There’s always been a place for a manic kind of comedy. The type of over-the-top performing style that consistently errs on the side of the outrageous, emphasizing the unpredictable at every juncture and leaving audiences agog at the wildness of it all. Think of stream-of-consciousness comedians like Jonathan Winters and his heir to the crown of breathtakingly rapid-fire humor, Robin Williams.

It feels like that’s what playwright Sandy Rustin and director Casey Hushion were shooting for with “Clue,” a stage comedy built from a board game and a 1985 film fashioned after it. Currently opening a 21-city tour at Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre, its key ingredients are pace and outrageousness. And, if you’re in the right mood, you could have some fun with it, for it’s as much of a spoof of the game as it is an homage to it.

But one chief difference is that the game requires you to think, and this production doesn’t really encourage that. The characters are almost as cardboard as the ones inside the game box, all stereotypes and convoluted back stories. Even when some intriguing context about McCarthyism and blackmail is presented in the opening scene, it’s soon cast aside in favor of wall-to-wall pratfalls and schtick.

So when folks start turning up dead, you’re unlikely to care, especially when you’re presented with a multiverse of murder scenarios in which everybody seems to have killed someone at some point.

But if you’re in the mood for something outrageously silly and totally devoid of substance, “Clue” may be the show for you. Director Hushion certainly keeps things moving, and she has a fine off-the-wall master of ceremonies in Mark Price as the slapsticky butler, Wadsworth. He’s hosting a group of guests at a rural New England mansion on a stormy night, and the pseudonyms they’re asked to assume will be familiar to anyone who’s played the game.

As will the settings the characters slip into and out of over the course of the show: the library, the lounge, the billiard room, the hallway. They’re all vividly created by designer Lee Savage, whose set is a success of grand proportions. And Jen Caprio’s 1950s costumes are faithful to what Hasbro hath wrought, as well.

But don’t go expecting anything of any nutritional value, as stories go. For “Clue” is just about speed, silliness and relentless physical comedy. On that account, Price fills his role well, as does John Shartzer as the rubber-limbed bundle of nerves that is Mr. Green. And there’s some charisma to be found in John Treacy Egan’s dim-witted Colonel Mustard and Michelle Elaine’s gregarious madam, Miss Scarlet.

But there’s one thing those manic comedians like Winters and Williams had that Rustin’s script lacks: Cleverness. Sure, there’s a bit of wit bantered about, but you might get the suspicion that the production’s pace is intended to mask its paucity of any particularly funny dialogue.

That said, when we finally abandon the multiple ending idea – we get our choice of six – the final take-off on the detective’s declarative denouement from your typical whodunit proves a satisfying conclusion. But even that seems as apropos of nothing as most of this murderous fluff.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

‘Clue’

When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Ave., Mpls.

Tickets: $109-$35, available at hennepintheatretrust.org

Capsule: All speed and silliness, but not a very clever “Clue.”

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