Words by Melissa Blease
You hear those sardonic, plummy East End vowels and you know exactly what’s to come: Alfred Hitchcock – the English film director widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of modern cinema – is introducing another bite-sized, murderously thrilling spine-tingler, made for 1950s/60s TV audiences, made for titillation. And now, it’s the first line uttered in Alfred Hitchcock presents – The Musical, currently celebrating its world premiere in Bath.
Jay Dyer (book) and the late Steven Lutvak (original score) took inspiration from multiple half-hour installments of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents TV shows to galvanize this ambitious new production. A promising premise? Tick. High production values? Tick. An ensemble cast of musical theatre superstars? Ooh, big tick! A coherent narrative? Hmmm; this is where the plot thickens… without reaching boiling point.
“What makes a story work?” the cast continue to croon in the jazz-laden opening number, set against a 1950s TV studio backdrop. Hitchcock knew the answer to that question very well: nerve-jangling suspense; edgy anticipation; dark, psychologically complex characters; the double-bluff plot twist; the triple-whammy revelation – classic, unforgettable, iconic.
What would Hitchcock make, then, of this array of distinctly undastardly domestic murders committed by a role call of archetypal murderers (a hysterical housewife, an escaped convict, a disgruntled divorcee, a textbook vamp, a downtrodden babysitter, et al) all randomly tossed together in a loosely-crocheted rag-bag rug of mismatched threads?
The cast excel at doing their very best with what they’ve got to work with, most notably Scarlett Strallen’s desperate housewife Mary, Nicola Hughes’ va-va-voom femme fatale Eve and Sally Ann Triplett’s remarkable double-up as both nutty babysitter Lottie and demented homeowner Sadie. There’s a promisingly uplifting number involving a duet between two policemen too (sorry for the lack of character/context here but by this point I was finding it difficult to keep up with the who/where/when), the whizz-bang, scene/set-shifting choreography is slick and impressive throughout and there are smatterings of devilish wit in the directorial details. But overall, it takes itself too seriously to move much beyond quirky pastiche: too overworked to work well, too well meaning to mean much… and too self-consciously urbane to not even give the man who inspired the whole homage his cameo.
Eventually, the monochrome tones (black and white TV, right?), the convoluted plots (where did the random gay couple fit in?) and the cluttered run of non-climactic climaxes (who cares who pushed who off the top of the building?) serve to create little more than a holding pattern until curtain call. Good evening? The jury on this particular case is out.
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Musical is at Theatre Royal Bath until 12 April. theatreroyal.org.uk
Photo credits: Manuel Harlan
