For director Casey Hushion, the 1985 movie “Clue” was a staple in her household. “I grew up watching this film on repeat with my brothers and my mom,” Hushion said. “It was in my bones as something I always loved and have a special spot for.” Playwright Sandy Rustin had a different entry point to the murder mystery. “I’m a huge game person, so I grew up playing the board game Clue,” she said. Hushion and Rustin’s affinities for different mediums of “Clue,” as well as their complementary sensibilities, fused to create the hit theatrical adaptation that has been touring North America since February 2024.
The premise of the original board game is that a murder has occurred, and players must determine the murderer, the murder weapon and the location of the murder via process of elimination. Was it Professor Plum in the ballroom with the lead pipe? Mrs. Peacock in the conservatory with the rope? “Clue”’s movie adaptation further cemented the construct of the mystery and its characters in pop culture.
If you ask the pair, “Clue” was ripe for the stage. “With many adaptations [of other properties], it’s really hard to figure what will make it special and unique and necessary as a stage piece,” Hushion noted. “With ‘Clue,’ the fact that it’s both a farce and a murder mystery — both are such heightened stylistic approaches that require life-and-death stakes and circumstances to succeed. It seemed like not only a project that I loved, but something that would make a lot of sense to bring to a theatrical environment.”
“The ensemble comedy aspect really popped as well,” the director added. And all these aspects suited Rustin as a writer: “That sort of heightened, silly, playful, ensemble-based comedy was right in my wheelhouse.”
Rustin, who made her Broadway playwriting debut with her farce “The Cottage,” relished the opportunity to pen another fast-paced, slamming-doors comedy. And there would be quite a few doors to slam in a Clue’s stage version — given the setting, Boddy Manor, in both the game and movie is a mansion comprised of grand rooms and secret passageways.
“Some of the most fun creating the show — and still doing the show years later — has to do with its physical life,” said Hushion. “Another challenge slash opportunity in creating [“Clue”] was: How many rooms is it? [It’s] a million different locations in a show that needs to be lightning fast with no momentum lost, with a pod of people moving from room to room.”
To achieve this, scenic designer Lee Savage came on early in the process. “We really worked back and forth as a trio,” said Hushion. “Lee ended up coming up with this incredible set design that I say is a bit like a Swiss Army knife — and it’s a character in the show.”
