In ‘Play That Goes Wrong,’ Murder Strictly for Laughs
LONDON — The low point came one summer when Henry Lewis was working at a burger joint, Henry Shields at a pub and Jonathan Sayer at a call center. They had been friends since acting school — so close, and so broke, that they were living together several years later — but the improv comedy they had been perfecting wasn’t drawing big crowds.
So one night they decided to try something different. Within a few weeks, they had the script for a farce that has become a West End hit, spawning productions in Budapest, Paris, Rome, Tokyo, Istanbul and now Broadway.
The story behind “The Play That Goes Wrong” is the story of college chums, each just 28, who bonded over a shared fondness for the TV series “Frasier” but embraced a more old-fashioned approach to comedy. “We invite people to laugh at us,” Mr. Sayer said, “instead of laughing with us.”
The play is a spoof of the murder mystery. An octet of actors gathers to stage the drama, and then everything goes horribly, laughably, awry. “We liked the murder mystery, because it’s a serious genre, and formulaic, so the audience knows what it is before we subvert it,” Mr. Lewis said.
Their initial passion was long-form improv, which they honed at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (Lamda). They learned to cultivate the art of humiliating themselves to make others laugh. “We’ve lost all sense of shame,” Mr. Shields said.
Improv taught them that audiences like wondering whether a performer might bomb: “There’s a level of danger and risk that heightens the experience,” Mr. Shields said. And there is a parallel thrill at wondering if a character in “The Play That Goes Wrong” might get hurt. Dave Hearn once dislocated his shoulder; Nancy Zamit broke her foot; Mr. Sayer has had several concussions; and mid- way through a Broadway preview, Mr. Shields hurt his neck.
What became “The Play That Goes Wrong” was first performed in 2012 at the Old Red Lion Theater. The show was only 45 minutes, so they padded the end by doing Q. and A.s in character — but it was a success. They were invited back, and then to the Edinburgh fringe festival. Mark Bell, their physical theater professor at Lamda, joined them as the play’s director; they added a second act, and the gags got bigger.
The play toured Britain and then moved to the West End, where it has been running at the Duchess Theater since 2014; it won the Olivier Award for best new comedy in 2015.
A sequel, “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” followed in the West End, and a third show, “The Comedy About a Bank Robbery,” is still running there.
As their empire has expanded, they have had to get used to other actors playing their parts. The Broadway production is the last time they expect to perform “The Play That Goes Wrong” together.
“There’s a weirdness to seeing slightly different versions of ourselves,” Mr. Shields said. “It’s like looking into a weird fun-house mirror.”