Review: THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG at Searcy Summer Dinner Theatre Ends the Season with Continuous Laughter

Searcy Summer Dinner Theatre, in the Ulrey Performing Arts Center at Harding University, is finishing out the season strong with the super funny show THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, which is a play within a play that continuously cracked me up from beginning to end. This production has three more days left, Thursday- Saturday, August 4-6. The dinner is possibly sold out, but I would check anyway.

Once again I will say that I like the fact that they feed me before a production. This is the best idea ever! For dinner, we had ham, brussel sprouts, carrots, rolls, some sort of meat casserole, salad, yummy cake, and a blue berry muffin that my table mates told me to save until intermission, which was a genius idea. While we were finishing up our meal, the performers began a little preshow interaction with the audience. It was really cute. They came around asking if we'd seen their dog and a Duran Duran CD. My table companion Melanie (Melody?) told the actor that she was too young to know who Duran Duran was....poor thing..bless them both! And I Ioved the piano player who was in the corner playing while we entered the theatre and throughout the meal. It was very classy and mood setting.

THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG, written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields, and directed by Steven Frye, is about the opening night of a play where everything really does go wrong. The set falls apart; the actors are knocked unconscious; one actress doesn't know how to pronounce some of her words; the same actress is playing a male character, which wasn't initially meant to be that way; there is chaos backstage, and so on. Everything that could go wrong does, and more. It is hilarious!

This company really goes all out for their shows. I love how the seating is set up. There isn't a bad seat the way they have the tables tiered. It flows really well, and it makes it easy to go in and out of the area. The set design was amazing. I couldn't believe it when the second floor of their set started slanting downwards as the actors were holding on for dear life. It was crazy and incredible. They looked like they were having so much fun.

For this play, almost every actor was playing an actor/actress playing another character. Confusing...a little, but it makes sense when you watch the play. Every cast member added detail to the show that made the whole thing a blast to watch. I'll try to explain.

The Hardly Drama Society is performing THE MURDER AT HAVERSHAM MANOR. Jonathan Harris' character Charles Haversham (Cordell Hutcheson) has been murdered, or so it seems, and Inspector Carter, played by Hardly Drama's actor Chris Bean (Asher Patten) is on the scene to find out who the murderer is. It could have been the butler Perkins, played by Hardley's actress Denis Tyde (Emily Hutcheson), who kept switching back and forth from playing a male to female; It could have been Charles' fiancé Florence Colleymoore, who is played by Hardley's actress Sandra Wilkinson (Josie Holman), who gets knocked out and needs to be replaced by the stage manager (Cassie Renee Bennett) who is reading her lines from a book; It could have been Charles' brother Cecil Haversham, who is played by Hardly's Max Bennett (Keller Montgomery), who is eating up the audience's applause and exaggerates his character more and more as the show progresses; or it could have been Florence's brother Thomas Colleymoore, who is played by Hardly's Robert Grove (James Tyler Adams), who is over protective of his sister. Did you get all of that?

Well, I won't spoil it, except to say that I haven't laughed so much continuously in a long time. This is a great show. My table mates, who have season tickets, were sad to see the season end. I will have to agree. I can't wait to see what the Searcy Summer Dinner Theatre cooks up next year.

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