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Video: MIND MANGLER Gets Ready to Make Magic Off-Broadway
May 16, 2024
Are you ready for your mind to be mangled? Beginning tonight, November 10, Mind Mangler: A Night of Tragic Illusion arrives at New World Stages. In this vide, watch as the cast
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Hello, I'm Richard Ridge for Broadway World
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The latest from the comedic minds that gave us The Play That Goes Wrong and Peter Pan Goes Wrong
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is Mindmangler, a night of tragic illusion. It'll play for 16 weeks only, beginning on November 10th
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at New World Stages. And I dropped by the legendary Sardis to catch up with the show's two stars and co-creators
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Henry Lewis and Jonathan Sayre, to tell us all about it and give us a sneak peek
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We're so excited. We're so lucky to do two shows in New York in one year
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It's absolutely incredible. So, no, we're thrilled. And it's a very, very cool theatre
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We're so delighted to be around the corner from Play That Goes Wrong at New World Stages. So, yeah, we can't wait
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I am absolutely thrilled. This has been a real Easter egg kind of surprise
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because we left the States five weeks ago from doing Peter Pan and we're kind of back here
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and it's all happened very, very quick. But I'm delighted. I love New York. I love this show
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I think this is one of my favourite shows we've made and deeply excited
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So the show is, it's a mind-reading magic show, but it's packed full of jokes
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as many jokes as you would expect in any other mischief show, but there's also genuine real magic
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real mind-reading in the show. And the show is all about my character, Keith, who is a down-on-his-luck mind-reader
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recently going through a divorce and struggling to get his career back on track
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And John plays Steve, who's his stooge, who always manages to mess up all his routines
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And the story between the two of us is also really lovely and sweet. So it's kind of, it's three things
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funny, magical and heartwarming, hopefully. Yeah, well, I can't tell you how it's done
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because I'd obviously have to kill you. But, no, I thought it was really interesting
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watching all you guys. We did this press event this morning where we showed a little bit of the show
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and I think what was really interesting is, I think you were all waiting for the comedy beat to be
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well, it's gone wrong and the magic is bad. But actually the magic is really good
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and there was this little moment when we did a trick and there was kind of stunned silence
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And then, so the comedy lives in a different place in this show. It's more character comedy, right
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It's more the character is funny as opposed to you're just laughing at the character
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for being bad at what they do. So that's a real fun thing about this show
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I think the magic element is quite magical. There's kind of like a natural connection
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between the comedy that we were doing and play that goes wrong and Peter Pan goes wrong
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that kind of like, look over here, something funny happens over here, everybody looks that way kind of a thing
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And I feel like there's a natural connection between the comedy and the magic. And I think adding those layers on top of each other
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is just going to be a great time. And everything that he just said and then just being early on in the process
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So when I came in to play the goes wrong, it had been happening for a while. This is the first time this is going up in the US
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So I'm able to get to see how the sausage is made a little more, which is nice
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Now sharing the stage with Henry again, what you love the most
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We don't get on at all, obviously, as you could tell. No, it's great
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Henry's the best man at my wedding. We're best pals. We make each other laugh a lot
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So it's just a joy. And particularly because my character, you come and see the show
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but my character is in the audience quite a bit. And, you know, kind of
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so I get to watch little chunks of it as well. And we just make each other laugh a lot
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And even, we're teching the show and rehearsing at the moment, and the tech is very quick and very, very tight
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And even then there's a lot of laughter in the room. And it's just fun. It's just a lot of fun
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We all know things go wrong in these shows, but did something go wrong during one of your performances
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that was not supposed to go wrong when you were on? Oh, come back to me
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I mean, for sure. There is a, so the role I played
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there's two times in the show where I get knocked unconscious, and you're unconscious for like 18 minutes straight
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And, you know, once you've done a show 300 times, it's not, you're not, the nerves aren't really running
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So, and when you're on tour, you can be really tired. And I fell asleep on stage during the show
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in front of 3,000 people. And one of the guys had to come, he, thank God
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Ned Noyes spotted it and he was like, Brandon's asleep, he's asleep
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And the cue came and usually I jump real quick and I didn't. He came over and he was like, Trevor
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and like kicked me to get me up. And I was like, oh God, that's the biggest goes wrong for me
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That's a big one. That's a big one. For you, something crazy
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There was a moment in the play that goes wrong off Broadway where we, at one point during a scene
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there's a lost dog element in the show. And when the dog, when somebody walked out on stage
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with the dog, there was no dog. And a member of the audience thought
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that it was their responsibility to play the dog. So they just walked, it was just this moment
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where everybody froze and he walked up on stage and he just sat down on the stage like a dog
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and they just had to escort him away and he was very embarrassed. But he got to be a part of the show
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He got to be a part of the show. He made his off-Broadway debut that night. Oh my God
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