PicksInSix Review: Clue - Broadway in South Bend
Dying For Laughs In Riotous “Clue”
PicksInSix® Review | Ed Tracy
What will strike you most at the top of the second national tour of “Clue” currently crisscrossing the country, is the massive foyer of a mansion where, in quick succession, the ensemble of characters arrive with invitation in hand and are then whisked off into a non-stop, comic murder mystery. And at the Broadway in South Bend opening on Friday night at the Morris Performing Arts Center, the audience was ready, willing and thoroughly entertained.
Yes, it’s a whodunit and bodies are popping up again and again until you realize there is no real mystery here, it is all for fun. This fine ensemble of comic actors who each define the familiar characters of the famous board game and 1985 film are now, well, for the most part, alive, until they are not. It is not a matter of who but when, how, and by whom, of course.
Unlike the Hasbro board game, there is only one possible conclusion in this production—original screenplay by Jonathan Lynn and book by Sandy Ruskin with additional material by Hunter Foster and Eric Price—that allows endless avenues and rabbit holes to explore along the way. Just as you think that it is all chaos and confusion, you are wrangled back on course with a twist of the knife or a fatal conk on the noggin that leads to another highly-stylized group romp from room to room.
Director Casey Hushion has the spirited company operating on full throttle for a precise 90 minutes, a mix of shock, awe and riotous antics you would expect when bodies are dropping left and right. It all unfolds on Lee Savage’s impressive and elegant mansion set with hidden doorways, expanding rooms, and spilt-second changes awash in the sights and sounds of a dark and stormy night courtesy of Ryan O’Gara’s stellar lighting design, Jeff Human’s keen sound design and all gussied up in Jen Caprio’s outrageous costumes.
The talented company who are in lock step all night are: Sarah Mackenzie Baron (Mrs. White), Adam Brett (Wadsworth), Camille Capers (Miss Scarlet), Nate Curlott (Colonel Mustard), Joseph Dalfonso (Mr. Boddy and others), TJ Lamando (Mr. Green), Madeline Raube (Mrs. Peacock), AT Sanders (The Cook and others), Zoie Tannous (Yvette), Kebron Woodfin (The Cop and others) and Kyle Yambiro (Professor Plum). Brett’s Wadworth has one of the longest and most hilarious death scenes ever. You can see that kind of thing in every character all night long. It’s over-the-top, just-for-laughs and it all flies by.
Coming up in the week ahead: the “Clue” tour travels to the Weill Center in Sheboygan, Wisconsin (6/1-2); the Ferguson Center for the Arts in Newport News, Virginia (6/4); the Clay Center in Charleston, West Virginia (6/5); and, the Koger Center for the Arts in Columbia, South Carolina (6/6-7) where they will be dying for laughs every night.
PHOTO | Evan Zimmerman for MurphyMade.jpg
Broadway in South Bend
presents
Clue
Morris Performing Arts Center
211 N Michigan Street
South Bend, Indiana
through May 31, 2026
WEBSITE
PROGRAM
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