We got an opportunity to see The 39 Steps recently. No, not the film, I’m talking about the stage production which is a spoof of Hitchcock’s 1935 classic suspense thriller. Just finishing up a successful two-plus year run on Broadway, The 39 Steps earned six Tony Award nominations in 2008, including Best Play. It ultimately won Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design. The show recently moved to The New World Stages where we saw it.
Turning the original screenplay on its ear, the stage version of The 39 Steps is played for laughs all the way. And it’s a howl from beginning to end. Adapted by Patrick Barlow, the play follows the plot line of Charles Bennett’s film script, which itself is based on John Buchan’s novel. It just does it... well... let’s say broadly. Everything is overplayed. And when you’re recreating such action sequences as a daring chase across the top of a moving train, an escape through a treacherous bog, or a parade of marching Scotsmen, it’s not hard to stretch melodrama into comedy.
The play also has a great running gag of continuously referencing other Hitchcock films, including tongue-in-cheek flashes of the airplane attack from North by Northwest and the shower scene from Psycho. In classic Hitchcock tradition, there’s even a brief appearance by the master himself during one chase sequence.
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Having performers take on multiple roles seems to be all the rage these days. The Toxic Avenger Musical (which is also a hoot!) features a cast of five. Three of its performers play more than one role. Daniel Jenkins and Robert Stanton hilariously tackle a dozen-plus characters in their two-man show Love Child. Though a series of vignettes, with no specific plot, the musical Good Ol’ Girls asks its five actresses to portray a varied group of Southern ladies during the course of the evening.
All this got me thinking about my first experience on the stage. When I was a junior in high school, my family moved from Long Island to New Jersey. Being a new kid in school, with all my friends two bridges and many miles away, I felt somewhat adrift. Looking for a way to fit in, I tried out for the school’s fall production.
I don’t know why I decided to do this. I had minimal involvement with the theatre department in my old school and certainly not as a performer. I guess I thought it was a good way to meet people.
The play was Neil Simon’s comedy Plaza Suite. I really knew nothing about it, but took a deep breath, took to the stage and auditioned. And much to my surprise, I landed a part. I would play Borden Eisler.
Now to those not familiar with the play, Plaza Suite involves three completely different stories. What unites them is that they all take place in the same room at the legendary New York Hotel. The final act revolves around a bride who has locked herself in the bathroom of the hotel room and won’t come out. Her poor father does everything in his power to make her come out, desperately trying to control his rage over the fact that this very expensive wedding, which he paid for, is in the process of imploding. And Borden? He’s the groom who comes in at the eleventh hour and with two words -- “cool it” -- gets his bride to come out.
John Behlmann Kate MacCluggage Jamie Jackson Cameron Folmar
The current cast of The 39 Steps
A majority of the laughs are generated by the concept that the film’s approximately 150 speaking parts are portrayed in the stage production by a cast of four. (Well, four plus an arm, but we don’t want to give away a key plot point.) As Richard Hannay (played by Robert Donat in the film), John Behlmann epitomizes the dashing 1930s hero. Thrust into a world of intrigue and danger after being wrongly accused of murder, he finds himself facing the daunting task of stopping a band of devious spies while eluding a good number of Scotland Yard’s finest. And as all the action revolves around Richard, this is the only part Behlmann plays. That leaves the other 149 parts to the remaining three cast members.
Kate MacCluggage marvelously takes on three diverse roles. First, she is the mysterious, sexy femme fatale Annabella Schmidt -- whose demise sets the plot in motion. Next, she’s the innocent farm girl Margaret who helps Richard escape capture. But for the majority of her stage time, MacCluggage plays the proper, but plucky, English girl Pamela. A reluctant participant in the proceedings, Pamela ends up helping our hero as they become romantically entangled.
And that leaves Jamie Jackson and Cameron Folmar to round out the cast. Listed as Man #1 and Man #2 in the program, these two exhaustively play everything from the cops pursuing Hannay to the villains who framed him. They play lingerie salesmen on the train, husband and wife innkeepers, a Scottish farmer, a paperboy, menacing spies and the all-important Mr. Memory. Sometimes they take on several characters in the same scene. Sometimes they change from male to female with the turn of a coat. But always, they change hats, costumes and facial expression with furious abandon. Their energy is infectious, and the more characters they take on, the bigger the laughs. We can’t wait to see who or what they will show up as next.
I still remember all my lines. It’s not hard -- there were only four of them. But I was so surprised to even be cast, I didn’t quibble over the brevity of my part. I got one of the show’s biggest laughs and I got to wear a morning suit -- an event in itself as we had to make a special trip so I could be measured for it.
And for two nights, I sat backstage for approximately two hours, dressed to the nines, to spend about about two minutes on stage. But that role also led to more auditions, more roles, and a love for live theatre which exists to this day. And though I gave up my acting aspirations a long time ago, I know the experience has been invaluable in my writing endeavors. And who knows what the second half of high school would have been like if I hadn’t been cast. It did exactly what it was suppose to do -- help me make new friends. And I had a great time in those couple of years at my alma mater -- Whippany Park High School.
Ironically, if the play had been produced the way it was originally devised, I might not have gotten the chance. When Plaza Suite opened at the Plymouth Theatre (currently the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre) on December 12, 1968, all the actors took on multiple roles. George C. Scott played the trio of male leads, Maureen Stapleton, the female leads. Bob Balaban played Borden Eisler as well as a Bellhop in the first act. Walter Matthau played all three male parts in the 1971 film. Though three different actresses -- Lee Grant, Barbara Harris and Maureen Stapleton were cast for the female leads. Thomas Carey played Borden -- his only part in the film.
I totally understand the reasons for having actors play multiple roles. As noted above, it’s the majority of the fun in The 39 Steps. But I am also glad that this precedence wasn’t followed in my high school and I got the chance to experience the thrill of performing live -- all four lines of it.
