Olivier Award for Best New Comedy in 2015
Longest running comedy in the West End
Whatsonstage Award for Best New Comedy in 2014

Against all odds, Cornley Drama Society is returning to New Zealand and Australia very soon with its Olivier Award-winning comedy, The Play That Goes Wrong, and today we’re pleased to announce the unfortunate cast who has been selected for the 10th anniversary tour madness!

This fast-paced farce packed with inventive theatricality finds the Cornley Drama Society on opening night of its newest production, The Murder at Haversham Manor. As the incompetent theatre troupe attempts to stage this 1920s murder mystery, their production devolves into madcap mayhem. Lost props, forgotten lines, and poorly constructed scenery conspire against the clumsy cast, who fight for the show to make it to the final curtain call.

UK Director Amy Milburn zoomed into the antipodes recently to undertake exhaustive casting and, whilst possibly delirious with exhaustion, she was delighted with the array of comic talent on offer. The producers are proud to announce that they have found a new and incompetent bunch of ‘amateur’ thespians ready to take to stages in New Zealand and Australia from April this year.

The cast includes Joe Kosky who you might recognise from his acclaimed performance as Dewey Finn in the hit stage musical School of Rock throughout Australia and New Zealand as well as Shrek in Shrek or Oz in Come From Away.

Bringing the laughs fresh from a sold out season of Baz Luhrmann’s Strictly Ballroom at The Court Theatre in Christchurch will be Jonathan Martin. Playing the pivotal role of uptight and nervous Chris Bean, the hapless, newly-appointed director of the Cornley Drama Society. Jonathan’s previous credits include Something Rotten!, Little Shop Of Horrors, The Producers, La Cage Aux Folles, North By Northwest, Avenue Q, the Australasian tour of Madagascar the Musical and with Pop-up Globe. He also featured in the Netflix film Falling Inn Love.

Joining them as Sandra, is Stephanie Astrid John, a multi-award-winning singer, actor, teacher, puppeteer and improviser who originated the role of Genevieve Gryffindor in the 2021 Australian premiere of Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts: A Musical. She appeared in Damon Gameau’s award-winning feature film, 2040 and tours nationally with the award-winning comedy group Ginger and Tonic.

Playing the role of once-terrified-turned stage boss Annie, is Olivia Charalambous -- a creative hustler who’s made an appearance in Chopper: The Untold Story, a director, voice-over artist, drag queen, and future winner of Eurovision (representing Cyprus). Her theatre credits include The Grinning Man, Ruthless - The Musical and Young Frankenstein.

Eds Eramiha, a former professional Muay Thai fighter (those skills will come in handy!) is playing TREVOR, Cornley Drama Society’s stage manager. Having toured with Pop-up Globe’s productions of Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Night’s Dream as Puck and Curio he’ll be punching above his weight in the laughter department. His previous film credits include The Legend of Baron To’a, Mahana and The Dead Lands.

Brodie Masini (feat. films Revive, Hidden Light; theatre Tick, Tick, Boom!, Next to Normal) plays Jonathan, Sebastiano Pitruzzello (feat. films After Luke, I Want Back, The Killer Performance) is Max; Tom Hayward (feat. film Water; stage Happy Campers, Uncle Vanya) is Dennis; Anthony Craig (Woody Woodpecker Goes to Camp, Unbroken and Lone Wolf, Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge); Kira Josephson (Power Rangers | Dino Fury (Jane Fairview), hit NZ Comedy Kid Sister (Bec Emanuel); theatre Strictly Ballroom, The Girl On The Train, Jesus Christ Superstar, Chicago, Legally Blonde the Musical) and Jack Buchanan (Power Rangers | Beast Morphers (Captain Chaku), Our Own Little Mess (Q Theatre), and Night of the Living Dead (Silo Theatre).

"Everything wrong is dead right,”
- Sir Roger Hall, NZ Herald

"Sellers, Cleese, Atkinson, Morecambe, Hawtrey, French and Barker would all delight in this precisely-timed comedy of errors … it’s one well-structured riot.” 
-Michael Hooper, Theatreview

Co-written by Mischief Theatre company members Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer and Henry Shields and directed by Mark Bell, The Play That Goes Wrong is a highly physical comedy packed with finely-tuned farce and Buster Keaton inspired slapstick, delivered with split-second timing and ambitious daring. The Play That Goes Wrong, which started its life at a London fringe venue with only four paying customers at the first performance, which started its life at a London fringe venue with only four paying customers at the first performance, is now celebrating a decade of disasters on the West End.

Presented by GMG Productions and Stoddart Entertainment Group by arrangement with Mischief Worldwide Ltd, this fan favourite will be causing chaos in Wellington from 19 April ’25 before travelling to Christchurch, New Plymouth and Auckland. Coinciding with its 10thAnniversary celebrations the show is sure to delight whether you are 9 or 99.

“A ludicrous, raucous & hilarious misadventure where hilarity and calamity collide in the most perfect way.” - Keeping Up With NZ
 

The full cast is:

Jonathan Martin: Chris
Joe Kosky: Robert
Sebastiano Pitruzzello: Max
Brodie Masini: Jonathan
Tom Hayward: Dennis
Stephanie Astrid John: Sandra
Olivia Charalambous: Annie
Eds Eramiha: Trevor
Jack Buchanan: MALE US (Chris/Robert/Trevor)
Anthony Craig: MALE US (Dennis/Max/Jonathan)
Kira Josephson: FEMALE US (Sandra/Annie)

Mischief’s The Play That Goes Wrong opened at the Duchess Theatre, London in September 2014, and is celebrating a decade of disasters in the West End. The production shows no signs of slowing down since its first performance at The Old Red Lion Theatre with only four paying customers and has now been performed to over 3.5 million people around the world in every continent except Antarctica.

The show’s many achievements to date include:

• Over 3500 performances of The Play That Goes Wrong at the Duchess Theatre.
• During the West End run members of The Cornley Drama Society have been hit (by objects or each other) more than 125,545 times
• 106 actors have performed in the show’s Duchess Theatre run.
• The show has won 11 awards, including an Olivier, Tony and a Moliere.
• There have been productions of the play in 49 countries and in every continent except Antarctica (where producers fear a frosty reception).
• More than 4,246,481 people have seen the show worldwide, and there have been 7,822 performances in the English language.
• An actor has shouted out for a ledger 54,747 times. (And that's only in English.)
• A total of 58,180 door slams in America alone.
• 8 million people watched the 2015 performance at The Royal Variety Performance, with a further 6.3 million seeing the clip on YouTube.
• 2,607 fire extinguishers have been used to put out fires in The Play That Goes Wrong somewhere in the world in these past ten years.
• Winston the Dog has been successfully located zero times.

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