The Play the Goes Wrong: How to Survive Making Nothing Go Right

By Lisa Codianne Fowler | January 2022

Ever think you’ve had a bad day? Then now is the time to see The Play That Goes Wrong at Florida Studio Theatre (FST). This play-within-a-play takes a lot of ingenuity, creativity, and careful direction. Producing this play is much more demanding than a layman would suspect. Happenstances don’t just happen. Timing, costumes, scenery, and combat choreography—needed for safe illusions of punching, kicking, slapping, falling—come together to create the magic of the show.

The mystery

This comedy is set on opening night of an amateur community theater’s production of a murder mystery. Without revealing the play’s delightful secrets and tricks, suffice it to say that just about everything that could go wrong does. The action really heats up in Act Two, but the mayhem starts even before the play-within-the-play begins. Is all of that planned? You decide for yourself. 

The director

This hilarious on-purpose misadventure is directed by Bruce Jordan, who made his film debut opposite Barbara Streisand in “The Way We Were,” appeared in 40 roles as an actor, including three commercials for the Superbowl, and became legendary for directing and producing countless shows around the world, including Shear Madness, the longest running show in the history of the United States. Directing The Play That Goes Wrong, winner of an Olivier Award —the highest honor in British theatre—is a new challenge for Jordon.

When CEO Richard Hopkins invited him to direct this show for FST, Jordan pointed out that “comedy with this kind of technical overlay is extremely hard.” Hopkins was perfectly aware of these logistics, having seen the production with an appreciative eye just months ago in London. 

“It probably has more light cues, sound cues, and stage movement cues in it than any play I’ve directed,” Jordon shares. “But I think that always in your theatre career you have to bite off a little more than you can chew.” 

Though he sounds a bit stressed when discussing the process, he looks incredibly happy. “It agrees with me. I think we all do our best work under a little stress.” Not surprisingly, under Jordon’s direction, it is clear that everything and everyone is in perfect sync. 

The designers

Award-winning scenic designers and twin sisters, Isabel and Moriah Curley-Clay, are an integral part of the talented production team that comprises about a dozen people.

Moriah shared that reading this script had her laughing out loud, something that doesn’t happen very often. And she added that if they’ve done their jobs right, the audience won’t see the surprises coming. 

What is a scenic designer? This role coordinates with specialists in set construction, costume design, technical direction, and fight choreographer to ensure safety and consistency of action throughout each performance. It may sound straightforward, but it’s not. 

“We read the script, then we do research. For this show, it features an English country manor house that’s been put on stage by this group of amateur thespians. Then, we work out how everything is going to fit on the stage,” she says. “We’ll do a sketch for the director and the producer and do the technical drawings. It’s like an architect’s draft of everything you’re going to see on stage; it has specifications of what the items are made from, what the materials should look like, and what the paint looks like .”

From the sketch and technical drawings, they build a proportional model in quarter-inch scale, which means a quarter inch in the model is equal to a foot in real life.

“Basically, we create a tiny version of everything. The model goes to the theatre staff and director to figure out their staging, and then it goes to the shop, because they need to see how things are going to work. So, if there’s something that has to turn around, we’ll make that turn around in the model. We oversee everything on the set, how it looks and how it functions, but we’re not in charge of how it’s built. So, we have to approve all the props, all the curtains, all the furniture, all the canned props.”

The pleasure

A slew of surprises will keep the audience laughing through the end of the final act. According to Jordon, The Play That Goes Wrong is just what we need. “It’s a very fun evening. It’s very escapist. Silly fun. And what is better than an audience laughing together?” 

The Play That Goes Wrong, by Henry Lewis, Henry Shields, and Jonathan Sayer, will play beginning January 19, 2022, in FST’s Gompertz Theatre. Run Time: 2 hours with a 15-minute intermission. Visit FloridaStudioTheatre.org or call 941-366-9000 to reserve your seat; tickets are selling fast.