About the Play:

The 39 Steps is a full-length comedy by Patrick Barlow, adapted from the novel by John Buchan and the iconic 1935 film by Alfred Hitchcock. Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python and you have The 39 Steps, a fast-paced whodunit packed with nonstop laughs, over 150 zany characters (to be performed with a cast of only four), an on-stage plane crash, handcuffs, missing fingers and some good old-fashioned romance!

The 39 Steps is a nonstop, hilariously irreverent re-creation of Alfred Hitchcock's classic mystery thriller film of 1935. Richard Hannay, a man with a boring life, meets a woman with a thick accent who says she's a spy. When he takes her home, she is murdered. Soon, a mysterious spy organization called "The 39 Steps" is hot on the man's trail. Hounded by police in a nationwide manhunt on foot, by rail and in the air, handcuffed to a young woman convinced of his guilt, he is the only hope to scuttle the spy ring's dastardly plan to smuggle military secrets out of the country in pre-WWII England. The Molière, Olivier and Tony Award-winning spoof takes audiences from a London music hall to the moors of Scotland at breakneck speed by a trim four-member cast, three of whom play a plethora of people preventing Hannay in his perilous pursuit to clear his name and save the free world. A riotous blend of virtuoso performances and wildly inventive stagecraft, The 39 Steps amounts to an unforgettable evening of pure pleasure!

The 39 Steps opened in 2006 at the Tricycle Theatre in London and in the same year transferred to the Criterion Theatre where it played for 9 years, making it the fifth longest running play in West End history. In 2008, it transferred to Broadway and has since enjoyed widespread acceptance among leading regional theatres, and is regularly performed in middle school, high school, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 1 female, 3 male

What people say:

"A wonderful triumph of theatre." — BBC Radio 4

"Theater at its finest… absurdly enjoyable! This gleefully theatrical riff on Hitchcock's film is fast and frothy, performed by a cast of four that seems like a cast of thousands." — The New York Times

"The most entertaining show on Broadway." — The New York Post

"Rollicking fun! Hugely entertaining!." — Sunday Times

"Clever, very funny, imaginative and brilliantly acted!" — The Guardian

"Dizzyingly entertaining show!" — Daily Telegraph

About the Playwright:

Patrick Barlow is an English playwright. The author of over twenty produced plays, he is best known for his hit stage version of The 39 Steps, which started as a book that inspired an Alfred Hitchcock thriller. He also known in his native England as an actor and comedian (Absolutely Fabulous, Bridget Jones's Diary, Shakespeare in Love).