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Clever staging in '39 Steps'

By Matt Windman

Late last month, something incredible happened on Broadway. Two plays, neither a revival, neither a star vehicle, in response to critical and commercial success, transferred from one Broadway theater to another. Each move cost about $600,000 and was necessary since new shows were already booked into their current theaters.

The first, "August: Osage County," moved from the Imperial Theatre to the more intimate Music Box Theatre next door. That Pulitzer-winning drama has already broken even and is now swimming in profit. The latter, "The 39 Steps," moved from Roundabout's not-for-profit American Airlines Theater to the commercial Cort Theatre.

We tend not to remember Alfred Hitchcock for "The 39 Steps," a 1935 film so musty that it's fallen into the public domain. The idea behind Patrick Barlow's adaptation was not to merely pay homage, but to use the film as a vehicle for slapstick comedy and unadulterated silliness.

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 hardly worth your time.

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 the finale in the London Palladium -- through clever uses of stagecraft.

Does it matter that almost no one remembers the film? Probably not. As a celebration of clever theatricality and stylized acting, the stage version of "The 39 Steps" is totally divorced artistically from its film inspiration. What's most important is that its audience is somewhat familiar with the classic styles of espionage thriller and whodunit mystery.

Cort Theatre, 138 West 48th St, 212-239-6200, $39-98. Tues 7pm, Wed 2 & 8pm, Thurs-Fri 8pm, Sat 2 & 8pm, Sun 3pm. Open Run.