New management promising new approaches is securely in place at Laguna Playhouse, yet the theater’s recent constant preoccupation with light-hearted spoofing of last-century whodunits, thrillers and detective noir continues to occupy this stage.
The tone for a skillful, though single-note adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s early career film “The 39 Steps” is set from the start with a tempo that shrieks madcap. A recorded sax, piano and drum play at a frantic pace, signaling the pell-mell order of the evening.
While the show is fairly faultless in its mounting and cast, the repetitious aspect of toothless hijinks on Laguna Canyon Road makes it just the latest dollop of inoffensive humor. Audiences may want more bracing material, as was found in September’s “Wild Child.”
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Jon Root, left, and Jeremy Webb perform a scene from Laguna Playhouse’s Hitchcock-inspired mystery comedy “The 39 Steps,” on stage at Laguna Playhouse through Nov. 22. (Photo by Jason Niedle)
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Jon Root, left, and Jeremy Webb perform a scene from Laguna Playhouse’s Hitchcock-inspired mystery comedy “The 39 Steps,” on stage at Laguna Playhouse through Nov. 22. (Photo by Jason Niedle)
“The 39 Steps” plot follows a familiar Hitchcock sequence: A wrongly accused, but unexpectedly resourceful man careens about the countryside, bumbling police on his trail, to sort out the real wrongdoer, encounter romantic intrigue and — key to this parody version — interact with many, many, many local characters.
The other three actors opposite this lead figure thrive on seemingly inexhaustible energy slipping in and out of dozens of lightning-fast quirky caricatures.
The performers are the vehicle driving this parody. A ceaseless pursuit of frivolous frivolity — not the staging of a thrilling thriller — is the goal.
All new to Laguna, crisply put through their paces by director Hunter Foster, this quartet of comic acting presences puts impressive physicality into play.
A breathtaking early sequence finds the four precariously hanging on to the exterior of a barreling train car. Here the actors’ rhythmic surging and jouncing, while they also flap and flutter coats and hats to simulate being wind-whipped, is a mastery of execution.
On the far end of action — if “tottering” can be called that — are the painstakingly measured steps taken by the world’s oldest, slow-pokey pair of be-kilted Scots. A determined trek from a chair to a nearby podium by one of them is as enjoyably compelling as the kinetic train sequence.
Actor Jon Root is ideally in place as focal character, Richard Hannay. Root’s leading man appeal — he sports a neat mustache he is quite pleased with — manifests necessary derring-do and we don’t question he will wriggle out of any pitfalls befalling him — like in a pointblank shooting where a bullet-proof hymnbook rescues him.
Ashley Margaret Morton, described in the program as “The Woman,” has suitable versatility playing a sequence of damsels in various degrees of distress.
She is, though not for long with that rubber knife in her back, an amusingly accented German spy fatale, then a desirous Scottish farmer’s yearning wife and an oh-so-proper Englishwoman — mostly handcuffed to Richard, generating sexual tension — who is there for him at the end.
As Clown #1 — not a criticism, that’s the credit — Jeremy Webb is a master at voicings. With a big chunk of events set in the Scottish Highlands, his variations on this accent is noteworthy.
Webb is an effective changeling, especially when called on to be any self-infatuated authority figure.
His very able partner in characterization crime is Jennifer Cody as Clown #2.
She is the lynchpin to the story as Palladium music hall entertainer “Mr. Memory,” and also shines as a suspicious (Nazi) party-hearty wife as well a wonderfully inaudible speechmaker.
Collectively the performers seem to revel in creating situational alchemy in almost improv fashion out of the intentionally lowbrow props they stagehand on and off a bare stage.
These include shoestring budget steamer trunks, window frames and chairs. A ratty, shredded bedsheet drop cloth is hung back of the stage, displaying projections that shift the settings and location panoramas.
Against this environment, quickfire costume changes take place in the wings while hats or wigs occasionally get doffed and switched out in front of the audience.
From the start, the foursome constantly break the fourth wall, letting the audience in on planned comic misfires — an intentionally late prop or badly timed smoke mix-ups — to underscore jokey intent.
The show might profit from some trims — or maybe in an intermission-free, 95-minute format? — but there’s energetic talent to burn on display and enough fun for a nondemanding outing.
The theater now heads into a four-month hiatus of shows of its own making before a revival of “Rent” arrives in April. A Tony-winning musical with an indelible score, this show gives us starving young artists and activists struggling against poverty, gentrification and drug addiction by becoming a self-made family and through creative dreaming?
Sounds like a necessary tonic for this venue.
‘The 39 Steps’
Rating: 3 stars (out of four possible)
Where: Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Rd., Laguna Beach
When: Through Nov. 22; 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Saturdays.; 1 p.m. Sundays. (Additional performances: 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12 and 19).
Tickets: $91-134
Information: 949-247-5787; lagunaplayhouse.com