Test your detective skills with ‘Clue: On Stage’

Was it Mr. Green with the dagger in the study? Mrs. Peacock with the lead pipe in the cellar? Col. Mustard with the rope in the ballroom?

Local audiences will have the chance to test their detective skills as drama students at Galt and Liberty Ranch high schools team up to present “Clue: On Stage.”

Don’t think you can get a jump on the competition by renting the movie, either. Both the Paramount film and Jonathan Lynn’s stage adaptation drew on the same source material — the beloved classic board game “Clue” — but the story is different, said Antonio Garcia, who is playing the role of Col. Mustard.

Lynn’s version, which includes additional material by Hunter Foster, Sandy Rustin, and Eric Price, involved audience interaction, for one.

That makes it exciting for the students to perform, Garcia said, because they can’t really replicate that

in rehearsals. The show opened on Nov. 7, so the cast has already gotten a taste of the real deal.

“I love the audience,” Garcia said. “It’s so nice being in character.”

“Clue: On Stage” is both a dark comedy and a murder mystery. Six guests attend a mysterious dinner party where they find themselves implicated as murder suspects when their host turns up dead. Wadsworth, the butler, leads the guests in a hunt for the killer as the body count builds.

“This is the first mystery show for a lot of the people in the cast,” Garcia said.

But they’ve been rehearsing since September and they’re loving it, he added.

“I feel like we have a great cast for this show specifically,” he said.

It’s Garcia’s third role in a play at the joint drama department, but Col. Mustard has been his favorite role so far.

“He’s a very pompous man, very thick-headed as well,” he said — and that makes him a lot of fun to play.

The cast hopes that local mystery lovers will come out to see the show as it enters its last weekend.

And don’t bring any preconceived expectations, Garcia added.

“It’s a mystery show, so just be surprised,” he said.

“Clue: On Stage” (high school edition) is presented through special arrangement with Broadway Licensing.