This goofy entertainment has had hundreds of productions on top professional, semi-professional, amateur and high-school levels since it began eight years ago in England and then opened on London’s West End, then Boston, Broadway and all over. The 39 Stepsis [and was] Patrick Barlow’s rewriting of a much simpler, Yorkshire-based, small-scale staging by Simon Corble and Nobby Dimon that inventively reworked John Buchan’s 1915 spy novel. I know Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film and saw the 1959 and 1978 remake films and the slightly pretentious 2011 PBS televised version; but in one way or another, all the stage versions reduce those screen casts to four actors playing more than 100 roles. I’m not too sure about Corble and Dimon’s 1995 Yorkshire version, but accounts of all those other staged productions indicate that at least as much as they play around with the spy story, they put more emphasis on joking about Alfred Hitchcock. Some reviewers call the parodies an “homage to Hitchcock” [like “There was an old man from Nantucket…” is a homage to lyric poetry].
Now, I never read the novel and never saw any of those stage versions, and I even got back to Rochester to see Geva Theater Center’s current production the week after it opened. But, though all the many accounts I’ve read of the staged 39 Steps seem to describe very similar slapstick use of suggestive props, funny gimmicks to imitate a lot of sets and actions, and references to signature Hitchcock films in addition to this one, I still get the distinct impression that Sean Daniels has created a unique version of his own for Geva. The cast, designers, and production elements are familiar favorites of his, and the tone and appearance of the show, as well as some specific gags it employs, remind me of similar elements in other shows in which I’ve seen his direction in several theaters.
This is not a significant play, and its art lies in Daniels’ inventive, wacky direction; Michael Raiford’s gaudy and mechanically tricky sets; Jennifer Caprio’s hilarious quick-change costumes; Brian J. Lilienthal’s flashy and illusion-creating lighting; and, of course, the sly, accomplished, acrobatic clowning of its cast. Matt Callahan’s sound effects also include parodies of disaster noises, and some of his sounds (e.g., Hitchcock’s “The Birds”) are literally a hoot.
John Gregorio plays the put-upon hero, who has to dash from country to country, saving damsels in distress, surviving multiple violent attacks, jumping off and on trains, inventing speeches and impersonations, and walking up buildings and diving off bridges while trying not to get his hair mussed. Everyone else plays a collection of old, young, male, female, good, bad, and fantastic folk each.
Monica West creates the various – and I do mean various! – female beauties without seeming effort. Joel Van Lieu plays aides and villains, young and old, with equal zest. And Aaron Munoz is clumsy or agile, as required, but always funny, and creates at least one frumpy lady whose walk alone is a comic show.
The show could use trimming; not all the repeated gags wear well. But I can’t imagine a sourpuss who could sit through this 39 Steps and not once break out into giggles or guffaws.
