The Play That Goes Wrong
Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer & Henry Shields
Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory
OK, let’s first just put on the table all the words that Merriam-Webster, Roget, or ChatGBT can spit out for ‘funny’: a scream, a riot, zany, kooky, a knee-slapper, uproarious, sidesplitting, that dog won’t hurt. Get the idea? It would take all these and a hundred more to come close to describing the rip-roaring, rib-tickling, riotously rambunctious The Play That Goes Wrong now playing as the final production of Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory’s 85th season.
As a play within a play, The Play That Goes Wrong is a grand farce penned by Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields about a local theatre company that for all its outlandish folly, is a love letter to all such troupes who pour hearts and souls into bringing live theatre to their communities. Even when everything possible goes absolutely wrong, it all comes out just right at the Hillbarn.
Please continue to Talkin’Broadway for the rest of my review.
Rating: 4.5 E
A TheatreEddys Best Bet Production
The Play That Goes Wrong continues through May 17 and 27-29, 2026 in a two-hour (one intermission) production by Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory, , 1285 East Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, CA. Tickets are available online at www.hillbarntheatre.org or by contacting directly the box office by emailing boxoffice@hillbarn.org or by calling 650-349-6411.
Photo Credit: Tracy Martin
