This 'C.L.U.E.' has murder, intrigue, pop songs, Tofu the dog and your vote

Audience members have a say about the killer in Regina Peluso's dance parody of the board game.

By Sheila Regan Special to the Star Tribune

February 29, 2024 — 10:00am

In "C.L.U.E.", Collide Theatrical Dance Company turns the whodunit board game into an interactive romp, bringing the audience into the action as it weaves a tale of murder, intrigue and long-held secrets.

Like the board game, the audience "plays" the game at Minneapolis' Southern Theater. A person is selected from the crowd and writes the name of a character, a weapon and a room in the mansion and places the paper into an envelope. Audience members also get to vote, via QR code during intermission, who they think is the murderer. With a soundtrack of rock and pop tunes, the bodies pile up in this upbeat mystery dance show.

Director and choreographer Regina Peluso spoke about the production:

Q: This "C.L.U.E." seemed to adapt the board game more than the movie "Clue." Would you say that's true?

A: Yes, very much. I have three children, and we've been playing the board game quite a bit. I got really into playing the board game with my family over the holidays and thought how fun it would to be able to adapt some of those concepts into dance and how we could play with that. The dice were a nice way to help with the transitions through the different locations. Nobody wants to sit and watch us change our scenery. So, the dice came in as almost a transition cover. And then a fun way to just play with the theme.

Q: Do you have the vintage CLUE board game at home or is it one of the newer versions?

A: It's one of the old ones. In my research, I played all the new ones too, but the vintage old one — that's the classic.

Q: Did you have to get permission from the game's publisher to do this production?

A: Our title is different — it's "C.L.U.E." And also it's a parody. Any show that's a parody is basically fair game.

Q: Tofu the dog is kind of the runaway star of the show. Did you have doggy auditions?

A: Tofu is [choreographer and dancer] Renee [Guittar's] dog. He actually does this really cool trick where if you point your finger at him and say, bang, he'll fall over and play dead. We couldn't get him to do the trick onstage at Southern, so we had to change the script a little bit.

Q: Did Tofu come to many rehearsals?

A: He came to one run-through, and then he came to tech rehearsals. He has to have a dog handler backstage because he's got separation anxiety. If he's by himself, he'll cry, which is really sad. So he has somebody backstage with him the whole time, and that helps him come out. At first the lights were really scary for him, and he didn't want to come out, so Renee had to carry him in. But he's gotten a lot more comfortable.

Q: Do you have a backup plan for the ending if the audience member's pick for the "murderer" matches the show's person?

A: It's happened once where it was the same person in the envelope that was the audience choice. So he just had to do both of those dances.

Q: Since the start of the pandemic, some of Collide's productions have live music and some have recorded music. Is that a financial decision?

A: Yes. Before the pandemic, we never did a show without live music. But now it's almost triple that expense. It's been a bummer for us. We love working with live musicians; it brings so much more energy to the dance. But it's just so expensive, and it's hard when their rates are almost more than the dancers' rates.

Q: Does it change the storytelling when you aren't using singers to help propel the narrative?

A: Totally. In some cases, we took the lyrics out because they're too distracting or don't fit, even though the energy of the song fits. But when we've used singers, vocalists will help the story, but sometimes they distract from it. So it kind of depends on the show. When they're acting as narrators, and they're really using the lyrics to help us propel the story, it works. But if they're not, then we lose focus from the actual storytellers, which are the dancers. For this show, the focus was really on the dancers to carry the story.