Spies, Blonde and a Guy Go North by Northwest
Ben BrantleyDecember 16, 2008: This fast, frothy exercise in legerdemain is throwaway theater at its finest. And that’s no backhanded compliment.
READ THE REVIEWTheater: Cort Theatre / 138 West 48th Street, New York, NY, 10036
Synopsis:
Part espionage thriller and part slapstick comedy, the production features four actors who portray all the characters and all the action from the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film, including the chase atop the Flying Scotsman train, a bi-plane crash and the death-defying finale in London’s Palladium theatre.
BUY TICKETS BUY GROUP TICKETSDecember 16, 2008: This fast, frothy exercise in legerdemain is throwaway theater at its finest. And that’s no backhanded compliment.
READ THE REVIEWAn utterly pointless but physically and conceptually ingenious spoof of Alfred Hitchcock's equally foolish but stylish and dead-serious spy thriller from 1935." & "In fact, given the assignment and the material, the extended sketch is as clever as it knows how to be.
READ THE REVIEW39 Steps isn't likely to earn a Tony Award to accompany its Olivier, especially given the unusual assortment of weighty new plays that opened on Broadway last fall. But it's an impeccably crafted trifle, a lot tastier than many of the richer confections that have turned up in commercial theater lately.
READ THE REVIEWThe central joke in this frenetic spoof is the utter unsuitability of the material -- with its high-speed chases across moors, rivers, an elevated bridge and the roof of a moving train -- for stage presentation.
READ THE REVIEWSuspense-meister Alfred Hitchcock probably never imagined his thriller The 39 Steps had the makings of a hilarious comedy, but the show ...is a dizzy delight.
READ THE REVIEWThe play's creators have affectionately pushed Hitchcock's brilliance - watch for various homages to such movies as The Birds and The Lady Vanishes - into some riotous realm of satire, without losing its essentially Hitchcockian flavor.
READ THE REVIEWThe business of spoofing films on stage is a particularly tricky one, as anyone who saw Debbie Does Dallas can attest, so kudos are decidedly due to adaptor Patrick Barlow and director Maria Aitken for transforming Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 thriller The 39 Steps, now on stage at the Roundabout's American Airlines Theatre, into a highly amusing theatrical event that will both satisfy those audience members who have never seen the film and delight those who are familiar with its cinematic predecessor.
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