An old favourite returns to the West End and is just as funny as we remember it. The 39 Steps is a supremely silly spoof of Alfred Hitchcock's spy film of the same name from 1935. This version is a delightfully nonsensical take on the original and has lots of sly references to the other movies in Hitchcock's oeuvre. It also imaginatively sends up some of the cinematic conventions and tropes of the era. But even if one doesn't know the original or isn't a film buff, there is lots here that will strike the funny bone. The physical comedy is highly skillful and the running gags are wonderfully wacky. Clever employment of very basic props, ingenious use of musical cues, plus nimble pacing, all ensure that the audience's interest never flags, and one is blithely carried along through spy-catcher Richard Hannay's trials and tribulations. Tom Byrne is terrific as world-weary Hannay who drags himself to the theatre only to meet a mysterious stranger who will involve the jaded libertine in a quest that is fraught with menace and might lead not only to self-discovery but, perhaps, to love. As the standoffish, self-contained young woman who gets caught up in Hannay's misadventures, Hannah Parker had the style and mannerisms of the period down pat. The advertising for The 39 Steps claims there are 139 characters in the show, and playing multiple roles, from Scottish crofters to coppers, and everything in between, Maddie Rice and Eugene McCoy come close to stealing the show in all their various guises and incarnations. McCoy's elastic face and angular contortions are quite extraordinary. When it was first in the West End this show had a certain novelty that it now lacks, as its madcap, low-tech comedy has been widely imitated. Nevertheless, just as Hitchcock's film has become a classic, this theatrical parody proves to be an enduring favourite.
Rated: ★★★★
Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Mark Senior
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