Stage Review - The Play That Goes Wrong (Bainbridge Performing Arts)

Stage Review - The Play That Goes Wrong
Presented By: Bainbridge Performing Arts - Bainbridge Island, WA
Show Run: October 03 - October 26, 2025
Date Reviewed: Saturday, October 18, 2025
Run Time: 2 Hours (inclusive of a 15-minute intermission)
Reviewed By: Greg Heilman

In recent years, The Play That Goes Wrong has become one of the most frequently produced plays in American community and regional theatre—a modern farce that has practically become a rite of passage for companies looking to test their technical prowess and comedic timing, sort of a litmus test around a theatre’s ability to produce a show that involves a complete team of cast, crew, and creatives and their ability to work together synergistically. Every season seems to bring another production somewhere nearby, yet audiences continue to pack the seats to see how this particular group will make everything fall gloriously apart. The latest in this series comes from Bainbridge Performing Arts and their production, directed by Ken Michels, and running on stage at their Buxton Center for the Performing Arts through October 26.

I’ve written before about the prescriptive nature of The Play That Goes Wrong, especially when it comes to scenic design. But it’s also in the gags and other interactions, both verbal and physical, within the show itself. It could be said that if you’ve seen one Play That Goes Wrong, you’ve seen them all, and the differences from one to the other exist only in the details. All of this is to say that critiquing this particular show needs to be done with a specific lens, to see those details. The first part of that lens is to look at the ways in which a director, in this case Ken Michels, puts his own stamp on the production. The next is to see how the creative team and cast bring their own talent and flair to the design elements and performances. And finally, for someone who has seen this particular play a number of times recently (see my review for the season opener at Seattle Rep), and who knows the gags and pratfalls, it’s important to see how they land with the audience—especially those experiencing it all for the first time.

This production hits on all three marks. It’s one that definitely has Ken’s fingerprints on it—humor from motion and the little things he’s added that even surprised me, touches that are most definitely unique to this production. On that movement, there’s a lot of it, from sword fights that could easily be mistaken for something on a professional stage, to the elements of physical humor that are part of the show’s DNA, all executed extremely well. Erik Furuheim’s set is all about controlled collapse, with all the necessary “Mouse Trap” components and a good amount of refinement to make Haversham Manor come to life. The lights and sound, designed by Rob Falk and Trent Craighead, are executed with the precision I’ve come to expect from BPA, highlighted by the detail of the entire set turning red whenever anything related to murder is announced. Each gag lands on target—eliciting gasps, laughs, or even slight screams from an audience clearly enthralled by the unfolding calamity. It’s a production of higher-than-average technical quality, made even better by the cast’s execution (pun intended).

In Talena Laine’s program bio, she refers to husband Reed Viydo as “the cutest dead body around.” She could just as easily have said “the most engaging dead body around,” and she wouldn’t be wrong. Reed, as Jonathan playing Charles Haversham (recall this is a play within a play), is funny and utterly engrossing—watching him as the funniest character who should be dead is entirely entertaining. And speaking of Talena, her Sandra/Florence Colleymoore brings her usual high energy and scene-stealing ability to the fore. She’s also part of one of the more interactive pre-show bits I’ve seen for this play—making sure, humorously, that even her name is spelled correctly in this review.

Gary Fetterplace is a rock-solid Robert/Thomas Colleymoore, which is no surprise given his experience in delivering precisely the kind of humor this play demands. David Roby as Chris Bean/Inspector Carter is likewise strong, perhaps the most over-the-top of the overactors within the show’s meta-theatre premise. Though there were a few moments Saturday where I felt he might have throttled back a touch, he’s a commanding leader of the Cornley Drama Society and an even better Inspector. James Sgambati provides a wonderful amount of flamboyance as Max/Cecil Haversham and delivered the standout moment of the night.

With a show so tightly choreographed in its chaos, real accidents are rare—but when one happens, it’s memorable. On Saturday, something actually did go wrong, though I won’t go into the detail here. And when that happens, one of two things can occur: the actor freezes and muddles through it, or, as in this case, they dig deeper into character to keep the scene alive. James handled the moment masterfully, ad-libbing within the personality of his role to keep the momentum—and the audience never broke stride. It was one of those pure live-theatre moments that remind you why we come to see it in the first place, and a testament to the preparation of this cast consistent with a Ken Michels directed piece.

The main cast is rounded out by Helene Minassian as the hilarious butler Perkins, Amy Jo LaRubbio as “stage manager” Annie and Corey Suraci as “sound engineer” Trevor. Helene is wonderful here, with a wonderfully deployed accent and a grasp of physical comedy that is on display throughout, notable even in those red hued scenes I mentioned above. Amy’s Annie, who unexpectedly steps into the show’s action, builds beautifully from nervousness to wonder to full-blown competitive confidence, drawing some of the biggest laughs of Act Two. Corey’s Trevor, though seen less, is equally memorable for his offhand timing and reactions that make the backstage chaos feel real. Annika Nordleaf-Nelson, Alamea Hill, and Nicholas Allen Pecora round out the Cornley Drama Society’s backstage crew, the unsung heroes left to pick up the pieces after this delightfully hapless ensemble figuratively carpet-bombs the set.

The artistic teams deliver at a level that blends comedy with craft. Beyond the aforementioned scenic, lighting, and sound designs, Dawn Janov’s costumes and Franco Weaver’s props serve as extensions of the humor itself—each piece part of the joke’s architecture, and Grace Helmcke’s work as the dialect coach for The Play That Goes Wrong maintains the play’s farcical British tone.

This Play That Goes Wrong gets just about everything right. Bainbridge Performing Arts has crafted a gloriously unhinged production that celebrates the art of imperfection with exacting skill. It’s a love letter to the unpredictability of live theatre—a night of laughter, mishaps, and creative brilliance that only a director with the chops of Ken Michels and company as confident and capable as this one is could pull off.

The Play That Goes Wrong runs on the Buxton Center stage at Bainbridge Performing Arts through October 26. For more information, including ticket availability and sales, visit https://www.bainbridgeperformingarts.org/.

Photo credit: Adam Othman