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The 39 Steps on Broadway

Hitchcock as Theater: a Comedy with Only Four Actors.

Feb 23, 2009 Paul Pelkonen

The prototype Hitchcock chase movie has been re-imagined as a British screwball comedy on the Broadway stage with four actors playing all the parts.

Hitchcock makes the leap from silver screen to Broadway stage in Patrick Barlow's re-imagination of the classic 1935 chase movie The 39 Steps. However, the Broadway version reduces the movie's cast to four high-spirited actors who take all the parts in the drama.

The Story: Square-jawed, pencil-mustached hero, Richard Hannay is framed for a crime he did not commit. He spends the next 100 minutes (or so) running for life across the Scottish countryside while handcuffed to a beautiful blonde. Hitchcock's film is the prototype for The Fugitive and nearly every chase/buddy movie that followed in the 20th century.

The Setting: The production is set on a simple bare stage. Ladders, free-standing doors and even a gun-toting dummy provide the setting. A pair of high painter's ladders and a row of suitcases double for the exciting scene on the Forth Rail Bridge.

The Cast: The flexible, versatile cast divides all the parts in the film. Tall, square-jawed Sean Mahon embodies the lead role of Richard Hannay, coming eerily close to the portrayal by Robert Donat in the Hitchcock film. His Hannay is callow, suave, and slightly stupid–the very model for Cary Grant in North by Northwest.

Francesca Faridnay has the Madeleine Carroll role. In addition to being handcuffed to Hannay for most of the second act, she takes on the part of the farmer's Glaswegian wife and the Marlene Dietrich-like Annabelle Schmidt, veering into Mel Brooks territory with her thick akzent in the opening scenes.

The most stunning performances come from the Mutt-and-Jeff pair of Jeffery Kuhn and Arnie Burton, who must be particularly honored, for playing every other character in this charming, old-fashioned spy-thriller. In the Scottish countryside chase, the two actors don black rain-slickers, and become scenery: hills, rivers and even a thorn-bush.

The gangly, expressive Burton embodies the nine-fingered villain, the vaudeville M.C., various police officers and the cockney milkman. Kuhn, short, bald, and capable of speaking very fast at astonishing speed takes the factoid-babbling, slightly autistic Mr. Memory, the gruff Scots farmer and the villain's wife.

Other Highlights:

a boisterous chase sequence involving shadow puppets.
the obligatory Director's Cameo (which of course resembles Hitch himself.)
A fast-paced 100 minutes–fourteen minutes longer than the original movie!
Repeated fourth wall breaks.
The sudden appearance of a fifth actor.
Cross-references to Vertigo, Psycho, Rear Window and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Winner of two Tony Awards, The 39 Steps is a treat for film lovers and theater buffs alike, and the best Hitchcock parody since Mel Brooks made Hgh Anxiety.

The copyright of the article The 39 Steps on Broadway in Modern World Theatre is owned by Paul Pelkonen. Permission to republish The 39 Steps on Broadway in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.