STAGE WEST: "North by Northwest" at the Old Globe

Danny Collins and Patrycja Kujawska in "North by Northwest."                           Photo by Rich Soublet II

            When I heard someone had adapted Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller “North by Northwest” for the stage the first thing that went through my mind was: How the hell are they going to do the killer crop-dusting plane scene in a theater? To me, the whole credibility of any “North by Northwest” on the stage would hinge on pulling off for a different medium the most famous action sequence in the 1959 film.
            Now that I’ve seen “North by Northwest” onstage -- written, conceived and adapted by Emma Rice -- I can say “Congratulations. You did it.” The scene in which that plane swoops down over a cornfield and tries to rub out wronged man Roger Thornhill is the best invention of the play. I won’t give away how it’s depicted but happily it’s not accomplished with puppets or balsa-wood airplanes.
            I am a Hitchcock devotee and “North by Northwest” is my personal favorite of all his films. It’s clever, it’s witty, it’s beautifully photographed. The Bernard Hermann score is classic. The script by Ernest Lehman is wry, intelligent and by the standards of so-called spy movies unconvoluted. It’s anchored by Cary Grant, classy and glib and relatable as only Cary Grant can be; and only Cary Grant can wear the same gray suit throughout an entire film and still look unruffled. It’s got Eva Marie Saint as the antithesis of the usual “Hitchcock blonde” (in fact, the Eve Kendall character is one of the main reasons Rice chose to adapt “North by Northwest”). It’s got James Mason, who’s perfect as the erudite antagonist Vandamm, and a supporting cast that includes Martin Landau, Leo G. Carroll, Jesse Royce Landis, Ed Platt and many other faces you’ve seen in the movies over and over.
            Oh yeah. And it’s got Mount Rushmore.
            I recite all this to say that I feel proprietary about “North by Northwest” and I took my seat in the Old Globe Theatre on opening night with a definite “show me” predisposition.
            The good news is that Rice’s script is very faithful to the original film right down to using dialogue verbatim from some of its talkiest scenes, like Thornhill’s first meeting with Vandamm (at the time posing as UN diplomat Lester Townsend) or the highly suggestive banter with Eve in the dining car of the train steaming from New York to Chicago.
            But Rice doesn’t give us a carbon-copy, live-action version of “North by Northwest.” The production making its North American debut features audience participation initiated by ubiquitous narrator Katy Owen as The Professor, inspired choreography by Etta Murfitt and lots of jazzy music. The scenic design by Rob Howell including a sparkling revolving door seamlessly fosters the illusion of different settings indoor and out, so critical to the storytelling. Howell is also responsible for the costume design -- sartorially splendid and duly reminiscent of the Hitchcock movie.
            Returning to the music … repeatedly the major characters, especially Thornhill (Danny Collins and Eve (Patrycja Kujawska), are called on to lip-sync recorded songs, sometimes with Thornhill to a woman’s vocals and Eve to a man’s vocals. I’m not sure what this achieves other than to force humor into moments that are already humorous.
            On the other hand, that the characters break into elaborate dance moves here and there is a diverting theatrical device that neatly, if momentarily, divorces the play from the film – and everyone in this cast can dance.
            Hitchcock’s “North by Northwest” is 136 minutes’ long and though I love it, it feels even longer. This stage adaptation is about the same, but feels longer still. I applaud Rice for her fealty to the original, but it seems like a couple of sequences from the movie could have been excised with nothing lost.
            But here’s my one supreme quibble with “North by Northwest” the play, the issue I have that reduces it from being a thoroughly entertaining experience: The Professor character narrating is at the forefront way, way, way too much, to the extent that she distracts from the main characters and essentially hijacks the storytelling. Owen is quite funny and breathlessly energetic, but the character is too loud and intrusive.
            Few things bother me more in the theater than unnecessary exposition – having a character TELL me what I can already see on the stage. Yes, in this show some context is necessary in places, but do we really need to have the Professor describing how Eve Kendall places a cigarette between her lips when we’re sitting there, watching her do so?
            I can envision a production in which the narrating Professor isn’t there at all, to be honest.  
            Aside from the crop-dusting scene, the most memorable in this show is the choreographed romancing between Thornhill and Kendall in her train compartment. It’s sexy and balletic, actually an improvement on the close-quarters wooing between Cary Grant and Eva Marie Saint in the flick.
            Most of the seven-person cast at the Globe are returnees from the UK touring production of “North by Northwest.” The chief exception is Collins, whose Roger Thornhill is heroic part of the time, likably doofus part of the time. He’s an agile, rubbery-limbed dancer who’s also impressive running in place, a requirement of the part for sure. Best of all, Collins doesn’t try to be Cary Grant. I mean, who could be?
            The Eve Kendall written by Rice is not only smart and icy cool like the undercover agent in the movie but she’s also strong and empowered. Kujawska, who like most in the cast other than Collins plays multiple roles, is ideally suited for this more enlightened imagination of the Eve character. (She ends up being the true narrator delivering an urgent message at the finale, but find that out for yourself.)
            I really enjoyed Karl Queensborough both as the smooth and formidable Vandamm and, in a complete 180, in drag as Thornhill’s impatient mother. Try that, James Mason.
            For all its sight gags, high stepping and joking with the audience, this production does demand close audience attention for, like “North by Northwest” the film, it tells a long and winding tale. Those who’ve never seen the movie are freed from the burden of comparison but also may find the serpentine plotting a challenge. Fortunately for them, in Rice’s “North by Northwest” more than in Hitchcock’s the complex espionage is secondary to the antics and the set pieces.
            Hitchcock purists like myself may be inclined to nitpick but we need to remember that adaptations need not be note-for-note, that theater is an altogether different medium from film, and that there’s more than one way to tell a cracking good spy story.
               “North by Northwest” runs through Aug. 2 at the Old Globe Theatre in Balboa Park.