A cad who married for money connects with a disreputable old college classmate in 1950s London to execute a nefarious plot. The cad’s winsome wife has found forbidden love with a woman who just published a highly anticipated thriller. Can a preternaturally observant Scotland Yard detective solve the resulting murder? Stories like these are my happy place, and they make me happier still when they are executed with panache, as is the case with Dial M For Murder at Northlight.
After Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation of the 1952 play by Frederick Knott premiered last year in a well-received San Diego production, theaters across the country have been mounting a show that is, essentially, delicious comfort food for theatergoers, especially those of a certain age.
Northlight’s production, ably directed by Georgette Verdin, is a bloody good time, full of double crosses, stylish trench coats, endless quantities of bourbon and potential murder weapons running the gamut from ice picks to scissors to silk stockings knotted into garrotes.
The show is brilliantly cast, with a standout performance from Elizabeth Laidlaw as Maxine, the novelist spurned by Margot (a bright-eyed yet anxious Lucy Carapetyan), who chooses loveless conformity with her husband, Tony (Ryan Hallahan). Tony’s a ne’er-do-well failed writer turned publicity agent for Maxine’s publisher, so he has to spend plenty of time with both women while plotting revenge.
Laidlaw gives off strong Patricia Neal vibes–a high compliment–and does a gimlet-eyed, acid-tongued job of unraveling the deadly scheme and then enlisting Inspector Hubbard (a wry, martini-dry Nick Sandys) to save the woman she still loves. All the while, Hallahan plays the role of shitheel with increasing gusto and then mania as the perfect murder plot he cooks up with his classmate Lesgate (Felipe Carrasco, so oily he’s liable to leave a stain) goes terribly awry.
This is not a groundbreaking work shedding new light on life’s big questions. It’s simply a murder story most deftly told. Which makes for an incredibly satisfying night out at the theater.
‘Dial M For Murder runs through January 7 at Northlight Theatre.
For a full roundup of reviews of this show, visit Theatre in Chicago.
Photo by Michael Brosilow
