Hitchcock's reputation as the master of suspense began in 1935 with The 39 Steps. Photos of its stars, Robert Donat and Madeleine Carroll, appear in numerous film anthologies and histories. No Hitchcock retrospective would be considered complete without it. The DVD is available at all rental outlets and many libraries. Still, given subsequent more sophisticated work in this romantic thriller genre, including many by Hitchcock, The 39 Steps is something of a film buff's artifact and a most unlikely prospect for a modern day stage vehicle. But to prove that you should never say never, along came Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon with the idea of using the power of imaginative stagecraft and extremely energetic actors to play up the humor Hitchcock introduced to this genre. As adapted by Patrick Barlow, the concept took shape and The 39 Steps became a 4-actor, comic spoof that nabbed an Olivier Award for Best Comedy and now has Broadway audiences in stitches.

Fortunately Charles Edwards, has come along to play Richard Hannay, the role he created for the London production that Neil Dowden reviewed last year and that's posted below these comments. Maria Aitken again directs and the show features the same ingenious look and sound as in London.

While having Edwards on board insures that the leading man is as debonair and amusing here as in London, much of the New York production's success relies on the other actors . All too often British plays lose something with an American cast. But not to worry.

Jennifer Ferrin, makes an impressive Broadway debut playing not only Pamela, but also the slinky foreigner in black who ends up with a knife in her back and the browbeaten wife of a prayer-spouting Scot. Arnie Burton and Cliff Saunders are an inspired pair of clowns. They switch characters and costumes with lightning speed, often right in front of your eyes. In short, all the positive things Neil had to say about the production he reviewed apply to the New York transfer.

Saunders is especially memorable as the robot-like Mr. Memory. Burton's multi-tasking includes gender switches and at one time has him channelling Peter Lorre, an actor who during the 50s often appeared in Hitchcock's popular TV mystery series. References to other Hitchcock endeavors for the big screen (North by North West, Rear Window, Vertigo) are cleverly woven into the plot and play a part in what makes this 39 Steps such a hoot. Opening as it does during the much publicized contests to pick our next Republican and Democratic presidential nominees, the referential quips also provide an opportunity for a place specific touch: In the scene when the ever adaptable Hannay finding himself mistaken as a candidate for a Scottish political office, fires away with a speech that promises — you guessed it — "Change!"

If there's one scene where all this cleverness seems to go from a comic boil to a simmer, it's when Hannay and Pamela are shackled to each other and check into a small hotel in the guise of runaway lovers. Having only recently watched the DVD in preparation for seeing the stage adaptation, I found this slowing down of the pace true of the film as well. On the other hand, it's during that scene that Pamela strips off her wet stockings, with Hannay's shackled hand on her leg — a memorably daring moment in 1935.

My watching the DVD before seeing the play raises the question of whether anyone who is not familiar with the movie can follow and appreciate this madcap staging. The answer is yes and no. You'll have no problem following the plot and the physical comedy and wordplay stand on their own, which also means that kids as young as ten or eleven can enjoy it. However, a familiarity with the movie will heighten your appreciation of how much the conceit of four actors and scenery that, as Neil puts it, also sends up the world of am dram or amateur theater with its frames for doors, streams made of fabric and other simple scenic artifices. Neil's description of the comedy as a MacGuffin is, by the way, a term and technique popularized by Hitchcock. As he explained it in a 1939 lecture: "[We] have a name in the studio, and we call it the 'MacGuffin.' It is the mechanical element that usually crops up in any story. In crook stories it is most always the necklace and in spy stories it is most always the papers."

With newspapers and TV broadcasts full of troubling and depressing news, you could do a lot worse than to follow Richard Hannay's opening scene resolve to find escape at the theater with "something trivial and utterly pointless." The utterly pointless but delightful The 39 Steps is sure to fill the bill.

PRODUCTION NOTES
Scroll past these production notes for Neil Dowden's review
THE 39 STEPS
Simon Corble & Nobby Dimon's concept adapted by Patrick Barlow
Directed by Maria Aitken. Cast: Charles Edwards ( Richard Hannay), Jennifer Ferrin (Annabella, Pamela, Margaret), Cliff Saunders (Clown), Arnie Burton ( clown).
Sets and Costumes: Peter McKintosh
Lighting: Kevin Adams
Dialect Coach: Stephen Gabis
Original Movement created by Toby Sedgewick; additional movement by Christopher Bayes
Running Time: 1 hour 45 minutes with one intermission
Roundabout's American Airlines Theatre, 227 West 42 Street,(212) 719-1300 or roundabouttheatre.org
From 1/04/08 to 3/23/08; opening 1/15/08.
Tue— Sat at 8pm; Wed, Sat, Sun at 2pm.
Tickets, $51.25-96.25.
Reviewed by Elyse Sommer at January 15th matinee