Theatreworks: the 39 Steps January 21, 2011

Outwardly, 'The 39 Steps' closely follows the 1935 film by cinema legend Alfred Hitchcock, which was very loosely based on a 1915 John Buchan novel. But playwright Patrick Barlow created something different still for this broadly comic adaptation with a cast of four. A hilarious, high-speed spoof of Hitchcock's silver screen thriller, this irresistible Broadway smash hurtles a notorious fugitive and a spellbound blond from a London music hall north by northwest to Scotland's most remote highlands. Will they save Britain from a den of devious spies? An ingenious homage to the master's greatest films, it creates trains, planes, moors, and more in a wildly funny flight to the heights of theatrical invention.