In the early 1980s, adapting a board game into a movie sounded insane. But Halloween producer Debra Hill was determined to make a film out of Cluedo, a British game which made Agatha Christie-style murder mysteries into a fun family game night. When Clue was released in 1985, it seemed like conventional wisdom was right. The film received mostly positive reviews, particularly for Tim Curry’s deadpan performance as the butler Wadsworth, but failed to make back its $15 million budget. But a funny thing happened on the way to obscurity. Clue became an unlikely hit on home video, and found a second life on cable television.
Decades later, when a group of Broadway producers got the rights to Clue, they hired playwright Sandy Rustin to pen a murder mystery comedy that would work well on the stage. “I grew up in Chicago and I always had a dual focus and interest in performance and in playwriting,” Rustin says. “I was writing plays in my living room and making my friends perform them from the time I was a very little girl.”
Rustin spent her 20s as an actor. “When I became a parent, I was looking for a way to stay involved in the theater, but not have to be away from home for eight shows a week. And writing really was the answer to that question for me. I shifted my focus into playwriting when I became a mom.”
Like any good theater kid, she was already familiar with Clue. “I tend to write really physical comedy, and they were looking for that kind of a vibe for this adaptation. I loved the performers in that movie. It sort of became this cult hit. So when the opportunity came to re-look at it, I jumped at it. Of course, I grew up playing the board game and played the game with my own family as I became a parent.”
Writing for the stage is always a challenge. One might think adapting existing material would be easier, but that’s not necessarily the case, says Rustin. “The challenge with adaptations is to simultaneously honor the existing material and honor the original intent of the writer, while creating a fresh new experience for the audience.”
Rustin says the inspiration for her work recently came back into focus when star Tim Curry passed away at age 80. “I just posted a little piece about Tim Curry on my Instagram page because I feel so indebted to him and his performances. Wadsworth was so instrumental in how I decided to approach the material.”
Clue presented an unusual challenge. The original film had three different endings, in which three different characters were revealed to be the killer of Mr. Boddy. Which ending you saw in the theater depended on where and when you watched the film. “When this project first came my way, I had a really nice conversation with Jonathan Lynn, who was the screenwriter of Clue, who basically gave me his blessing. He said to me he would really prefer it if there was just one satisfying ending, but the studio sort of forced the multi-ending idea on him. I said, of course, I will honor that. Then I had a meeting with the executives in the studio and producers, and the feedback that came back to me was, ‘Will you do everything you can to make sure that you honor the multi-ending? Audiences really loved the multi-ending. It’s really important to us.’ So there I was, in this conundrum of trying to solve a problem of how to honor both requests. You’ll have to go see the stage production and tell me what you think!”
After premiering in 2017, Clue: On Stage has become something of a phenomenon. “It’s been beyond our wildest dreams,” says Rustin. “It’s become one of the most produced plays in the nation. It’s the number one produced play in high schools for, I think we’re on our fourth or fifth year. We’re on our third year of a national tour, and it’s being translated into other languages. It has been really gratifying to watch how audiences across the globe have embraced this fun night out at the theater.”
Clue plays at the Orpheum Theatre Sept. 15-20.
