39 Steps to Broadway

            In one of the smaller Broadway theaters that corner every street and intersection of  Times Square, the Helen Hayes theatre seats about 597 with a proscenium stage type in sight that is primarily staging Hitchcock’s 39 Steps, a play that gives a whole other meaning to the whole “man on the run” tale. 

            This one hour and 45 minute work—based on Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 film, which in turn originated from John Buchan’s novel TheThirty-Nine Steps, first published in 1915—more often provokes smiles than real laughs, but there are moments when it’s apparent that there had been spontaneous applause that spur from the signs of utter genius on the creative juice that each scene reveals is necessary, and somewhat few lapses into jejune humor or, worse yet, boredom.

            However,the heightening for laughs are done sensibly all while making sure that the plot remains reasonably involving.

            39 Steps tells the story of Richard Hannay (played by Sean Mahon), a charming and somewhat bored Englishman who agrees to take home Annabella Schmidt (Jill Paice), a mysterious woman that he meets at the theater dressed in an all-black ensemble with a top hat that ultimately reveals her inner mischievous personality, which foreshadows the events to come. Once arriving at Hannay’s accommodation, she starts to explain that she’s a secret agent with knowledge of an important military secret who’s seeking a hiding place from two men who are after her. Hannay—of course being a human with human instincts—initially doubts her tale, but is then resolutely convinced of its truth the next morning when she stumbles in from the bedroom to the living room with a map of Scotland in her hands and a knife in her back.

            Off to Scotland, Hannay is in a hasty attempt to clear his name of framed murder and to discover Annabella’s secret—a mission that proves harder than it first appears. Along the way, Hannay encounters a host of characters, both good and evil—which are all impersonated by Jeffrey Kuhn and Arnie Burton—as well as two very different ladies (played by Jill Paice): Pamela, an arrogant young woman who turns Hannay in to the authorities while fighting her obvious attraction for him, and Margaret, an unhappy farmer’s wife who helps him escape from the police.

            But perhaps the most breathtaking part of the show is the versatility that Kuhn and Burton show—the ability to impersonate a big handful of characters and the ability to change clothes in an extremely swift time manner. It’s quite awe-inspiring—especially the scene where the pair plays a total of six different characters in about 30 seconds while constantly changing hats explicitly which is also hilarious.

            Even from the bigger roles such as the “bad guy,” Dr. Jordan, the two also take on roles of two mysterious figures that watch Hannay’s apartment from beneath a streetlamp which they carry on and off stage with them as they come and go, to the policemen who are hot on his trails. Their reflexes and timing when swapping hats and roles before our eyes take tremendous energy, as can tell from the energy streaming from the audience, they’ve done a great job.