THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG Extends Booking to September 2015

By: Oct. 18, 2014
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The Play That Goes Wrong, which opened to great acclaim at the Duchess Theatre on 14 September, is delighted to announce the opening of a new booking period today, with tickets going on sale until 6 September 2015. Following a sell-out national tour, the production has now been seen by over 100,000 people across the UK and in the West End. The Play That Goes Wrong is proving to be a box office hit which promises high quality entertainment for all, and, for a limited period through until the end of November, will be the only West End show to offer a family ticket for under £100.

The Play That Goes Wrong burst onto the stage with phenomenal success last year, having originally opened as a one-act show at the Old Red Lion in London, followed by a transfer to the Trafalgar Studios, where the show's unique potential was spotted by producers Stage Presence and Kenny Wax. Awarded the 2014 Whatsonstage.com Best New Comedy in February, The Play That Goes Wrong toured the UK prior to opening in the West End this autumn where it continues to thrive. The decision by Nimax Theatres, one of London's major commercial theatre groups, to extend booking to September 2015 so soon after opening is the latest chapter in this rags-to-riches story of success.

Co-written by Mischief Theatre company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields, and directed by Mark Bell, The Play That Goes Wrong is a highly physical comedy packed with finely-tuned farce and Buster Keaton-inspired slapstick delivered with split-second timing. The play introduces 'The Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society' who are attempting to put on a 1920's murder mystery, but as the title suggests, everything that can go wrong... does, as the accident prone thespians battle on against the odds to get to their final curtain call.

Mischief Theatre was founded in 2008 by a group of graduates of The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and began as an improvised comedy group. Recent winners of the Edinburgh Festival's 'Spirit of The Fringe' Award, Mischief Theatre performs across the UK and internationally with improvised and original scripted work. The company is led by Artistic Director Henry Lewis and Company Director Jonathan Sayer. Mischief's second production Peter Pan Goes Wrong begins a UK tour in November 2014.

Producer Kenny Wax says: "Our perverse (and reverse) marketing campaign has, in true goes wrong spirit, done everything it possibly can to dissuade people from coming to see the show. The tactic has not worked at all. We ran adverts telling people to 'save their money and don't come' and another with 'premium seats at the exorbitant price of £3950'. We even ran a strap line on a number of ads reminding people that the production starred 'no one famous'. I think the only way to keep people away would be to cancel the production altogether - which is not going to be possible because of the extension to September 2015."

Director Mark Bell trained at Ecole Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq. Credits include: Endgame (BAC), On the Road to Baghdad (Sadler's Wells), Amok, The Breeze and Backwash (Hoipolloi) and Get Out of Here (Commotion). He has taught and directed at LAMDA, CSSD and East 15 acting schools in the UK and at Cours Florent Paris, ITCA in Italy and Carnegie Mellon University, USA.

The Play That Goes Wrong is directed by Mark Bell, with set designs by Nigel Hook, lighting by Ric Mountjoy, sound design by Andy Johnson, costumes by Roberto Surace and is performed by Mischief Theatre members: Rob Falconer, Dave Hearn, Henry Lewis, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields, Greg Tannahill and Nancy Wallinger.

The Play That Goes Wrong is produced in the West End by Kenny Wax Ltd and Stage Presence Ltd.



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