By Bob Abelman 

Clue, a whodunit board game–based comedy, rolled the dice and found success by bypassing Broadway and going directly on tour.

Clue by Sandy Rustin. Directed by Casey Hushion. On tour at Emerson Colonial Theatre, 106 Boylston St., Boston, through May 5.

The company of the North American tour of Clue. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for
MurphyMade

The bar can get incredibly low when it comes to touring entertainment. There have been uninspired Willie Nelson “Who’ll Buy My Memories” concerts performed for the sole purpose of paying off his IRS debt. There are amusements that blatantly exploit children as consumers (Mattel’s American Girl Live tour). There’s religious-political propaganda in the guise of a traveling onstage extravaganza (Shen Yun, which came through Boston last December) and mediocre Ringling Bros. wannabes (Carson & Barnes Circus). There’s Disney on ice.

And currently on stage at the Emerson Colonial Theatre is the latest installment of the Broadway in Boston series that has never actually played on Broadway. Instead, Clue — a stage adaptation of the Hasbro whodunit board game, written by Sandy Rustin, whose credits include the above-mentioned American Girl Live tour — hit the road this past February after being field-tested at a handful of regional playhouses over the past few years.

It was a wise choice considering the abysmal track record for the few plays based on board games. Monopoly: The Musical never got to pass go on its way to Broadway in 2017. But if it did, according to the New York Post, there was to be a big production number at the top of Act 2 called “Welcome to Marvin Gardens” and a patter song, set in jail, called “Just Visiting.” Clue: The Musical made its off-Broadway debut in 1997 and lasted a mere 29 performances. In response, the New York Daily News noted that making a play from a board game “is the kind of bizarre task that only a genius or a fool would undertake. And there is no sign of genius here.”

The company of the North American tour of Clue. Photo by Evan Zimmerman for
MurphyMade

There’s little genius in the touring Clue as well. But the script is chock full of deliciously groan-worthy one-liners and delightful overembellishments of classic murder mystery tropes. And the stage is filled with superbly performed slapstick.

The show takes much of its inspiration from the star-studded but success-stunted 1985 film of the same name — so much so that screenwriter Jonathan Lynn shares top billing. It’s 1954, during the height of McCarthyism, and six strangers have been invited to a secluded mansion in the dark of night where they are met by Wadsworth the butler (Mark Price), Yvette the maid (Elisabeth A. Yancey) and the cook (Mariah Burks).  Each guest — the inane Colonel Mustard (John Treacy Egan), the tragic Mrs. White (Tari Kelly), the flighty Mrs. Peacock (Joanna Glushak), the accident-prone Mr. Green (John Shartzer), the underqualified and overconfident Professor Plum (Jonathan Spivey), and the sardonic Miss Scarlet (Michelle Elaine) — is introduced to Mr. Boddy (Alex Syiek), whom Wadsworth reveals has been blackmailing them for engaging in un-American activities.

Soon Mr. Boddy is found dead. So are the maid, the cook, a motorist whose car had broken down, the cop who found the car, and a singing telegram delivery girl. Everyone’s a suspect, but who is the murderer? The board game asks players to find the murderer, the crime scene, and the weapon used from the clues that surface during the game playing. Based on the cards drawn, the mystery has 216 possible endings. But this play, like the film, thankfully acts out only the most entertaining options, in addition to Wadsworth’s manic 11th-hour madcap recap of the play’s proceedings, adeptly executed by Price.

In the wrong hands, this production could easily go the way of the low-hanging entertainments that have blown into town and leave without a positive impression. But the performances by this ensemble are superb — the remarkably dexterous Shartzer as Mr. Green is particularly so — as is the handiwork of the production’s designers, Lee Savage (scenic), Jen Caprio (color-coded costumes), Ryan O’Gara (lighting), J. Jared Janas (makeup/wigs), and Jeff Human (sound). They nicely capture the period, create the prerequisite and omnipresent thunderstorm, and construct a mansion of epic proportions and secret chambers. It is the sharp contrast between the grand, solid production values and the intentionally superficial and comedic performances that makes this show so funny.

Sure, Clue is made of lesser stuff than other Broadway in Boston touring productions. Board game–based characters are less richly drawn, the simple plot’s dramatic arc unfolds as if driven by a random roll of the dice, and, despite director Casey Hushion’s insistence in Broadwayworld.com that she does not want the play to “ever feel like we’re trying to put the film on stage,” that is exactly what this production feels like. Production bells and whistles, including the flying in and immediate flying out of scenery, seem built to keep pace with the film’s cinematic momentum and quick edits.

But it all works and results in an entertaining evening, if you are in the mood for an abundance of silly stuff done well.

Bob Abelman is an award-winning theater critic who formerly wrote for the Austin Chronicle. He covers the Providence theater scene for the Boston Globe.