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Murder Most Intriguing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria – Audience Knows Whodunnit

Jordan Wright
February 25, 2013
Special to The Alexandria Times
 

Richard Isaacs (Tony Wendice) and Jerry Hoffman (Captain Lesgate)- Photo credit Heather Norcross

Richard Isaacs (Tony Wendice) and Jerry Hoffman (Captain Lesgate)- Photo credit Heather Norcross

Had they updated the title to the more technologically correct “Press “M” For Murder” or perhaps “Text “M” For Murder”, we would have no less a delicious whodunit as the one currently playing at The Little Theatre of Alexandria.   That we no longer spin a dial to place a call, does not by one scintilla alter the pulse-stopping suspense of Dial “M” For Murder, Frederick Knott’s nifty psychological thriller.

Let’s start with the corpse, or rather not, it won’t factor in for a good bit, and it won’t be the corpse you thought it might be.  Perhaps we should name the killer, or maybe not, it won’t be who you’d expected either, even though once the action commences you’ll be in on the plot.  But that’s the fun part, knowing who did it when the police captain and the inspector clearly don’t have a clue.

Meet the Wendices.  A couple of bourgeois Londoners, he a former tennis pro with failing fortunes, she an unblinkingly beautiful heiress.  Tony (Richard Isaacs) has a plan and Margot (Jenni Patton) has a boyfriend, or rather ex, but why split pretty blonde hairs?  Isaacs plays Tony with just the right amount of smarmy snap while Patton, as the cool and clueless Margot embodies British reserve.

Jenni Patton (Margot Wendice) - Photo credit Heather Norcross

Jenni Patton (Margot Wendice) – Photo credit Heather Norcross

To delve into the plot in this review would most assuredly give away the clever twists and turns, and edge-of-your-seat sense of bearing witness to a murder when no one on stage, save the murderer, can guess how the bloody hell it was done and if the killer will get his due, and I won’t be the spoiler.  Suffice it to say that I heard the proverbial pin drop, so riveted was the audience.

Actor James Meyers, coming off his success in last fall’s Cantorial at LTA, gives a smooth performance as the American crime writer boyfriend, Max Halliday, and John Henderson is as sure-footed as a stalking tiger in the role of the gumshoe Inspector Hubbard.  But it is Jerry Hoffman’s stunning entrance and sly manner as the seemingly bumbling Captain Lesgate (Ah, fond memories of Columbo!), that will make you sit up a tad straighter in your chair.  A bouquet of kudos are in order for Dialogue Coach, Jane Waldrop, a true Londoner who trained at the British Old Vic Theatre School, for coloring their accents with the staccato patter of the British upper crust.

John Henderson (Inspector Hubbard) and James Myers (Max Halliday) - Photo Credit Heather Norcross

John Henderson (Inspector Hubbard) and James Myers (Max Halliday) – Photo Credit Heather Norcross

Even if you’ve seen Alfred Hitchcock’s film version starring matinee idols Ray Milland and Grace Kelly, a mere slip of a girl at twenty four when she made this film, and the mild-mannered Robert Cummings, you will be no less impressed with this tidy package of blackmail and red herrings.

Through March 16th at The Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street. For tickets and information call the box office at 703 683-0496 or visit www.thelittletheatre.com

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