I’ve seen both The Play That Goes Wrong and The Mousetrap in London. The Mousetrap is a Agatha Christie story. It’s all right but nothing great. The Play That Goes Wrong is a big collection of the mistakes that bad play production can produce. It’s a little better, I think.
Similar to the Peter Pan Goes Wrong, listen to the first part of a This American Life episode called Fiasco.
Noises Off is the reverse TPTGW. The play - the funniest ever? - is better than the movie. The movie’s fine, with an all-time great cast, but nothing compares to the perfect split-second timing of entrances and exits live. You know the film is a cheat.
The Goes Wrong Show was deigned first for television and only later made into a live version. It doesn’t depend on timing in the same way but the cheats were baked into tv and can’t quite be duplicated on stage. (It was shot before a live audience, but they say nothing about how long the audience sat there.)
The play is still a marvel. You should go see it if you ever get a chance. I drove 90 miles to see it. I also want you to check out the tv show.
Really? I thought the play came first (2012) and the TV show followed much later(2019).
OK. I looked up the show on Wikipedia and it said nothing about that.
In 2016, Mischief Theatre was offered the opportunity by the BBC to produce a televised adaptation of Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which aired in December 2016.[9] The following year, the broadcaster invited the company back to produce a new special, titled A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong, in December 2017.[10] Both specials proved a success with viewers, leading Mischief Theatre to be commissioned for a television series for BBC One. The company’s directors, Shields and Sayer, opted to using the same writers and cast for the series, and devised the series as The Goes Wrong Show, focused on the fictional theatre company the cast performed as being involved in conducting different stage performances.[11][12] The six episodes were each given different themes for their play, including a period romance and a spy thriller, and led to the production of six half-hour episodes.[13] A second series was later commissioned, beginning with a Christmas special in 2020, followed by five episodes in 2021.[14]
But you’re right.
Testing, thank you!
That’s the first thing I thought of reading the thread. One of my all-time favorite TAL episodes, it also features the classic/tragic tale, “Squirrel Cop”.
It’s probably worth mentioning that, in addition to being a hilarious depiction of everything that can go wrong in live theatre, the show is also a well-written mystery that keeps you guessing and has a satisfactory conclusion. It’d probably still be an entertaining show if it were played straight.
We bought our tickets for TPTGW in London, looking forward to it.
Saw it in London on Thanksgiving, it was amazing. Highly recommended.