Fringe to West End hit The Play That Goes Wrong has been awarded the Best New Comedy Olivier Award at this year’s ceremony.
The hilarious farce, which imagines a brilliantly inept amateur dramatics society’s attempts to stage a murder mystery, began life in Islington’s Old Red Lion Theatre in 2013.
Proving it had, contrary to its title, gone very well indeed, rave reviews and a West End transfer to the intimate Trafalgar Studios 2 followed. With audience demand for comic capers and tomfoolery still high, The Play That Goes Wrong continued its West End success earning its current run at the Duchess Theatre.
Talking to us backstage after collecting the prestigious award, Henry Lewis, one of the show’s writers and performers, said: “We’re really stunned. It was such a strong category. The other two shows are just so fantastic so just to be nominated is an honour and to win it is unbelievable. The show has been on such a journey, it’s just been a dream come true.”
Tonight’s win is especially impressive as the show was created by a group of young LAMDA alumni who set up comedy improvisation theatre company Mischief Theatre. Writing about the show when it began its run at the Duchess Theatre, Official London Theatre’s Charlotte Marshall drew attention to this impressive coup, saying: “This small budget fringe to West End success story stars eight young LAMDA graduates under the direction of their former teacher Mark Bell. This may be their West End playhouse debuts, but they not only successfully pull off an evening of perfectly choreographed, chaotic farce but they do so with aplomb; funny bone-aching, potential asthma attack-inducing, hysteria-tickling aplomb.”
The West End newcomers have triumphed tonight over last year’s Outstanding Achievement in an Affiliate Theatre Award winner Handbagged and the high-profile film to stage adaptation Shakespeare In Love.
