The 39 Steps

[thoreau]

David and I went to see "39 Steps" tonight at Theatreworks. Theatreworks shows have either been fabulous and right on the mark or "meh" - and tonight was a real winner. A hilarious, high-speed spoof of Alfred Hitchcock’s silver-screen classic, this irresistible Broadway smash hurtles a notorious fugitive and a spellbound blonde from a London music hall north by northwest to Scotland’s most remote highlands. Will they save Britain from a den of devious spies? An ingenious homage to the master’s greatest films, it creates trains, planes, moors, and more in a wildly funny flight to the heights of theatrical invention.

The quartet of Rebecca Dines (as the fem fetale) & Mark Andersen Phillips in the lead as Hannay - are just hysterically funny. and rounding out the quartet of actors are Cassidy Brown & Dan Hiatt - who play a dozen or more characters - changing sexes and accents on the fly. What makes this such a great piece of theater is the pacing - it doesn't stop for a second - throwing everything at the audience at breakneck speed. Running gags like sound effects going off 30-40 seconds after the action on stage and back lit "puppet" shows sending up other Hitchcock classics make this 2 hours of nonstop jokes and gags - with a thinly veiled Hitchcock plot. It's the most fun I've had at a comedy at live theater in a real long time. :)

I highly recommend the production.

http://theatreworks.org/shows/1011-season/the-39-steps