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'Steps' spoofs Hitchcock

By Matt Windman, amNewYork Theater Critic
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2:32 PM EST, January 15, 2008

Charles Edwards, Arnie Burton, Cliff Saunders and Jennifer Ferrin in THE 39 STEPS, a comedic take on the 1935 Hitchcock film, with 4 actors portraying all the characters and action. (Newsday Photo / Ari Mintz)

We tend not to remember Alfred Hitchcock for "The 39 Steps," a 1935 film so musty that it's fallen into the public domain. Its plot is a stereotypical thriller: an innocent man learns too much about a covert spy ring, gets chased across Scotland, meets an uptight pretty girl, and finally returns to London in order to foil the villain's dastardly plans. You can watch the movie online for free, but it's barely worth your time.

Who knows whether playwright Patrick Barlow likes the film, but the point of his stage adaptation wasn't to merely pay homage to it. Barlow instead uses the original screenplay as a vehicle for slapstick comedy, rather like how "The Complete Works of Shakespeare (Abridged)" uses the Bard's plays as a springboard for silliness. (Barlow has also prepared parodies of the Bible and Ring Cycle.) Following its West End run, the production arrives as a three-month engagement.

Here, four cast members play a total of about 150 roles. Every scene from the film is somehow portrayed including the chase on the Flying Scotsman, the escape on the Forth Bridge and finale in the London Palladium through clever uses of stagecraft. With sheets and ladders and English accents, what results is an unusual combination of whodunit mystery, espionage thriller and physical comedy clowning.

The end result is like the current Broadway production of Mark Twain's "Is He Dead?" a cute, engaging staging of a meaningless product. In other words, expect style over substance. Of course, it's fun to watch as the talented ensemble cast switch characters and costumes at the speed of lightning, but the thrill is modest at best.

Still, who really wants to see a parody of a film that no one really cares about? In order for any satire to be effective, its audience must be familiar with the source material it seeks to make fun of. Luckily, there's bound to be a handful of movie buffs somewhere that will get a kick out of "The 39 Steps."

American Airlines Theater, 227 West 42nd St, 212-719-1300, $51.25-96.25. Tues 8pm, Wed 2 & 8pm, Thurs-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm, 2pm. Thru Mar 23.