No doubt that Joseph Grienenberger's Get A Clue! is funny. There are enough laugh lines for two plays, with humor running the gamut of styles from slapstick to satire. The arts, especially theater, are hit with a zillion one-liners. Isn't that what comedy is all about? Yes, but the audience needs a bit of relief.
Get A Clue!'s cast of characters include Mr. Green (Anthony Ballard), Professor Plum (Terence Burke), Miss Scarlet (Sandy Campbell), Miss White (Angie Engelbert), Colonel Mustard (Steven Jensen), and Mrs. Peacock (Molly Wilmot). Get the Clue? Yes, a play about a board game. Actually, a group of actors stewarded by The Stage Manager (Kristina Meek) with the help of pianist Knuckles Rose (Daniel Hall, who also plays Bertie Bradley) and stagehand Maurie Milton (Robin Felix). Hey, wasn't "Clue" a Parker Brothers' game?
This overly long play (Almost two and a half hours with intermission) is saved only by a cast of very talented actors. Meek's stage manager is the typically overworked, underappreciated surrogate director. She is completely natural, and she gets a long but brilliantly alliterative closing speech. Wow!
Sandy Campbell's Miss Scarlet is a difficult prima donna. She amusingly sings the theme song, "It's a Game of Clue." Angie Engelbert's Miss White (properly dressed in white and black) has three personalities: the black battler, the white nice lady, and the gray arbiter. Her moves from one personality to another are perfect, with absolutely no carryover.
Molly Wilmot's Mrs. Peacock is properly English, capable of a certain amount of agitation when in her best interest. Mr. Green and Colonel Mustard keep up the mayhem created by the others. Robin Felix and Daniel Hall, as the stage hands Milton and Bradley, rotate triangle-shaped wall inserts, creating off-scene costumes to go along with each of the principal tales of how they knew the recently deceased piano player. All, of course, have cause to dispatch him.
The set is a simple black box with moving panels revealing framed depictions of the various rooms in the game, "Clue." Juli Stewart and Paul Ericson's lighting works well. Bob Eisele's sound, including an extremely humorous selection of pre-show music, is good. Pamela Stompoly and Judy Watson's costumes totally define the various characters.
The story of a ragtag group of actors performing a play based on a board game is intriguing, with a good twist ending, solid direction and brilliant casting. With cutting, I'd like to see the same team try a revitalized version.
