The Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong at Spencer Theatre At Kansas City Repertory Theatre

When a drawing-room mystery collapses around the actors trying desperately to perform it, refinement meets ruin in spectacular fashion. The Play That Goes Wrong brings a fictional 1920s whodunit to the Spencer Theatre at Kansas City Repertory Theatre, where the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society's well-intentioned amateurs confront an evening spinning wildly beyond their control.

What starts as The Murder at Haversham Manor—complete with period flourishes and a corpse to be discovered—quickly transforms into controlled chaos as the production betrays its performers at every turn. An unstable set refuses to cooperate. Furniture develops a mind of its own. Lines vanish from memory at precisely the wrong moment. The victim won't stay convincingly dead. Written by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, the comedy layers disaster upon disaster while the fictional troupe battles to maintain dignity.

The dual pleasure here is unmistakable: you follow the murder mystery's unfolding clues even as you watch the physical mishaps demolish any hope of theatrical polish. Each new catastrophe compounds the previous one, and the gap between what these earnest performers want to present and what actually happens creates the show's heart. Stuart Carden directs KCRep's production of a play that finds its laughs in the collision between ambition and reality.

Grab tickets now and watch order unravel beautifully.