Boiler Room's latest is more geared to retro gamers than to musical comedy fans
by Martin Brady
Boiler Room Theatre's new production Clue the Musical, based on the once-popular whodunit board game, is a curious affair, to say the least. Certainly the ideal audience for such a show would be veteran Clue players who can appreciate the game's infamous cast of characters and who enjoy testing their own sleuthing skills. The interactive aspect is a key factor here, with audience members issued scorecards and pencils once they enter the theater. They are expected to play along as clues are laid out, then ultimately pinpoint the killer, with the big reveal at evening's end—e.g., Miss Scarlet in the kitchen with the candlestick.
Yet Act 1, for all its audience-centric involvement, risks a good deal of boredom to sustain the show's elaborate premise. You'd think the musical component might keep things lively enough, but that isn't really the case, because composers Galen Blum, Wayne Barker and Vinnie Martucci (with lyrics by Tom Chiodo) offer a first-half score comprising elusive, quirky and not particularly appealing tunes, plus some thriller-style underscoring that at times is loud and flat-out annoying despite its best intentions to assert a murderous mood.
Roguish Joe Robinson is the play's central figure, Mr. Boddy (as in dead body)—a debonair gent who, one way or another, has alienated each of the guests at his mansion. The interestingly staged opening tableau finds his visitors poised in silhouette behind a series of doors. While Boddy explains the forthcoming agenda—somebody is out to kill him, with either rope, knife, candlestick, pistol, pipe or wrench—the soon-to-be suspects make their entrances, whereupon we learn of their distinctive traits. (Colonel Mustard is obsessed with all things military, Mr. Green has a penchant for hopelessly mixing metaphors and butchering clichés, Mrs. Peacock has been married five times, and so on.)
Peter DePietro's arch book definitely captures the classic board game's eccentricity and Agatha Christie ambience, but it's much more geared to those eager to interpret the clues than to those merely looking for a piece of musical entertainment. The script, under the direction of Corbin Green, fully promotes the appropriate cartoonish elements, but too often it's just not funny enough.
Yet things improve greatly in Act 2. Though the clues keep coming, there's enhanced focus on the characters, mainly through a series of more accessible songs, including the Sondheim-ish act opener "She Hasn't Got a Clue," the tango "Seduction Deduction" and "Don't Blame Me," a company number that precedes the dispensing of the final clue and the climactic wrap-up.
Act 2 also features lighthearted dialogue that's both intentionally corny and punning, mostly initiated with the arrival of the Detective (Nancy Whitehead). Whitehead exploits a sense of self-conscious bombast in her interrogations of the suspects, and makes comical "token" references to other famous board games, such as Sorry, Monopoly and Life.
The more conventional musical program that emerges later in Clue must be a theatrical balm to a very fine ensemble that proves it is worthy of tackling less idiosyncratic—and more broadly gratifying—material. For example, in "Foul Weather Friend," the six suspects—Kendra Ford, Dan McGeachy, Laura Thomas Sonn, Dan Zeigler, Sondra Morton and Will Sevier—pull off some cool harmonies, which only makes it more apparent that for much of the night they've been saddled with a less-compelling hodgepodge of melodies.
Pianist/musical director Mark Beall and three sidemen handle the fairly intricate score capably, and Melissa Cannon's costumes are effectively colorful and appropriately old-fashioned. Director Green designed the functional set, which can only be so ambitious given the limited BRT space.
Retro gamer types might actually enjoy enough of Clue to make it worth their while: Revisiting the board-game favorite in this unlikely public atmosphere should prove a satisfying diversion. But fans of more conventional musical comedy might find their patience tested. Presuming they can survive Act 1's taxing pace and meandering exposition, less deadly rewards lie ahead. If only getting there were half the fun.
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