Review: Alfred Hitchcock presents – The Musical, Theatre Royal Bath – ‘A lot of fun and a cracking night out’

In the ‘50s and ‘60s, US TV channels CBS and NBC ran seven series of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, tight, artful 30-minute murder stories. The theme music is known even to those who never saw the show (Gounod’s Funeral March of a Marionette – look it up!).

This show is an inspiring homage to these grim tales about the darkest corners lurking inside everyday folk.

Dyer and Lutvak’s musical is a lot of fun and a great night out. The cast, band, directing, set, costume, movement are all superb.

Scarlett Strallen as Mary and Sally Ann Triplett as Lottie Croakem

Again and again, I marvelled at the cast’s ability to belt out a complicated (and fun) tune, making every word completely clear, delivering a story – almost always wittily (and if not wittily, with heartbreaking pathos) – while pulling the whole auditorium into the unfolding human dramas.

Especially noteworthy – in an ocean of quality – were the songs of “star witness” Lottie the Babysitter (what a character! What a performance by Sally Ann Triplett!), and Nicola Hughes’ Eve, the glamorous mistress/con-artist/schemer. Believe me when I say picking two to name was hard – every piece in this show was enjoyable and impressive.

The band’s performance (only seven of them? Wow) was top-of-their-game stuff. Lutvak’s score is complex and a gorgeous listen, full of musical quotes, jokes and never, ever boring.

Nicola Hughes as Eve

But for me, most impressive of all –  not least because it allows all these talented artists to deliver such a show –  is the artistry in the writing. Not only is Jay Dyer’s book (musical-speak for ‘script’) funny, pacy and utterly absorbing, but he’s managed to create a wonderful mosaic or even a Venn diagram of some of Hitchcock’s stories.

Dyer has found the common threads in more than half a dozen tales and unfolds their rich fabrics before us, two or three together, side by side. Think ‘market trader showing you three gorgeous fabrics’ and you’ll get the idea.

And heck, does it work. It takes a great director (John Doyle), cast (casting director Ginny Schiller, with assistant Ben Armstrong) , score and set (Doyle, and David L Arsenault) to pull this off, and it goes down a treat. The audience loved it.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents – The Musical – full company

The result is a night of human longing, weirdness, hope, and desperation, seen from every angle and shot through with delicious humour.

Simply put, Alfred Hitchcock Presents – The Musical isn’t just entertaining but it captures the idea at the TV show’s core: ordinary people experience compelling emotions, and that anyone, for any reason, in almost any circumstance, is capable of murder.

There’s a lot of laughter, there are loads of twists (musical, as well as plot) and a hefty amount of talent. I’m a confessed musical-sceptic – and even I would tell you this is a cracking night out: Go!

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Musical is at Theatre Royal Bath on March 22-April 12 at 7.30pm, with additional 2.30pm matinee shows on Wednesday and Saturday (no shows Sunday or Monday). Tickets are available at www.theatreroyal.org.uk.

All photos: Manuel Harlan

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