By Anna Fisher, Associate Artistic Director, Emerald Coast Theatre Company
In 2012, The Mischief Theatre Company dreamed up a worst-case scenario play where absolutely everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. It is the stuff that us theatre-makers have nightmares about, like set malfunctions, missed cues, and actors getting bonked on the head. It first premiered at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London and due to its success eventually moved on to the West End. Coincidentally, film and TV director J.J. Abrams had been filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens in London in 2014 when, on a day off, he popped into a West End theater to see The Play That Goes Wrong and absolutely loved it.
“I just became obsessed with this idea of trying to help in any way that I could if it were ever to move to Broadway,” Abrams said, adding that he soon teamed up with veteran theater producer Kevin McCollum (Rent, Avenue Q) to do just that.1
In 2017, The Play That Goes Wrong premiered on Broadway with Abrams making his theatrical debut as director.
From London, to New York, and now Emerald Coast Theatre Company in Miramar Beach, this show is like the “Little Engine That Could.” The humor, the writing, and the over the top scenarios make it such an audience favorite that it has won multiple awards including a Tony and Drama Desk Award. I am thrilled to say that we open what The Times calls a “masterpiece of malfunction” in January.
As if that wasn’t exciting enough, we are also opening The Marvelous Wonderettes: Caps and Gowns in January. This is the follow up show to ECTC’s The Marvelous Wonderettes which you may have had the pleasure of seeing in Season 9. The four friends are now at their 1958 high school graduation and beyond, performing all of the favorites like “Rock Around the Clock” and “At The Hop.”
And since it’s kind of cold in January and February, ECTC has a third offering to keep you indoors and entertained. Pulitzer prize winning play Crimes of the Heart opens in February. This darkly comic show is about three eccentric sisters and a murder charge in a small southern town. We are going to make everything go right for The Play That Goes Wrong and these other fabulous winter offerings January through March. I hope you’ll join us for some good stories, warm coffee, and a laugh or two, because the heart of ECTC is you!
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