the play that goes wrong

Wellington Opera House | 19 – 27 April 2025 | Ticketmaster

New Plymouth TSB Showplace| 30 April – 4 May 2025 | Eventfinda

Christchurch James Hay Theatre | 6 – 11 May 2025 | Ticketmaster

Auckland ASB Waterfront Theatre |14 May – 1 June 2025 | ATC.CO.NZ

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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.

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.

The show’s many achievements to date include:

  • Over 3500 performances ofThe 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.