Review: 'The Play That Goes Wrong' is silly fun

Imagine a theater company driven by ambition and completely undeterred by its lack of funds and manpower. Out of desperation and sheer stubbornness, it cuts every corner just to stage a production, resulting in absurd, copyright-skirting pastiches like Cat, James and the Peach, and The Lion and the Wardrobe.

To make matters worse, its members are complete amateurs.

This is the chaotic premise behind the Olivier Award-winning West End hit. We sit back and watch this broke fictional troupe, the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, attempt to pull off their opening-night whodunnit, The Murder at Haversham Manor.

Long before the performance officially starts—with an introduction from director Chris Bean (Tom Babbage)—disaster is already brewing. A dog named Winston is missing, and lighting operator Trevor (Tom Bulpett), stage manager Annie (Olivia Charalambous), and scattered cast members roam the aisles of The Theatre at Solaire, frantically asking audience members about the lost canine. A CD is missing, too.

Yet, the show must go on.

As the production inevitably unravels—starting with minor problems like misplaced props and butchered lines—the cast stubbornly pretends that nothing is wrong.

Hilariously lacking the skill to ad-lib or smoothly cover technical failures, their desperate attempts to improvise out of trouble only plunge them deeper into chaos. We watch in suspense as they stick to the script despite the collapsing world around them, and every effort to save the show only adds to the pandemonium.

That is the appeal of this Bri-ish slapstick comedy, brought to Manila by GMG Productions. Physical comedy fans should prepare to roll on the floor laughing, judging by the gala night crowd's roaring response. Slapstick is not my go-to genre, and while there are definitely some corny moments, I found myself chuckling from time to time and occasionally laughing out loud, particularly in Act 2.

Act 2 is where the show really picks up, particularly the growing, flushed-face frustration of Bean. Babbage plays his character's exasperation with comic perfection. Thin-skinned and easily offended, the Cornley director is hilarious to watch—especially when his mounting rage boils over and he turns on the audience directly.

Part of the cleverness of this play-within-a-play lies in its meta-disaster. The audience becomes an unwitting participant in the chaos; our laughter directly seals the fate of the ambitious Cornley troupe as a complete laughingstock.

But, ironically, at the gala night, a genuine technical hitch occurred, with GMG Productions COO Paul Mansfield going onstage to pause the show. At first, I was momentarily confused about whether his appearance was part of the scene. It turned out it was not—though in a show like this, telling real mechanical failure from scripted chaos is part of the fun.

Behind the deliberate mess is an impressively structured piece of theater created by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer,and Henry Shields of Mischief Theatre. Every falling prop, collapsing set piece, and missed cue is timed to the second.

And executing that level of physical precision live requires a solid cast, which includes Manila's own Mikkie Bradshaw-Volante as Sandra (playing Florence in the murder mystery). She turns in a very competent performance, fully embracing her character's over-the-top acting.

The rest of the ensemble offers a menu of wonderfully flawed acting styles: Tom Hayward as Dennis, struggling to deliver lines filled with difficult vocabulary, which he has written on his hands; Sebastiano Pitruzzello as Max, a novice actor who can't resist breaking character to soak up the applause; Liam Horrigan as Jonathan, who keeps missing his cues; and Owen Jenkins as Robert, the self-proclaimed "seasoned" actor playing Thomas Colleymoore.

A quick piece of advice: Don't make my mistake—read the souvenir program before the show starts. It doesn't contain spoilers, but the hilarious background context on the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society—complete with Bean’s director's note—will defintely make the play even funnier.

Resident director Hannah Sharkey (who has guided the show since its West End run in 2021) keeps tight control over the madness. It is remarkable to consider that a comedy which began above a London pub in 2012 for just four paying customers has now played in over 50 countries.

If slapstick is your thing, then it would definitely be wrong to miss this—you’ll be falling off your chair. But even if physical farce is not your usual genre, it is still a worthwhile, funny night of theater. Theater normally demands strict discipline and flawless execution, and watching Bean and his hapless crew lose control of their opening night is just silly fun.

'That Goes Wrong' runs at The Theatre at Solaire from 6 to 22 November 2026, presented by GMG Productions for a strictly limited 15-show season. Performances are scheduled on Fridays at 8 p.m., Saturdays at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 1:30 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.