For some unknown reason and despite having 10 years worth of chances I have never made it along to the Duchess Theatre to see The Play That Goes Wrong in the West End, well luckily I managed to put this right this week for their media night to celebrate their new cast joining the show.

Mischief Comedy are now a well known name in British comedy but their journey started with this play. The Play That Goes Wrong is based on the fact that Cornley Polytechnic are putting on ‘Murder At Haversham Manor.’ Everything that could go wrong with the production does, with misplaced props, doors that won’t open, a lost dog, set that falls apart and injured cast resulting in a huge amount of hilarity. As the show progresses the mishaps escalate but they somehow stumble through to the reveal of the murderer and the motive, although by this point it has become almost insignificant.

The words organised chaos sums up this show perfectly, barely a few minutes go by in The Play That Goes Wrong without doing as it says on the tin and something going wrong. The mishaps get bigger as the play progresses and by the time the show is nearing the climax we are onto the 3rd performer for one of the roles! The performers make this kind of chaos look easy however in reality this kind of comedy is incredibly challenging and relies on impeccable timing. The physical comedy was timed so well that it had me exclaiming out loud whenever an injury took place on stage and the scripted comedy was so quick that I was still laughing at a previous joke by the time they had moved onto the next one. The humour is timeless and will appeal to everyone, whilst one member of the group may be laughing at the word play another may be laughing at physical comedy that took place seconds earlier.

The cast were consistently hilarious and it is clearly a team effort getting the physical comedy and the pace of the show spot on and I couldn’t fault a single one of them. Playing Cecil Haversham/Max Bennett was Tom Wainwright and his acting choices were simple, endearing yet laugh out loud funny as he acted out many of his lines literally and preceded to look very chuffed with himself after he had completed a particularly taxing scene. Ronnie Yorke as the lighting and Sound Operator Trevor was positioned in technical area jutting out of the front of the circle for much of the show but his reactions (or lack of them) was perfectly timed. Izzy Edmunds-Clarke as stage manager Annie was also brilliant in the role and her appearance as Florence Colleymoore’s understudy was wonderful, especially as her characters confidence in the role grew.

The technical team in this show work wonders and a huge amount of credit needs to go to the set designer Nigel Hook. The set falls to pieces on cue night after night and continues to look accidental each time, the set is possibly as awe inspiring as the casts performances and the attention to detail that has gone into rehearsing the set with the cast so it all looks seamless was astonishing.

It is easy to see how the Play That Goes Wrong has been running for over 10 years with a masterclass in comedy being performed every night and after tonight’s performance with the new cast I wouldn’t be surprised if I was back in another 10 years still raving about the show.

The Play That Goes Wrong is currently booking at the Duchess Theatre through to August 2026. You can find out more and book tickets here.

If you like this review you might also like my review of Operation Mincemeat, Stranger Things The First Shadow and Witness for The Prosecution.