The Theatre Thread

Magic Goes Wrong

A collaboration between Mischief Theatre and Penn and Teller would surely be great, right? And yet, while I enjoyed Magic Goes Wrong, I was a little underwhelmed by it.

Part of that was the production I saw. You can definitely tell it’s the touring production of a show that’s still on in the West End after its original cast has moved on. By which I mean, not all the cast was that great, really. Some were properly good – the actor doing the Mind Mangler was fun and has to fold in a lot of audience interaction and improv, which he did well; the pair playing Bar and Spitzmouse were also solid – but the guy playing extreme magician The Blade was pretty awful, I thought, failing to make a convincing character or American accent. He more than any of the others felt like he was trying and failing to emulate the role’s original actor rather than giving his own interpretation on it. That was true to a lesser degree for a couple of others too, including the show’s main character, the Great Stupendo, who is really needed to anchor the entire show, but didn’t pull it off entirely, for me. I think one element of this is that the original cast are increasingly familiar thanks to the Goes Wrong Show and while the characters in this are separate, you can fairly easily see who played who, as they are just their Cornley characters with the edges sanded off in several places.

The production itself is mostly solid. The sets are brilliant and the magic tricks/stunts are all really well designed. You can see Penn and Teller’s hand in them in how they at times reveal how they’re done, or how they’re usually done but with a hidden twist on top (such as with sawing a lad in half). There were a couple of moments where, in the course of “going wrong”, some of the cast went a little wrong and showed more than I think they were meant to, but overall the magic elements worked well.

It falls down a bit with the story and structure though. The format is of a charity fundraiser, but it feels more like it wants to be a telethon without a live audience than a theatre show at times. There were several moments when we in the audience collectively weren’t sure if we were meant to be applauding or holding off on applauding. Partly I guess that’s because a lot of us won’t have been at a live show for so long and are out of practice, but there are some points in the show where it doesn’t give enough of a clue. The opening for instance, which is a musical number that introduces all the acts in turn. There was this awkward tension to be felt throughout where an assumption that we should clap after each person is introduced fought against the lack of space for reaction in the pacing of the song and performance. It was the same with several moments from the Great Stupendo compéring where he hadn’t quite brought the audience along with him as a typical MC or host might. He hadn’t breached the divide of us knowing he’s an actor in a play. It was a bit weird and I did notice that after the interval there was a more definite “voice” leading applause at a key moments behind me in the stands, which I assume was someone from the production giving a hand.

The end was a bit schmaltzy for my taste too and also gets a tad cluttered with “moments”. The other minor issue is that the structure feels a bit repetitive. There’s four magical acts in the show who just repeatedly take turns to come on and do stuff. That does allow for progression of story for them, but it kinda makes you realise how small the cast is.

The other thing of note is that, as I’ve mentioned probably too often, I saw a preview of this a few years ago. Three sections from the show done with minimal props and no sets after an improv show. Two of those made it into the finished production (one of which was just as fun to see again, the other not as good as when performed by the original actor) but the third seems to have been cut, which was surprising. As far as I can remember, it was an entirely different character from the ones in the final play, so I guess they were dropped entirely.

Overall, it’s definitely a fun show. One worth seeing if you get chance (but I’d go for the West End if you can) but not Mischief’s best and I suspect it’ll make for a better TV production at some point than it does a stage show.

The theatre again for me last night and another Mischief production Mind Mangler: Member of the Tragic Circle!

This is a spin off from Magic Goes Wrong, mostly, taking the Mind Mangler sections from that and expanding them out into a full show. Given the unevenness of Magic Goes Wrong, this is a good idea. The Mind Mangler was the strongest part and is able to stretch out to include other types of magic tricks without it feeling odd. So along with the spiritualism and mentalist sections from Magic Goes Wrong, there are tricks like magic repairing newspaper, teleportation, a really impressively staged guillotine escape and a magic locked box prediction thing that I don’t know how they did.

I’m not sure if Penn and Teller were still involved with this, but there’s certainly a legitimacy to the magic elements and it’s clear that star Henry Lewis (the originator of the role) has trained well in Derren Brown-esque mentalism and cold reading (or at least the cheats to make that work). But more impressive is the ability to meld that into improv and comedy as it intentionally goes wrong. There’s an extended bit of “mind reading” where he tries to identify the writer of an unsigned confessional note within the audience that flirts with mentalism techniques but is really extended audience interaction improv. It’s a lot of fun.

Of course, by recycling elements from Magic Goes Wrong, there is some familiarity. I’ve seen those bits four times now (across the preview, Magic Goes Wrong’s touring production and a spot on Children in Need last year) and so had other members of the audience, who were game to get in on some of the audience participation jokes (such as the name “John”). But crucially, those sections still work – possibly even work better – with that playful familiarity and are still funny. And part of that is because the play is written to smoothly encourage that from the kind of response from the audience anyway.

Mind Mangler is a more satisfying couple of hours than Magic Goes Wrong was, as the more streamlined set-up makes for a smoother production that is better able to build momentum and carry the audience along. It’s touring til March with the original cast and is worth seeing.

Also, for anyone in the US, Mischief are doing a run of Peter Pan Goes Wrong on Broadway with most of the original cast this spring, so I recommend seeing that if you’re able.

2 users thanked author for this post.

DavidM, garjones