Displaying items by tag: Jeffrey Hatcher

Something wicked is winding its way through the velvet curtains of Drury Lane Theatre—and it reeks of roses, red wine, and murder. Dial M for Murder, the classic thriller originally crafted by Frederick Knott in 1952 and immortalized on screen by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954, returns to the stage with a razor-sharp adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher that’s as stylish as it is sinister.

Set against the moody backdrop of 1950s London, the production invites us into the polished yet precarious world of Margot (Amanada Drinkall) and Tony Wendice (Erik Hellman) - a couple whose marriage gleams with charm but conceals a darker undercurrent. Beneath the tailored suits and cocktail-hour smiles lies a web of betrayal, manipulation, and a meticulously plotted murder that threatens to unravel with every twist of the telephone cord.

Hatcher’s adaptation breathes fresh life into the suspense, tightening the dialogue and sharpening the stakes while preserving the noir elegance of the original. The result is a theatrical experience that feels both vintage and vital - a slow burn that simmers into a full-blown psychological inferno.

Tony Wendice, a former tennis star turned calculating husband, discovers his wife Margot’s affair with mystery writer Maxine Hadley (Alexandra Silber). Rather than confront her, he plots her murder with chilling precision, believing one perfect move will reclaim his unraveling life.

But perfection proves elusive.

When the plan collapses, the story spirals into a maze of blackmail, disloyalty, and psychological warfare. Margot becomes both pawn and player, navigating a world where loyalties shift, truths blur, and every silence speaks volumes.

This isn’t just a thriller—it’s a taut exploration of control, vulnerability, and the artful menace of manipulation.

Alexandra Silber, Amanda Drinkall, Erik Hellman in Drury Lane Theatre's Dial M for Murder.

The players are sensational in the dialogue heavy, quick witted, edge-of-your-seat mystery thriller. Erick Hellman delivers a diabolical and shrewd Tony, Amanda Drinkall is delightful as Margot and Alexandra Silber is a true force as Maxine. Johnathan Weir is also tremendous as sleuthing Inspector Hubbard while Ian Paul Custer is perfectly cast as the Tony’s patsy, Captain Lesgate.

Wonderfully directed by Adam Immerwahr in his Drury Lane debut, this production of Dial M for Murder masterfully marries vintage intrigue with a brisk, modern rhythm. It’s not just a revival - it’s a reinvention – and Drury Lane Theatre is the perfect venue to stage this mystery thriller. The bones of Frederick Knott’s original mystery remain intact, but the pacing has been sharpened, the humor dialed up, and the twists recalibrated for a contemporary audience.

Visually, the production luxuriates in noir-inspired elegance, its seductive precision shaped by a powerhouse design team: Paige Hathaway’s scenic work evokes shadow and intrigue, Joshua Schmidt’s sound design hums with tension, Emma Deane’s lighting casts drama in every corner, and Nicole Boylan’s costumes wrap the cast in mystery and allure. Shadow-drenched lighting carves out tension in every corner, while period costumes evoke mid-century elegance tinged with menace. The sound design - subtle yet insistent - acts as an invisible character, underscoring moments of dread, desire, and deception. It’s a production that doesn’t just tell a story; it envelops the audience in its atmosphere.

The result is a theatrical experience that feels both timeless and timely - a stylish homage to Hitchcockian suspense, reimagined with the velocity and wit of modern storytelling.

At its core, Dial M for Murder is a taut exploration of trust fractured by ambition, love corroded by suspicion, and appearances polished to mask peril. The play doesn’t simply flirt with deception - it dissects it. Every gesture, every line of dialogue, is laced with the question: how far will someone go to preserve their illusion of control, or to dismantle another’s?

Dial M for Murder is a psychological chess match where secrets are currency, gaslighting is taken to the extreme and duplicity is both weapon and wound. As the characters maneuver through layers of manipulation and moral ambiguity, the audience is left to ponder not just who’s guilty - but whether anyone is truly innocent.

Running through October 26^th, this is a highly recommended thriller that you won’t want to miss. For tickets and/or more show information visit https://drurylanetheatre.com/dial-m-for-murder/.

*This review is also featured on https://www.theatreinchicago.com/!  

There’s no mystery to “whodunit” in Northlight Theatre’s current production of “Dial M for Murder.” The audience watches a murder planned, while also being privy to the motivations of all the major characters. But there is plenty of suspense and intrigue as we watch Inspector Hubbard (Nick Sandys is spectacular) determine what happened. The suspense rests on whether his detective skills and penetrating questions will unravel the events the audience has witnessed, allowing the perpetrator to be caught.

Among perennial stage favorites, “Dial M for Murder” has seen multiple live and film versions - perhaps most notably Alfred Hitchcock’s noirish 1954 version - and always keeps audiences enthralled. It originated as a 1952 BBC teleplay. The Northlight Theatre production represents a well-written update, from a 2022 adaptation by Jeffrey Hatcher (endorsed by the estate of the original author, Frederick Knott).

Set in Britain, the story centers around wealthy heiress Margot (Lucy Carapetyan) and her fortune-hunting husband Tony (Ryan Hallahan is excellent) who freely admits to his grifter confidant Lesgate (Felipe Carrasco is suitably sleazy) that he married not for love, but money. Tony lives the highlife courtesy of his wife Margot, far beyond his means as a lowly book editor.

Enter Maxine (Elizabeth Laidlaw in a perfect performance), a murder mystery author, and Tony’s client at the publishing house. We soon learn something more about her relationship with Margot, the condition around which the plot turns.

Directed by Georgette Verdin, who maintains precise timing so necessary for the action, “Dial M for Murder receives the high production values that Northlight Theatre reliably delivers. The mid-century modern furnishings (Mara Zinky for set design) are exquisite, as are the couturier gowns (Raquel Adorno for costume design) in which women of Margot’s station dress for cocktails before dinner.

There were just a couple rough edges in the production. Overall, the adopted English accents weren’t finely honed, and our Midwest nasal overtones came through in most characters. This was all the more evident when the redeeming exception of Sandys’s Detective Hubbard, on whose role the play’s power rests. His British English was flawless (Sandys was born in Coventry, England), and his trained voice seemed to fill the theater space effortlessly. Sandys also seemed to be wearing his natural hair, which fit the part; the other hairstyles looked like they had a little too much help from the make-up department, and were distracting.

Those minor quibbles aside, this is an excellent staging of an intriguing and suspenseful murder saga, and “Dial M for Murder” is certain to leave you satisfied. Its run has already been extended through January 7 at Northlight Theatre in Skokie.