It was the little game that could: Parker Brothers’ Clue is, after Monopoly, the second most popular board game. Since its birth in 1949, players in 73 countries have wondered whether the killer could be Miss Scarlet in the conservatory with the candlestick.
The murder-mystery diversion is now a musical comedy (or tragedy) at the Organic Theater mainstage. Opening Wednesday, “Clue The Musical” is the Chicago premiere of a very game show created by producers Peter DePietro and Tom Chiodo (who also supply book and lyrics). Last year it premiered, to good notices, at Baltimore’s Boston Street Theatre.
So, if Monopoly is the biggest game, why wasn’t it the first board game to spawn a show? Chiodo explains: “Clue gave us built-in characters to bring to life, not hotels.”
At the start, audience members come onstage to select, from a set of Clue cards, the suspect, murder weapon and scene of the crime (one of 216 possible endings).
But “Clue” offers an element the game lacks — a motive. “Motivation,” Chiodo explains, “is an important part of a book musical. The characters, after all, are three-dimensional game pieces who come to life on a set that’s a morph between the game board and the Boddy manor where the murder takes place.”
As the characters move the life-size game pieces, they’re equally moved — to sing, dance and confess.
The musical’s arrival is in some ways a return, since the concept was invented here. In 1991, Chiodo and DePietro, creators of some 200 interactive mysteries (including the off-Broadway thriller “Murder at Rutherford House”), were in Chicago to produce the first U.S. Clue tournament, a train-traveling interactive mystery that began in Union Station and ended in New York. Inspired, the partners envisioned a different kind of game show, proposed it to Parker Brothers and, a year later, received the rights.
Now a bigger mystery opens up: Will “Clue” become the hit that the (awful) movie version never was?
“Clue The Musical” has an eight-week run at Organic Theater, 3319 N. Clark St. Phone 312-327-5588.
