Toymaker Hasbro Inc. is partnering with Broadway producer the Araca Group to create stage play inspired by the board game and movie Clue.
The announcement comes four months after the same team announced it was working on a musical based on Monopoly.
Unlike the Monopoly project, which is being developed from the board game itself, the stage version of Clue will be adapted from a pre-existing dramatization: the 1985 Paramount Pictures film by its writer/director Jonathan Lynn and produced in partnership with Work Light Productions and Aged In Wood, under license from Hasbro, Inc. and Paramount Pictures.
Bucks County Playhouse in Pennsylvania will present the premiere production, which is slated for May 2017, followed by a U.S. national tour. The Road Company (Wicked, Kinky Boots) will be planning the North American tour. Plans for a U.K. tour are also underway. Hunter Foster, the Tony-nominated actor in Little Shop of Horrors, Urinetown and Million Dollar Quartet, who also has extensive directing credits, will stage the show. He is artistic associate at Bucks County Playhouse.
Introduced in England in 1944 as a game to play in bomb shelters during World War II and known outside North America as Cluedo, the game asks players to act as detectives to solve a murder mystery, deciding which of six suspects used which of six murder weapons in which of nine locations to commit the murder.
This project is not connected with the stage musical Clue: The Musical that ran regionally and Off-Broadway in the 1990s.
“We are thrilled to be announcing Clue as the next stage adaptation developed by our Media & Entertainment division,” said Michael Barra, President, Media & Entertainment at The Araca Group. “Clue is an iconic film with a passionate fan base, and Jonathan Lynn is the ideal collaborator to bring these beloved characters and story to the stage.”
“Clue is one of Hasbro’s most popular games and the 1985 film has rightfully earned its place as one of the most iconic murder mystery films of all time,” said Simon Waters, Hasbro General Manager & SVP Entertainment & Consumer Products. “We are excited to work with The Araca Group on this unique new live production, which will capture what fans love about the original film, while offering some new and exciting surprises along the way.”
Besides Clue, Lynn’s 10 feature films include Nuns on the Run (also written by Lynn), My Cousin Vinny, The Distinguished Gentleman, Sgt. Bilko, Greedy, Trial And Error, The Whole Nine Yards, The Fighting Temptations and, most recently, Wild Target.
The production will be designed by Anna Louizos, whose Broadway credits include School of Rock (sets and costumes), The Mystery of Edwin Drood, In the Heights and High Fidelity (all Tony-nominated), plus Dames at Sea; Honeymoon in Vegas; It Shoulda Been You; Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella; and Avenue Q.
