‘Play That Goes Wrong’ goes right for the funny bone in S.F.
“The show must go on” – despite the absolute worst of circumstances, is the message behind “The Play That Goes Wrong,” now being presented at San Francisco Playhouse.
Enjoy Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes? Or meta humor, like a play-within-a-play? Then this Olivier Awards-winning comedy should be right up your treacherous alley.
Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, and based on the Broadway original, the plot follows the antics of the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society as it attempts to present opening night for “The Murder at Haversham Manor.” Everything that could go wrong, does. There’s a strangely lively corpse, a leading lady who happens to fall unconscious and a set that seems intent on testing the limits of the thespians’ health-insurance plans. Sound cues are missed, heads get bonked — in other words, it’s madcap fun.
Susi Damilano, who has handled the stage company’s adaptations of “Clue” and “The 39 Steps,” seems particularly well-chosen to direct this high-paced farce.
Details: Through Nov. 9; San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post St., San Francisco; $30-$125; sfplayhouse.org.