By SHARON EBERSON
Fresh but still glowing with period flare, and dare I say fun when the subject is murder, Pittsburgh Public Theater’s 50th season is off to a fine-tuned, stylish start.
The Jeffrey Hatcher adaptation of Dial M for Murder has quickly become a favorite of regional theaters since its debut in 2021, and no wonder. The script cleverly raises the stakes and updates the 1950s classic – mostly associated with Alfred Hitchcock, via British screenwriter Frederick Knott – by rewriting a tangled triangle as husband, wife and lesbian lover.
The roles played on movie screens by Ray Milland, Grace Kelly and Robert Cummings and are here inhabited by Josh Innerst and Brooke Turner as Tony and Margot Wendice and Shannon Williams as Margot’s lover, Maxine Hadley. Also for the Public, Michael Patrick Trimm digs into his role as the scoundrel Lesgate, and Ken Bolden has a grand ol’ time as Inspector Hubbard, a British version of Columbo.
(Images: Maranie R. Staab for Pittsburgh Public Theater)
The key on which the story turns remains at least as juicy today as it is was in Dial M’s earliest incarnations: The audience is always aware of “whodunnit” – and by “dun,” there’s infidelity, fraud, blackmail, revenge, murder for hire, assault, manslaughter, etc., etc.
Will justice be served? Ah, therein lies the mystery. Will the cast’s British accents hold up? They will, and very well, indeed.
The luminous Turner, as heiress Margot, reveals to mystery novelist Maxine that she has been blackmailed over a steamy letter from her former lover. Her seemingly clueless husband, Tony, is quickly revealed as a diabolical schemer, who has plans for his cheating wife – and her inheritance.
As Tony, Innerst is devilishly debonair, and his ego practically overflows at getting the upperhand when recruiting Lesgate for an evil deed.
It is the nature of the play that Trimm’s sinister role is limited to before intermission, and Bolden’s delightful Hubbard, the second act. But both Pittsburgh actors are a joy to watch at work.
Williams, out of Point Park University, is fast becoming a regular presence on Pittsburgh stages, following up roles for barebones productions and City Theatre with her Pittsburgh Public debut. As a writer who specializes in ways to commit murder, she is morbidly whimsical on the one hand, and a stalwart for Margot on the other hand.
It is Turner’s Margot who stands accused of the title murder, with evidence mounted a mile-high against her.
The ways in which the investigation unfolds in the second act has some head-scratching moments, as it does in the original Dial M for Murder, but there’s no doubt that arriving there is a fast-paced, engaging theatrical experience, seeded with humor and British charm, and directed with a sure hand by Céline Rosenthal.
There are some keys to the timing of the play – the title “dial” and Wendice’s telephone, a BBC Radio broadcast, the men in Fedoras. Without them, the play and its elements of crime, investigation and punishment, could easily be transported to the present day, and transformed into an episode of Law & Order – ripped from a particularly clever script, if not from the headlines.
Other retro clues include the well-appointed set by Carnegie Mellon alum Antonio Troy Ferron, speaking to the couple’s affluence, and the first appearance of Turner’s Margot seals the deal: She shines in a stunning rhinestone-trimmed, blue-gray tea-length dress, by costume designer Tracy Dorman.
in Dial M for Murder. (Image: Maranie R. Staab for Pittsburgh Public Theater)
On opening night on Saturday, there was audience laughter when I would not have expected it — a release of surprise at the manner of the murder, perhaps? That tells me not to assume that everyone has seen a version of Dial M for Murder, despite a story that has been around since 1952. ‘
I envy those newbies the further adventures of a show that obviously was ripe for this 21st-century version, produced by a 50-year-old company, at the top of its game.
TICKETS AND DETAILS
Pittsburgh Public Theater’s production of Dial M for Murder is at the O’Reilly Theater, Downtown, through September 29, 2024. Tickets: visit https://ppt.org/production/94310/dial-m-for-murder or call 412-316-1600.
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