Its title may be “The 39 Steps,” but this play feels like at least 3,900 of them by now. Between January 2008 and January 2010, it played 771 performances on Broadway — in three different theaters. Then the show followed “Avenue Q” in transfering from to the off venue New World Stages. But seeing “The 39 Steps” again for the first time in over two years, I’m sad to say that it’s time to pull the plug.
This latest attempt only illustrates the danger in trying to keep a show going at all costs: It’s not necessarily the best idea (productions should come with a DNR order), and it’s always better to end things with everybody’s reputation intact.
A brief recap: “The 39 Steps” is a comedic adaptation drawing from both Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 thriller of the same name and the novel it was based on. The movie follows the dashing Richard Hannay (John Behlmann) from London to the Scottish moors and back again as he tries to untangle a complicated spy story. The plot involves several action sequences, a love interest and a femme fatale (both Kate MacCluggage), as well as requited villains (Jamie Jackson and Cameron Folmar, who also play everyone else).
Director Maria Aitken pulls this off on stage with just a cast of four and an ingenious use of props, lighting and sound effects. This requires impeccable timing, comic and otherwise, from everybody involved — including the backstage crew — but right now the mechanism is out of whack. The actors overplay with no sense of measure. They’re either going too fast and confusing frantic for madcap, or too slow and dragging gags an unnecessary extra beat or ten. The less said about their British and Scottish accents, the better.
The second act is even worse than the first, and the scene in the hotel where the lovebirds are hiding drags on endlessly — pun intended when it comes to drag. I felt like I was watching the Kids in the Hall perform Beckett. Although that may conceivably be fun and the show isn’t. If the producers really insist on keeping it on, Aitken needs to come in for a top-to-bottom tune-up.
