Have you ever noticed that “manslaughter” ends with “laughter”?
Clue, apparently, did.
First it was a droll Hasbro board game back in 1949. Then it was a cult-fave, giggle-fest comedy movie in 1985. Now the murder mystery “Clue” is a laugh-riot stage play, continuing the through-line of making homicide hysterically funny.
The latest iteration is a national tour coming to the Broward Center for the Performing Arts in Fort Lauderdale from June 11 to 16.
Like the movie with Tim Curry, Madeline Kahn, Eileen Brennan, Martin Mull, Lesley Ann Warren, Michael McKean and Christopher Lloyd, the play also tries to figure out who is killing it when murder and blackmail are on the menu at a dinner party — at Boddy Manor, no less — with six mysterious guests.
As the death toll takes a toll on the evening (apparently it’s hard to keep good help … alive), we have to ask ourselves: Was it Mr. Green with a lead pipe, Mrs. Peacock with a dagger, Professor Plum with a revolver, Mrs. White with a rope, Colonel Mustard with a wrench, or Miss Scarlet with a candlestick?
Sandy Rustin knows whodunit. That’s because she wrote the play (based on Jonathan Lynn’s screenplay). She recalls the thrill when she first got the gig.
“I was so happy and excited,” Rustin tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “I really felt so delighted because ‘Clue’ was a film that had come into my life when I was a kid. And, of course, I played the board game with my family and friends. So it really was a household name. And it felt like a big opportunity to get to share my voice and my take … on this title.”
Rustin’s comedic play “The Cottage” was directed by Jason Alexander and ran on Broadway last year with Eric McCormack and Laura Bell Bundy in leading roles. She has had seven plays produced, written the book for eight musicals and scripted 10 television shows. Rustin is also the playwright in residence with the Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota.
And “Clue” isn’t her only adaptation for the stage. She also wrote the book for the jukebox musical “Mystic Pizza,” which will play the Kravis Center for the Performing Arts in West Palm Beach in 2025. Her resume as an actor is just as impressive, with turns in everything from the Upright Citizens Brigade improv group to Neil Simon’s “Hotel Suite” as well as TV stints on “Law & Order: SVU,” “All My Children” and “Inside Amy Schumer.”
Having all that experience to draw upon, Rustin knew that there were some elements from the movie that had to make it to the stage.
“When an adaptation project comes to me it feels like a real gift,” she says. “Because I am being handed characters, a style, a tone, oftentimes a plot, right? So you’re being given a lot of the components, a lot of the ingredients, the building blocks exactly of what’s going to make its way to the stage, and I certainly felt that way with ‘Clue.’ And part of the fun was the trial and error of figuring out what pieces of the film absolutely were must-have in the stage production.”
For Rustin — who grew up in Chicago, lived in Manhattan and now resides in Maplewood, New Jersey, with her family — the most important theater critics are probably the movie’s cult following.
“I have been given a thumbs-up from ‘Clue’ fans that the most iconic moments from the film are represented on the stage and that makes people feel really happy,” Rustin says. “At the same time, the stage production feels like something new and original and unique. So there is this feeling of nostalgia for audiences where they can sort of recognize the world that they’re familiar with. But there’s also a feeling of something being original in front of them. So they’re getting to experience the board game experience, the film and in a new way, which makes people feel really happy. So that makes me happy.”
There are parts of this touring production that are totally new since the stage version doesn’t have the narrative mobility of a camera that can take the viewer anywhere inside and outside of Boddy Manor. With the play, the swiftness of the story and the characters moving around the mansion has to be accomplished with stagecraft.
“You can’t replicate the movie on the stage. It has to become something new. So yes, much of the show is new. And, of course, then that requires new dialogue. That’s where my own voice comes in. And then the challenge there is, how do I take this iconic text dialogue from the film that people know and love and (have) grown to appreciate — that particular style of humor — and add to it, continue to be authentic within these characters’ voices, but then make it true to myself also as a writer. That was the biggest challenge.”
Of course, Rustin can’t give any spoilers, but she does advise you to go into the theater prepared for a speedy slay play.
“The truth is this play moves like a fast-moving train. You get on the train, when you sit in the theater, it starts out kind of slow, and gradually, gradually, gradually, it just moves. You’re just on this 85-minute ride. I would just say keep your eyes peeled the whole time because the cast is so innovative and inventive. The show moves so quickly and it’s a laugh a minute. So you just have to kind of ride that wave with them.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Clue”
WHEN: June 11-16
WHERE: Broward Center for the Performing Arts, 201 SW Fifth Ave., Fort Lauderdale
COST: $35-$171
TO ORDER: Visit browardcenter.org or call 954-462-0222 (press 1).
