The Clue stage show moves at breakneck speed, keeping the audience guessing — and its performers constantly on the move.
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Clue
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When: July 28 to Aug. 2.
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Where: Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St., Vancouver.
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Tickets: From $45 at Ticketmaster.ca or BroadwayAcrossCanada.ca
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There’s good news for theatre fans who think some productions overstay their welcome: Clue clocks in at just 80 minutes, with no intermission.
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The stage show moves at breakneck speed, keeping the audience guessing — and its performers constantly on the move.
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“Once we get onstage, we barely leave,” says actor Sarah Mackenzie Baron. “We always joke that it’s like getting on a train that never stops, and the audience just hops on with us. We’ve become spoiled. The next show I do, I’m going to ask, ‘What do you mean there’s an intermission? What do you mean I have a costume change?’ The energy just keeps building, and it’s infectious.”
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Sun Spots
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Few pieces of pop-culture intellectual property have taken a stranger route to the stage. English musician Anthony E. Pratt created the murder-mystery board game, which debuted in Britain in 1949 as Cluedo — a mash-up of “clue” and the board game Ludo — before becoming Clue in North America. It went on to become one of the bestselling board games of all time.
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The 1985 film adaptation, featuring Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Christopher Lloyd, Michael McKean, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren and Eileen Brennan, disappointed at the box office before becoming a cult favourite on home video and cable. Sandy Rustin’s stage adaptation, Clue: On Stage, premiered in 2017; the current touring production is a revised version packed with one-liners, physical gags and even a clue or two.
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Baron plays Mrs. White, the role made famous by Kahn in the film. She is one of six strangers summoned to a secluded New England mansion in 1954, where they discover they’re all being blackmailed. Before long, their host — the aptly named Mr. Boddy — is dead, and everyone becomes a suspect.
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Baron describes Mrs. White as “a cross between a cat and a black widow spider.”
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“Like a spider, she’s always in the corner, always watching. People are either fascinated by her or terrified of her. Like a cat, she’s elegant and alluring, but she decides when she wants your attention — and don’t try to give it to her otherwise. But cats can also be wonderfully goofy. They’ll suddenly knock something off a table for absolutely no reason, then go right back to lounging in the sun.
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“Thinking of Mrs. White as those two animals helps me find that balance between menace and comedy.”
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Physical comedy comes naturally to Baron, who was born and raised in Los Angeles and now lives in New York.
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“I’ve always loved physical comedy. Farces have always been where I feel at home. Even in high school, I was usually cast as the funny side character because I loved having the freedom to be silly and goofy. Comedy feels like there are no rules, but in reality, there are more rules than in almost any other kind of performance. And physical comedy is one of the hardest forms because everything depends on precision. That’s what makes it such a fun challenge.”
