My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#1My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 6:41pm
I had the opportunity to see the London production of Alfred Hitchcock's THE 39 STEPS over the summer, but turned it down to see BOEING-BOEING, which should be arriving stateside in March. Playing on the classic stereotype, leave it to the Brits to figure out comedy better than Americans. BOEING-BOEING was the most fun I've had at the theater in recent memory. Wait. Scratch that. THE 39 STEPS was the most fun I've had at the theater in recent memory.
Based on Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 espionage drama, which, in turn, was based on John Buchan's novel The Thirty-nine Steps, Patrick Barlow's stage adaptation tells the story of Richard Hannay (London carry-over Charles Edwards) and his journey to find the mysterious 39 steps, which he was warned about when a woman (Jennifer Ferrin, as sexpot women) died on his lap. Comic mayhem ensues as he escapes from a train, and meets, among others, a daffy farmer (Cliff Saunders, as half the men) and his wife, and the mysterious and murderous Professor Jordan (Arnie Burton, as the other half of the men, and the non-sexpot women). Did I mention that mayhem ensues?
Barlow's fantastic adaptation is very faithful to the film (though I don't recall it being so funny!) and manages to capture the spirit of Hitchcock, by incorporating various bits and catchphrases from his more-classic movies. My particular favorite line (which not many people got): something to the effect of "...I will not talk to you...we're strangers on a train!" Most importantly, it doesn't rely on worn-out clunkers and bizarre anachronisms like David Ives' translation of IS HE DEAD?.
Maria Aitken's barebones production is drop-dead perfect and features some of the most deft, hilarious, and visually-stunning stage pictures this season. The first act denouement, a North by Northwest-esque plane chase, is perhaps one of the most bizarrely funny things I've seen in a long time.
The remarkably hard-working 4 member cast is quite good, and once again proves why the Tony committee needs to institute a "Best Ensemble" award. There's no point in singling any one of them out. Collectively, they're some of the most brilliant farceurs I've ever seen...but if I had to name one, I'd say there's no beating Charles Edwards, who, in the Python-Spamalot-esque nature of the show, is the King Arthur - the one who remains 100% serious as the goings-on grow more and more bizarre.
ETA: Edwards gets massive laughs and a tremendous round of applause for uttering one word in the midst of the second act. I won't reveal the circumstances, or the word, but I will say that I'd vote for him before I vote for Hillary, Obama, or Mamet's guy (despite brilliance by Nathan Lane).
Sets are geniously spare by Peter McKintosh and allow for a multitude of moveable props. His costumes are quite fine, as well. Kevin Adams' lighting is perfect.
Noticed a bunch of critics in the crowd today - among them, the eternally frowning John Lahr cracked a smile! I'd be interested in hearing what Ben Brantley things - since he wrote it up during his London trip last year.
THE 39 STEPS is pure, unadulterated, good, clean fun. And it's original. Can't beat that.
Updated On: 1/12/08 at 06:41 PM
#2re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 6:43pmi haven't seen the show. any spoilers in this post?
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#3re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 6:49pmGlad you liked it Yankee. I saw it last night and that it was truly fantastic. Hopefully this will be a Tony contender.
#4re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:13pm
I am looking forward to it even more now.
I don't get that line though! Is it a reference to North by Northwest?
Also looking forward to Boeing-Boeing. I had never heard of it, and I did a little research after reading your review. Sounds fun
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#5re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:19pmNo, it's a reference to the Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train.
#6re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:21pmI saw this last night and I completely agree Yankee. Great review. The staging and the cast were truly top notch.
"A well-rounded performer will listen to all kinds of music. I like classical, Middle Eastern, and rock a lot." -- Patti LuPone
#7re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:25pm
Glad you liked it Yank. I saw it Weds and wasn't crazy about it.
I think my problem was that I had done the music and sound for a hilarious spoof of "Now Voyager" called HOW NOW VOYAGER in the 90s that ran a few years Off-Broadway. Same schtick, jokes and feel as 39 STEPS; it all just felt like the same old thing to me...
The audience as well as the people around didn't seem to find it too funny Wed either!
But, thanks again for a well thought out review (as always!).
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#8re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:30pm
Yes, the show is certainly an acquired taste. Brantley put it best in his summation of the show in London -
"...Granted, I have seen this sort of celluloid-to-stage exercise before. (I remember, with particular fondness, a straight-faced version of “The Valley of the Dolls.”) But the work of Hitchcock, the ultimate storyboarder and ultimate tease of a storyteller, particularly lends itself to such deconstruction.
Since the show is, above all, a testament to actorly ingenuity (how do you play four characters at the same time?), you don’t have to have seen the movie to appreciate the play. But it’s even more fun if you know the representational challenges that lie ahead for the actors and wonder how on earth they are going to simulate, say, a chase atop the cars of a speeding train."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/18/theater/18brant.html?pagewanted=2
MCfan2
Broadway Legend Joined: 4/29/06
#9re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:39pm
Thanks for the review. I love Hitchcock and have been thinking this sounded intriguing. From what you say, it sounds like the sort of thing I'd enjoy. 
#10re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:44pmInteresting Fact: Sigourney Weaver's mother was in the movie.
"Writing is like prostitution. First, you do it for love, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for money." ~ Moliere
#11re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:46pm
I remember that version "Valley of the Dolls". It was very funny!
I love a good spoof, and 39 STEPS is a good one (just not as funny as some others I've seen), it's just not a great one, IMO.
I always seemed to know what they were going to do next. We used many of the same tricks (in HOW NOW VOYAGER), as did VALLEY OF THE DOLLS.
Still, I hope it does well.
"It's not so much do what you like, as it is that you like what you do." SS
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana." GMarx
#12re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:50pm
I have seen both the 39 steps an Boeing Boeing in London and loved both.
The 39 Steps is so clever with the story moving along with only the 4 actors, I didn't know the story before seeing the play and didn't need to.
Boeing was a more standard play (each actor played one part) but had a great story and kept the actors busy
wexy
Broadway Legend Joined: 9/19/05
#13re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 7:57pmI thought that it was lots of fun. As I posted before, I got to meet the cast at the Roundabout social party afterwards and they're all nice and enthusiastic about the play.
'Take me out tonight where's there's music and there's people and they're young and alive.'
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
BJC899
Broadway Star Joined: 7/20/04
#15re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/12/08 at 10:21pm
I saw it tonight - LOVED it. One of the funniest things i have seen. It works so perfectly and should find a permanent space. Get rid of Perfect Crime and have this play for 300 years.
Updated On: 1/12/08 at 10:21 PM
#16re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 12:17am
I also saw it tonight. After seeing Is He Dead.
I liked the sets. I liked the two men playing multiple roles.
But I didn't like the show. Everyone talked a little too fast, and Annabella's accent was impossible to understand. There was laughter in the audience I was in tonight, but not as much as Is He Dead, which I found to be much funnier than this one.
I was disappointed with it, but the one reason someone has to see it is for the stage direction and the two men. They were incredible. And actually, Edwards wasn't that brilliant in it. good, but not brilliant.
and whoever said it was an original is mistaken. Maybe original with the jokes and stage direction, but not original with the plot nor with the characters.
but maybe it was just me. not sure..
<--- the set of A Midsummer Night's Dream that I was assistant stage manager for during the 2007 season at the STNJ outdoor stage.
-Dre- You must remember all the same that at the crux of every game is knowing when it's time to leave the table... And it's important to be artful in your exit. No turning back, you must accept the con is done... It was a ball, it was a blast. And it's a shame it couldn't last. But every chapter has to end, you must agree.
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
There's a special kind of people known as show people. We live in a world full of dreams. Sometimes we're not too certain what's false and what's real. But we're seldom in doubt about what we feel.
~Curtains~
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~A Tale of Two Cities ~
~Dirty Rotten Scoundrels~
~Curtains~
~A Tale of Two Cities ~
RoseStopnikCooks
Stand-by Joined: 12/19/07
#17re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 12:24amAlmost always agreeing with YankeeFan, this has me very excited. Seeing tomorrow's matinee! Updated On: 1/13/08 at 12:24 AM
#18re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 12:29amI'm attending today's Sunday matinee (January 13) and psyched!
#19re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 3:17am
and whoever said it was an original is mistaken. Maybe original with the jokes and stage direction, but not original with the plot nor with the characters.
Well considering it is essentially a parody of Hitchcock films, of course the plot and characters aren't original. They were written by Hitchcock. They are being parodied. So the jokes and the direction would be the two places for originality to take place...and they do.
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#20re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 8:43am
It most certainly is an original comedy. And Anabella's accent is supposed to be hard to understand.
Updated On: 1/13/08 at 08:43 AM
Ed_Mottershead
Broadway Legend Joined: 10/20/05
#21re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 9:17amI have not seen it yet. However, I met someone at Sardi's who said, although he liked it, felt that you really have to know the movie by heart to get a lot of the jokes. Fortunately, I have the movie, so I'll get a chance to freshen up.
BroadwayEd
Yankeefan007
Broadway Legend Joined: 3/20/04
#22re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 9:30amYou don't have to know the movie too well, you just have to be culturally aware of Hitchcock...especially since much of the Psycho score underscores the 2nd Act. Not the "reet reet reet" of the violins during the shower scene (though it does appear), but the "dum dum...dumdum" which leads up to it.
#23re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 10:25am
Thanks Yankee...
I definitely agree with you 100% ..its "an acquired taste.."- so far best definition of the play .. I heard... I saw this at Boston's Huntington Try-out run twice and enjoyed it on both times.
The only thing I did NOT LIKE about the play is...
***************SPOILER*****************
Uses of curtains as a river, clowns as rock- is a bit dragging but i guess.. its the part of that "over the top"..almost a slapstick kind of comedy...
****************END*********************
I am glad that you like it... any thoughts on this play as being the last contender of BEST NEW PLAY ...any chance?
J*
#24re: My Thoughts on THE 39 STEPS
Posted: 1/13/08 at 11:41am
Aw, that's one of my favorite parts Jaystarr.
As for being considered in the Best Play category, I hope that it will be. At this point there are:
The 39 Steps
August: Osage County
The Farnsworth Invention
Is He Dead?
Mauritius
November
Rock 'n' Roll
The Seafarer
(and Thurgood, Boeing Boeing, and Female of the Species still have yet to be seen, with Thurgood being the only one actually confirmed)
While my favorite 4 of the bunch thus far are August, 39 Steps, Farnsworth Invention, and Is He Dead (and I haven't seen November yet), I have a feeling the nominees will include both Seafarer and Rock 'n Roll due to the positive critical reception (in general I am not a big Conor McPherson fan, and while I LOVE Tom Stoppard, I was really bored during Rock 'n' Roll). The nominees will probably be August, The Seafarer, and Rock 'n' Roll with 39 Steps, Is He Dead, and Farnsworth fighting it out for the last spot.
