As Tropical Storm Ophelia rained down on Hampton Roads, the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach declared that the show must go on. The cast of “The Play that Goes Wrong” did not let the soggy weather affect their performance. From the moment we walked into the lobby at LTVB, the cast was already in character and interacting with the audience. Sandra Wilkinson, the leading lady (played by Cassidy Corbett), flounced past the concession stand, grabbing patrons’ playbills and signing them. Then when we entered the auditorium, the actors playing the stage crew (led by Phillip (Lip) Banks and Jessi DiPette) were engaging in a series of antics “preparing” the stage for the show.

The set itself (coordinated by George Horvath) was very well done. From jump, it looked like a stately manor where a Clue-like murder could take place. Throughout the show, the set falls apart more and more until the big finale that brings down the house, quite literally. The set coordinator and director (Jeff Seneca) must get all the timing just right for the jokes to land and for the set not to land on the actors. We were impressed that the crew must have to rebuild the set night after night. George Horvath faced a challenge with this interactive set and succeeded.

Chris Bean, who plays Inspector Carter and is the director of “The Murder at Haversham Manor” (played by Richard Merrick), is trying so hard to have a play that goes better than the singular “Cat” that the Cornley University Drama Society presented previously that as the play continuously goes wrong, Merrick must show this inner turmoil of outward optimism with inward dread. He did a terrific job of showing these conflicting emotions.

From the beginning to end of this play, the entire audience was laughing. Cassidy Corbett, Jessi DiPette, and Lip Banks all portrayed Sandra Wilkinson hilariously. John Moss played a particularly funny Max Bennet as Cecil Haversham. I think I laughed the hardest as Davis Haymes as Robert Grove as Thomas Colleymore hung on to the globe on the second story set as the house came down. 

If you’ve never seen “The Play that Goes Wrong,” the title is pretty clear about how the play is scripted to go, but this cast and crew really did a phenomenal job of selling that wrongness.