Clue: On Stage

by Jonathan Lynn, Hunter Foster, Eric Price

Genres: Plays, Mystery, School, Drama

Paperback

About the author

Jonathan Lynn has directed 10 feature films including the cult classic Clue (he also wrote the screenplay), Nuns on the Run (also written by Mr Lynn), My Cousin Vinny, The Distinguished Gentleman, Sgt. Bilko, Greedy, Trial And Error, The Whole Nine Yards, The Fighting Temptations and most recently, Wild Target. His first produced screenplay was The Internecine Project (1974).

For television, Jonathan’s writing credits include dozens of episodes of various comedy series but he is best known for the phenomenally successful, multi-award-winning BBC series Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister, co-written and created with Antony Jay.

Jonathan authored the bestselling books The Complete Yes, Minister and The Complete Yes, Prime Minister, which cumulatively sold more than a million copies in hardback and have been translated into numerous languages and are still in print nearly 30 years later; Mayday (1993, revised 2001) and his latest book Comedy Rules (Faber and Faber), which also received rave reviews.

Jonathan made his first professional appearance on Broadway in the revue Cambridge Circus, and his television debut on The Ed Sullivan Show, live with 70 million viewers, both at the age of 21. Jonathan’s West End theater debut, aged 23, was as an actor in the role of Motel the Tailor in the original London cast of Fiddler on the Roof. His subsequent London directing credits include: The Glass Menagerie; Songbook (Best Musical, Olivier Award and Evening Standard Award); Anna Christie (RSC, Stratford and the Donmar); Joe Orton's Loot; Pass The Butler by Eric Idle, Shaw’s Arms And The Man and The Gingerbread Man (Old Vic). At the National Theatre, he directed A Little Hotel on the Side by Georges Feydeau and Three Men on A Horse (Olivier Award, Best Comedy). As Artistic Director of the Cambridge Theatre Company, he directed 20 productions, producing 20 others, 9 of which transferred to the West End.

His numerous awards include the BAFTA Writers Award, Writers Guild (twice), Broadcasting Press Guild (twice), NAACP Image Award, Environmental Media Award, Ace Award –Best Comedy Series on US cable, and a Special award from the Campaign For Freedom of Information.

Lynn received an MA in Law from Cambridge University and now lives in New York, describing himself as a recovering lawyer.

Reviews

[Josie J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today was the first show of my last production in high school. Its very bittersweet as theater has changed a lot throughout the years. This play has not seemed promising because we started late and no one had their line down till today. So it has been a very frustrating last production but we pulled it off on opening night. I have the role of Mrs. White and I love playing her she's a lot of fun shes a mysterious type who may or may not have murdered five of her husband's. We have two more shows to go :).

[Corinne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Clue: On Stage is a stage play rendition of the board game and well-known movie Clue. In it, the audience follows characters who are forced to take up aliases in order to get to the body of a blackmailing turned murder scheme. For middle school in particular, some of the more risque innuendos could easily be censored. This play connnects very well with the concept of identity due to the "wearing many hats" mentality of the characters switching roles and whatnot throughout, and having to discern between people true and fake identities.
Middle school students are learning the effects of one's identity presentation in certain environments and the adaptation of code-switching. This play is a great chance to see such effects in action in a relatively low-stakes and enjoyable environment. Writing traits from Spandel would work best if students are given a copy or even just excerpts from the script to analyze. Such concepts like Convention and Organization would be interesting to examine due to the nature of script and play writing, and see if such a format effects the message, also allowing for differentiate
instruction options to choose from.
For writing activities/prompts, the "How does ___Influence People's Behavior" from the Inquire and Explore would be very apt for this media. Students would be able to explore different characters and examine what their behavior could signal and figure out why the events that transpire happen the way that they do.

[Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this script because I am in the play. I’m not sure why they changed the ending from the movie

[Avery · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sandy got her filthy paws on the script for the film Clue and killed it dead.

[alisha · Rating 3 out of 5]

for my dramatic writing class - fine script that requires way too much intricate timing and some of the jokes just don’t land - movie was better

[viv megenhardt]

lol

[Lainey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I will have read this like 100 times by the time December rolls around- so I'm counting it. I'm giving it five stars because I'm in the show and having a blast, but that's probably a biased review.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

As much as I love CLUE the game all my life and CLUE the movie as a teen… CLUE the play script is a bit dated but also has real challenges to be tackled for The Set ( several rooms to move swiftly), The Special Effects and the poor Sound Designer.

[Javier Fernandez · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw this on stage tonight in Tampa. A mediocre script was rescued by the physicality and uber-talents of an amazing cast.

[Samantha Dupree · Rating 3 out of 5]

Considering I've been reading this play and listening to other actors read through it for 8 weeks, this Yvette will be counting it towards her yearly book count. If you like the movie, this is like the movie but different enough to remain kind of surprising for audiences. Some of the stage direction would likely be impossible for even some of the most technically advanced theaters but we're doing our best at ours :) The comedy is already ingrained in the script but it is definitely better when read live by a talented cast.

[Kristin Bateman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perusing scripts for Drama Club's next year's performance and this script was shared with me as a potential. I'm a HUGE fan of the movie "Clue" and this is a dead (hahaha) ringer. I'm looking forward to talking to my colleagues about their thoughts. Great script, but the set might be something bigger than we can handle. A FUN read.

[Stephanie Hernandez · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s about my 4th time reading it… this week! Now, granted, it’s because I’m directing a high school production of it, but I love it all the same! If you grew up loving the movie and board game, you’ll love this too. For sure.

[Morgan Elyse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Literally love this play. Reread a scene for a project but just ended up reading the whole thing. So funny. -Miss Scarlet May 2023

[Macy Deininger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this from the perspective of someone playing Scarlet, and someone who has seen the 1985 film (which Lynn himself wrote) and will review as such. If you are coming in as someone who has seen the film, the script is genuinely an improvement. Many characters, mainly Scarlet, are improved drastically with less tropes and more genuine character. In the movie, Scarlet was sort of the sexy girl who did sexy girl things, while in this adaptation she is definitely more nosey, mischievous, and can drive her own scenes. Characters like Mustard are also like that, as they are given a tad bit more depth than their movie counterpart.

Now one fatal flaw this play has, and I believe the movie also has, is the ending. The reveal that Green in an FBI agent really doesn't land like it should. It isn't set up very well and the 2nd reading doesn't change with the knowledge. It just is. I'm not sure if the authors didn't know how to end the story or didn't know how to develop the ending in a reasonable amount of time, or if it was left intentionally vague for the actor playing Green but it really just doesn't hit for me.

Overall its a... fine comedy. The slapstick is fun, the characters are improved from the film, etc etc. Considering this is often done for high schoolers (it's what I'm doing as I write this), I can see it.

[Ren · Rating 4 out of 5]

My high school recently put on a production of this play. It was very fun to perform on stage, and is great for smaller casts. However, some of the more famous jokes from the original film fell flat in this version. Unlike other scripts we’ve worked from, this play did not contain many actor cues. There were instructions for larger movements, but smaller actions and beats were not included. This meant line delivery was up to the actors, causing some moments to feel very rushed or less comical as a result.

My other criticism is of the censoring. I played Miss Scarlet, whose character was greatly impacted by the content modifications, so this stuck out to me a lot. The original Clue film and broadway play contained jokes that had suggestive material. However, these jokes and gimmicks were removed in order to make the play more “high school appropriate”. This made it harder to land certain jokes with the audience as so much was being implied that the original humor was lost. I wish the playwrights would have just cut those jokes entirely and written new ones instead of trying to modify them.

Despite my criticisms, the was such a fun play to be a part of. I would highly recommend it for schools with a small cast and low budget that want to put on a widely-recognized production.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic Plot: Victims of a blackmailer are invited to a mysterious house and encounter murder and mayhem inside.

I read the "high school" version of the script. Basically, it was the movie script. It was adapted slightly for the stage, but there really weren't a lot of changes. Most of the tongue-in-cheek spice of the movie was retained, as it is more innuendo than overt. Cursing is mild. For high school students, it should be a fun play to put on. If you know the movie, you pretty much know what's going to happen on the stage.

There are some unique challenges to getting some of the special effects to work on a stage. There are also a lot of locations to represent on stage, so this is going to take some major creative thinking to design. I'm really excited to figure out the design.

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is funny in a throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks way. It's similar in tone to the film although several characters shift significantly as does the ending. The staging is somewhat unclear as described, moving between most of the rooms from the classic gameboard and involving a fly system and lots of scrims. I think audiences would like a well-staged and performed production. This is more for comedy fans than mystery fans, as the ending is something of a mishmash

[John Geddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The adaption follows the movie pretty closely, so all of the humor is there. The movie is one of my favorites so I’m an easy mark—and the additions fit in easily. I do miss the option of multiple endings, but I guess that is difficult on stage.

In terms of staging, this one worries me a bit. There’s a dinner table scene and a lot of room-specific staging. Even with a scrim, you’ll need a very talented designer. I’m also curious how the dummies work replacing the dead bodies.

[Judine Brey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good adaptation of the classic movie (if something that came out when I was in high school can be called classic). While some of the on-stage schtick was a bit much for my taste, it rang true with the characters we are familiar with.
*Disclaimer* - because I was looking at this for something to do with my high school students, I read the "high school edition," which didn't come up on goodreads, but might be slightly different from this version.

[Dan Blackley · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was very excited to read this adaptation for the stage of the Movie Clue. That being said, it was awful. The jokes are stale, the story is trite and it isn't what you think it will be. The actual movie did poorly at the box office but became sort of a cult hit. This play tries to bring that to the stage and fails miserably.
There are terrible versions of the show on Youtube. See those before reading this.

[Steve Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

Someone asked me if I wanted to audition for this, and sent me the script. It just didn't work for me. I didn't think it particularly funny, and I it seems it would be horribly difficult to stage. Timing and pacing would have to be perfect on stage...and there would be SO many sound cues.

I'll have to watch the film, which I've never seen. Maybe I'm missing something.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely captures the essence of the movie into play format so that more actors can tackle these iconic roles.

This is not a quote-along, though. As a one-act, some subthemes and certain memorable quotes are cut in favor of streamlining the play. Also, some lines have been changed to new speakers.

[Stephanie Pieck · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had a hard time getting into the namesake board game as a kid, and I was equally ambivalent about the play. Minor irritants repeated over the course of the script exacerbated that feeling. For example: To be effective, a "sting" in music should be used sparingly, to emphasize a point. But when every opening of a door is announced by a sting, it starts to seem like over-salted food.
But if you love the board game and the movie, you'll no doubt love this play. I'm probably just not the right person to review it.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this right until the end with that big plot twist... didn't understand a single word after that. but rumor has it that my school will be putting on this play in the fall so I thought I'd give it a look

[taylor shim]

My school finally got the rights to do Clue! I'll be playing Ms. Peacock during our Spring production, so naturally, I had to read the show. I like how fast-paced and witty it is, and after watching the movie, I appreciated it even more.

Can't wait for opening night!

[Gil · Rating 5 out of 5]

for full review visit http://gilwilson.wordpress.com

[Janelle Hawkes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not great to read on its own, but I can’t wait to see this live. It reads like it would make a great live show!!

[Andrew Fry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Manages to honor the movie and still make for a good humored and funny stage production.

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first play. I played Mrs. White in Clue my sophomore year. It was great. Clue started 9/8/21 and ended 11/6/21

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've not only read this wonderful play, but up until two days ago, I had the pleasure of performing it.