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Play along with ‘Clue: The Musical’ at Old Creamery

07-30-2008 | Family

By Loren Keller

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Six weapons, six rooms, six murder suspects—and 216 possible endings.

Those are the basics of “Clue,” a popular board game that spawned a 1995 movie, a series of 18 humorous children’s books and even a version of the game based on “The Simpsons.”

On Wednesday, a musical based on the game opens at the Old Creamery Theatre in Amana—and performances will end in one of 216 scenarios determined by the audience.

“At the very beginning of the play some audience members come up on the stage and help pick the cards just like you do in the real game,” says Old Creamery producing artistic director David Kilpatrick, who will direct “Clue: The Musical” at the theatre through Aug. 24.

“We stick those cards in an envelope and they stay there until the end of the game when everything is revealed.”

The selected audience members will tell Mr. Boddy, who serves as the host of the game as well as its victim, how he’ll be murdered, by whom and where. The rest of the cast, including those offstage, has to figure out the show by his clues.

Kilpatrick directed the musical about three years ago in Columbia, Missouri and says audiences loved it.

“I discovered how much the audience cared whether they got the vote right or not,” he says. “They really get into the game and rooted and cheered when they guessed right.”

First-time Old Creamery Theatre actor Vaughn Irving will play Mr. Boddy.

“I grew up playing the game Clue; my family was big into board games,” says Irving, 24. “They’ve done a very interesting job of making it a lot like the board game. Energy-wise, it’s a lot like playing it.”

Tickets are $16.50 to $25.50, available by calling the Old Creamery box office at 1-800-352-6262 or by visiting the Old Creamery Theatre web site. A “Family Four Pack” (two adult and two under-30 tickets) are available for $55.

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 3 p.m. Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Special Wednesday night performances are set for July 23 and Aug. 6.

Kilpatrick says the musical is appropriate for all ages.

“Kids really get into it,” he says. “It’s clean and family friendly. There’s nothing here that would make anybody nervous, as long as you don’t mind the dead body.