Review: CLUE: HIGH SCHOOL EDITION at Lakeside High School

I grew up playing board games, and one of our family’s favorite ones to play was Clue. So, it was a delight to hear that Lakeside High School, 2871 Malvern Ave, in Hot Springs, was putting on this super funny classic Thursday, Nov. 2. CLUE: HIGH SCHOOL EDITION is a great ensemble play, and the Thespians at Lakeside embraced the absurdity of their characters with ease.  

According to history.com, Clue the game was created by Anthony Pratt during the WWII air-raid blackouts and was later patented in 1947 and released in 1949. Though it has had a few updates, the three questions still remain: Who was the killer? In what room was the victim killed? What was the murder weapon? 

Based on the 1985 movie CLUE, this production, written by Sandy Rustin, adapted from the screenplay by Jonathan Lynn, and directed by Sarah Haman, hilariously brings together the beloved characters of the game: Miss Scarlet (Jenna Thaxton), Mrs. Peacock (Keira Lambert), Mrs. White (Rebekah Fulton), Colonel Mustard (Mason McElrath), Professor Plum (Cade Espinoza), and Mr. Green (Caden Hall). Greeted by Wadsworth (Gavin Anders) and assisted by Yvette the maid (Juliana King) at a mysterious mansion, the partygoers are eventually told why they were summoned to the house and, after the introduction of six weapons, murders start taking place. Who kills the Singing Telegram Girl (Saharra Mixon), The Cook (Katie Brown), Mr. Boddy (Spencer Moore), The Motorist (Elijah Evans-Hughes), and The Unexpected Cop (Claire Hudnell)? It's a mystery that isn't solved until the Chief of Police (Carmen McCraney) comes in to arrest the killer. 

I enjoyed watching as each character was being introduced to the audience. The actors told the story with comedic timing and really brought the game to life. I loved the commitment from King as Yvette with her accent and prissiness; Ander’s Wadsworth did a great job leading the cast in their adventures and was super funny with his physical humor; Thaxton’s Miss Scarlet was confident and super flirty; Lambert’s Mrs. Peacock was hysterical with her haughtiness, and Hall’s quirky details with Mr. Green had me interested in what he was going to do next. The whole cast worked well together, was tight with their scenes, and had the audience wrapped up in the mystery.  

The set was huge with great detail. They had sliding walls and movable doors. It was very reminiscent of the actual game. It was amazing! 

Before the show, Director Haman thanked sponsors, family and friends who all helped make this production possible, as well as talked about their booster club. 

“Our booster club, Friends of Fine Arts or FOFA for shorts supports our Theater Arts and Choral students, and they do that by buying us T-shirts for shows and keepsakes and feeding the kids when we're here really late at night, but they also provide scholarships for two of our seniors every year at least, so you buying snack during intermission helps fund kids the opportunities to go to college, so please, buy a lot of snacks,” Director Haman said. “I would like to draw your attention to the advertisements in the program. The program is one of the ways that we are able to keep doing really high-quality shows here at Lakeside. We want to thank our donors, our sponsors, our guardian angels. Whether they're acknowledged or not, we want to thank them. We want to give an extra special thanks to Retrofit. Please go buy clothes from them. They partnered with us and handled the costumes for this production without charging us anything. So please go buy clothes at Retrofit. I think they give teachers and students a discount. There's an ad in the program about that, so go get some retro clothes from them.” Director Haman went on to say, “We could not do this show without the help of people like Ashley Ward, Mark Langley, Jeanine Girello, Neal Moss and John Haman who have given up their time and given their talents to support this production. Teamwork makes the dream work, but thank you hardly seems like it's enough.” 

Broadway World realizes it takes a small army to put on this size of a production. Crew members were: Stage Manager Mollie Outler; Assistant Stage Manager-Caitlin Covey; Sound-Seth Henley and Hanna Nickles; Light Board-Lindsay Hanks; Spotlights/Ushers-Samantha Phillips, Atticus Webb, and Carlos Gonzales; Makeup and Costume Crew-Reagan Schoultz and Abigail Uldrich; Stage Crew-Jansen Brock and Ella Segal; Props Manager-Li Ford; Props and Set Crew-Madison Lee and Charis Mikulesky; House Manager-Sierra Geer; Ushers-Jazlyn Davis, Ireland Griffen, Brandon Jarvis, McKinley Langley, and Andre Mouton; Box Office-Amy Nicole Commander, Madison Lee, and Sarah Jo Chastain. 

Coming Up next in January is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. For more information about this fantastic theatre program, visit their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/sarah.haman.773. 

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