century – is instantly recognisable.’ It follows on from the original Cluedo Stage Play, which toured the UK in 2022 … and I never got to see that either!
As I understand the game Dr Black is always the victim and, indeed in Cluedo 2 failed rock-and-roll star Rick Black is the first (!) to be bumped off. Everybody else you would expect if you are a connoisseur of the game – Miss Scarlett, Colonel Mustard, Mrs Peacock, Professor Plum, Mrs White and Reverend Green – has been gathered together in 1968 in a supposedly crumbling old pile Graveney Manor.
What you focus on when you see David Farley’s set design is the large version of the board for Cluedo at the back. The rooms will light up to indicate where in the country manor house we are at any time with items of stage furniture for each of them breezily wheeled – or carried – on and off by the cast between the scenes. This involves much slow-motion, whilst pivotal plot moments means the cast often freeze in poses of shock or horror (often aided by Jason Taylor’s atmospheric lighting effects). It is all wonderfully choreographed by movement director Anna Healey who is also responsible for some rather odd musical interludes showing our suspects roaming through the house. One actually ends with a homage to Ellie Leach’s win on Strictly Come Dancing last season as Miss Scarlett (Leach) dances with Colonel Mustard (Justin Durr). Farley’s colourful costumes perfectly suit the outrageous personalities we are presented with on the stage.
Since nobody proves who they seem to be, the first half – despite quite a few laughs and some suspenseful moments – in hindsight was as leaden as Cluedo’s iconic lead pipe weapon. It doesn’t take long for Rick Black – the rocker who has recorded his comeback album – to meet his end; Miss Scarlett is (initially) a northern interior decorator hired by Rick to remodel his house; Mrs Peacock is (initially) his Sloaney wife; Colonel Parker, sorry Mustard, is Rick’s avaricious manager; Professor Plum is the nickname for Alex, Rick’s sound engineer; Mrs White is (initially) the housekeeper/cook; and Reverend Green, is Rick’s former bandmate, who had disappeared when Rick’s career went downhill. Into the mix of quirky characters comes Wadsworth and the gag that he is an actor playing a butler was ‘done to death’ itself, as was the confusion between Hal Green and Al Green, famous soul singer, songwriter and latterly also a pastor. Also overdone is Reverend Green’s confusion over English idioms beginning with Cluedo’s spanner (a.k.a. wrench) one of the four traditional weapons used on Rick.
Once we know (initially!) who everyone in the plot is it stagnates, and I had expected more from a script by the legendary duo Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks of Birds of a Feather fame and so much else. After the interval Cluedo 2 proved a (board) game of two halves as the innuendo, double entendres, slapstick and farce crank up to hilarious heights. As the blurb for the tour suggests: ‘As the bodies pile up, all the guests become suspects, potential victim and detectives, as they dart from room to room trying to escape the killer and survive the night.’
What we see now morphs from a parody of plays like The Mousetrap (which I hated with a passion and found unintentionally funny anyway) and The Play That Goes Wrong (review click here). Mark Bell was the original director of the latter and has directed Cluedo 2 imbuing it with the same impeccable comic timing and well-rehearsed chaos.
No spoilers from me and I will conclude by writing how the dynamic ensemble cast appeared to have great time: Ellie Leach in her stage debut is engaging; Jason Durr is almost hidden behind an extravagant mustache and relishes his Southern U.S. drawl as Colonel Mustard just as Hannah Boyce’s accent is the cut-glass one typical of the trophy wife, Mrs Peacock. I enjoyed Liam Horrigan’s Mick Jagger-esque Rick Black and having been bumped-off early, Horrigan later reappears as the typically incompetent – for plays like this – Detective Inspector Brown who is accompanied by Tiwai Muza’s equally dim-witted PC Silver. Gabriel Paul is a bemused, though Janus-faced, Reverend Green and Edward Howells a bemused Professor Plum. Jack Bennett is indeed very ‘actorly’ and very funny as a droll Wadsworth whilst Dawn Buckland’s Mrs White steals every scene she is in and milks every line she has for maximum comic potential.
Cluedo 2 is, all in all, pleasantly diverting entertainment and great fun so try to see it if this seems your thing before the tour ends in late November (click here).
Jim Pritchard
Cast:
Jason Durr – Colonel Mustard
Ellie Leach – Miss Scarlett
Jack Bennett – Wadsworth
Hannah Boyce – Mrs Peacock
Dawn Buckland – Mrs White
Liam Horrigan – Rick Black & others
Edward Howells – Professor Plum
Tiwai Muza – PC Silver
Gabriel Paul – Reverend Green
Kara Alberts-Turner, Audrey Anderson, Henry Lawes – Ensemble
Creatives:
Writers – Maurice Gran and Laurence Marks
Director – Mark Bell
Designer – David Farley
Lighting designer – Jason Taylor
Sound designer – Jon Fiber (for JollyGoodTunes)
Movement director – Anna Healey
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