The cast of the upcoming limited Manila run of award-winning comedy “The Play That Goes Wrong” has been unveiled with Filipina Mikkie Bradshaw-Volante among the actors.
The show by Mischief, the British theater company created by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, and Henry Shields who starred in the orginal production’s West End and Broadway shows, is a live performance which turns a theatrical disaster into comedy gold through chaos, collapsing scenery, slapstick, and perfectly timed mishaps.
The original West End production won the Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2014 while its debut on Broadway won Nigel Hook a Tony for his scene design.
Bradshaw-Volante will play Sandra, a leading member of the Cornley Drama Society who takes on the role of Florence Colleymoore in the company’s increasingly disastrous 1920s murder mystery.
GMG Productions’ founder and chief executive officer Carlos Candal described the actress as “a Filipino artist of extraordinary calibre” and noted her appearance in the Filipino-led “Come From Away” last year.
“Seeing her… who brings such a hilarious, unhinged spirit to the stage, stepping into one of theatre’s most iconic roles fills us with pride,” Candal added.
Bradshaw-Volante made her professional debut in 2011 as Liesl in “The Sound of Music,” which led to the titular role in “Carrie the Musical,” Annette in the Asian tour of “Saturday Night Fever,” Lauren “Kinky Boots,” and Johanna in “Sweeney Todd.” Her performance as Carrie Pipperidge in Repertory Philippines’ “Carousel” in 2022 won her the Gawad Buhay Award for Female Featured Performance in a Musical.
Joining Bradshaw-Volante are Tom Babbage, Owen Jenkins, Sebastiano Pitruzzello, Liam Horrigan, Tom Hayward, Olivia Charalambous, and Jake Curran, with understudies Stephanie Astrid, Stuart Vincent, and Tom Bulpett.
Babbage, Jenkins, Horrigan, and Curran previously starred in West End runs of “The Play That Goes Wrong,” while Pitruzzello, Hayward, and Charalambous performed in the show’s Australia and New Zealand 10th Anniversary Tour.
Vincent and Bulpett both also performed on the West End, while Astrid played Sandra at the Sydney Opera House.
Hannah Sharkey, a previous resident director on the West End run as well as director of the Portuguese and Mexican replica productions, will helm the Manila run.
“If this company were any more international, we’d need subtitles; luckily, the chaos of ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ needs no translation at all,” Candal said.
“The Play That Goes Wrong” will run at The Theatre at Solaire from November 6 to 22.