Put your thinking caps on, your monocoles, and your classy trench coats; perhaps we can even include the pipes but let’s leave out the tobacco for the safety of our lungs. Nevertheless, it’s time to do our best gumshoe impersonations for the classic mystery game, Clue (insert audience applause here). And no, this is not the Hasbro game developed 75 years ago, nor even the musical which debuted 27 years ago, but a new comedic play — proudly inspired by the 1985 film — touring soon through Southern California. (Of note is that this is not the play’s world premiere, which happened in 2020, nor the West Coast premiere given that La Mirada Theatre hosted the production in fall 2021.)
From July 23rd through the 28th, the national touring company of Clue will charm with its character-driven horde of red herrings and misdirections, not to mention murder and blackmail, before doing an about-face and skulking north to Los Angeles at Center Theatre Group’s Ahmanson Theatre from July 30th through August 25th. And for 85 uninterrupted minutes, each performance will be filled to the brim with hilarious tomfoolery as six discrete guests, each readily identifiable by their outward traits and hidden motivations, congregate at the eminent Boddy Manor. Director Casey Hushion, writer Sandy Rustin, along with Hunter Foster and Eric Price, and composer Michael Holland have artfully touched up the beloved brain-teaser with a progressive eye for inclusivity.

Attendees wouldn’t be ill-advised to arrive with pen and paper in hand as they annotate their experiences by tallying the many indicators of evidence, another word for which would be, a-ha, clues! At performance’s end, the cryptic may very well become clear (or not) as the residence owner, Mr. Boddy, Professor Plum, Mr. Green, Wadsworth, Yvette, Mrs. White, Mrs. Peacock, Miss Scarlett, the Cook, Cop, and Colonel Mustard are all heavily scrutinized from head to toe. Who is an enemy to whom? Is anyone buddy-buddy at Boddy Mansion?
Playing the bearded and beige-coated Mustard is John Treacy Egan, a stalwart of the Broadway stage, having starred in The Producers, Jekyll & Hyde, and My Fair Lady, among other notable productions. Egan was recently interviewed by LAexcites, elaborating on his madcap persona and what fans of the board game, movie, and theatre in general can expect from the hoot-worthy whodunit.
Did you play the Hasbro game, Clue, growing up, and do you recall any specific childhood memories?
Egan: I remember playing it with my cousins the first time, and I loved the game. It’s a game where you need lots of people to play. I also had the game. It’s funny; recently, someone sent a picture of their version [of the game], and I’m like, ‘That’s the version I had!’ There’s a whole bunch of versions now; I want the [Stephen King] IT version of Clue [laughs].

How were you cast in the play?
Egan: I auditioned for it in 2019 with our director Casey Hushion. It was a process of callbacks on video because I was working on a production in San Diego. I’ve been with the production since its premiere at the Cleveland Playouse and Paper Mill Playhouse. And I directed two productions of it — at the Lyceum Theatre in Arrow Rock, Missouri and at a high school — Saint Joseph [Regional High School] in Montvale, NJ — which won best high school production. I’ve learned so much about the play, with all the different productions and how it could work in different arenas, like at a high school where it’s also double-cast.
You portray the intelligence officer, Colonel Mustard. How did you go about preparing for the part and are there certain characteristics that you see in Mustard that the average person might not?
Egan: He’s a colonel; I don’t know how intelligent he is [laughs]. He takes charge and he’s a little misguided in what to do next. I’d like to think he went up the ranks because maybe he came from a rich family [laughs].
My Colonel Mustard — I didn’t see the movie when I auditioned — was built on pictures of the game and how that character would sound and act like. [Mustard] reminds me of a New York theatre actor I know who’s very big, loud, and wrong [laughs]. There are some moments when Colonel Mustard is confused. I asked the director if he’s hard of hearing or if he’s misunderstanding; she [Hushion] mentioned he’s a little bit of both [laughs].

Is Colonel Mustard mostly a bumbling character, or do you think he has redeemable qualities?
Egan: Of course, he’s evolved, and has redeemable qualities. There’s a moment when he says ‘I’ve enjoyed our time together and we should be friends…,’ so he’s sort of enjoying the experience except when things are going wrong. There are good things and bad things and he leans toward the good things as well.
Each of the characters in Clue offers something unique. If you could swap your Colonel Mustard with another persona for just one performance, whom would you choose and why?
Egan: I think I would be Mrs. Peacock [laughs]. I think because she has the same qualities as Colonel Mustard; she’s trying to look at the positive side but gets a little bit panic-stricken and it’s fun to play that mania a little bit.
How do you think your previous experience in other productions like The Producers, My Fair Lady, and so on, has helped inform your performance as Colonel Mustard?
Egan: What I enjoy and love about acting and performing is the camaraderie and the yin and yang with the actors. In The Producers, there’s mostly a back-and-forth between two characters in Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom. It’s like with Clue except there’s more characters and they’re bouncing around as a group to try and solve what they need to. It’s more difficult, too, because the dialogue is so fast and you need to be constantly tuned in. Everyone is in the schoolyard, is speaking, and you need to keep up. If a cue is missed, the chain comes off the bicycle and it can throw off the rhythm for two beats or so.

Given how fast-paced and involved it is, how often would you say a cue is missed?
Egan: Once a city. It’s rarely a sound cue; it can be a set cue, an actor’s cue, or just something that is thrown off. Last night at our opening [in Seattle], we lost our doorknob. The audience was in on it and we had to figure out how we were going to go through it another two or three times [laughs].
Clue runs at a very brisk 85 minutes with no intermission. What are the challenges of doing a shorter play, if any, while ensuring that the audience feels they get their money’s worth?
Egan: You get the full thing; it’s basically an hour and a half. It’s a satisfying piece of comedy and gives superfans of the movie what they want. There’s lots of Broadway shows with no intermission now, like with Six, because our attention spans are shrinking as a result of phones and TikTok. People are actually relieved it’s 85 minutes, as opposed to being a three-hour musical [laughs].

Lastly, with many shows clocking in at nearly three hours, as you mention, do you think there should be a push to have shorter productions?
Egan: No, I don’t think so, not over time. Although I find it fascinating when audiences [who might have shorter attention spans] are taking out their phones and even filming, and you wonder if it’s their first time ever in a theatre. It’s become an epidemic and I know a lot of actors get stressed out seeing phones in the audience. But at this point, we’ve lost that war, and phones will always be here; they will just have to be tuned out [laughs].
Clue will have back-to-back engagements in Southern California: at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa from Tuesday, July 23rd through Sunday, July 28th, and at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles from Tuesday, July 30th through Sunday, August 25th. For more information, and to purchase tickets, please click on the foregoing hyperlinks.