Review By KIRSTEN LASKEY
Los Alamos Daily Post
kirsten@ladailypost.com
When Los Alamos Little Theatre (LALT) announced it was presenting a stage version of Clue, I was ecstatic. Growing up, I thought Clue was the bomb. I loved the board game, the video game and the books.
When I first watched the movie, Clue, in my sixth grade class, it became one of my favorite movies. Everything in the movie, in my mind, is sublime – from the slap-stick comedy to the witty exchange of puns.
Would the play live up to to the comedy film classic? Indeed it does!
Director Wendy Caldwell Lanchier’s version is a clever, funny romp. It follows in the 1985 movie’s footsteps in terms of the story – six strangers meet at Mr. Body’s mansion for a dinner party organized by the butler, Mr. Wadsworth. The dinner guests, who attend the party under aliases – Mr. Green, Col. Mustard, Prof. Plum, Miss Scarlet, Mrs. White and Mrs. Peacock – discover they are all victims of blackmail. What happens next is a mayhem of murder, jokes, gags and lots of laughs.
While the play certainly follows the movie’s steps, it does veer off and walk its own path. I appreciated that some of the play’s dialogue and scenes varied from the film, and, just like how every round of playing the board game ends differently, the play offers different conclusions than the film.
One of the greatest achievements is the sets. I wondered how, on a small stage, LALT would pull off mimicking the iconic board game’s nine room layout and even how it would incorporate the secret passages. But Brad Gregory, who headed up the set design, construction, light and sound design, is a genius. Two walls would be maneuvered around as well as fold in and out to give the impression that characters were leaving one room and going into another. Under Kelly Dolejsi’s capable hands, light was smartly used to shrink the space to give an impression that the actors were crowded in a hallway or to show they were in a large room. Likewise, she would utilize sounds to make it seem as though actors were really walking through a hidden, dark passage.
Pianist Margaret-Mary Sauppe’s music between scenes was another fantastic element.
I also loved how the actual board game is featured in the sets as well as a pair of dice.
The film version had some heavy hitters in its cast: Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn and Christopher Plummer, to name a few. But LALT’s cast showed they can stand-to-toe-to-toe with these great actors. They may be murderers but you cannot help but love Michael Dolejsi’s naive, bumbling Mr. Green, Don Monteith’s clueless Col. Mustard, Kelsey Denissen’s sharped-tongue and seductive Ms. Scarlet, Jonathan Guise’s lusty Prof. Plum, Karen McMullen’s southern accented Mrs. Peacock and Alex DiBranco’s black-widow-like Mrs. White.
Major kudos to Matt DeSmith as Wadsworth. His role requires a lot of physical feats and he pulled it off effortlessly. Holly Robinson is a real flirt as the sexy French maid Yvette and I kind of wished Thanos Stamatopoulos’ Mr. Body wasn’t “whacked” as quickly so he could be on stage a bit more.
I also have to give a major shout out to the costume department, which includes Lisa-Jo Dunham and Emily Hildebrand. The whole cast looked fantastic in their 1950s inspired garb but the standout is McMullen who is credited for her own costume. I loved her peacock feather headdress and cat-eyed glasses.
I’ve heard when the movie was released, it didn’t do that great at the box office but has garnered a cult following. I am certainly one of those followers. So I imagine LALT cast and crew felt it was no small task to try and measure up against the beloved movie. But they did it.
In fact, I would be as bold as to take it further. The play’s final scene and the final piece of dialogue mirrors the movie’s. The film’s Mr. Green jokingly tells J. Edgar Hoover to take the murderers away and that he is going home to sleep with his wife. In the play, Michael Dolejsi as Green says these very same words, and then his wife, Kelly, playing the chief of police, jumps into his arms. Knowing that they are a real-life couple makes the scene all the sweeter, cleverer – and dare I say – better than the movie.
LALT’s Clue: On Stage will continue 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Nov. 18 at the Performing Arts Center, 1670 Nectar St., with a 2 p.m. matinee Sunday, Nov. 13, and a special 7 p.m. performance Thursday Nov. 17.
Tickets are on sale at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/clue-on-stage-tickets-453647210017 or at the door beginning one hour before showtime.
