Review: Alfred Hitchcock Presents - The Musical (Theatre Royal Bath)

Review by Daz Gale

⭐️⭐️

Few names have been as influential in the arts as Alfred Hitchcock, the legendary director who became known as the Master of Suspense. As well as his iconic movies, he was also known for his television series Alfred Hitchcock Presents ­– that show has now inspired a stage adaptation as Alfred Hitchcock Presents – The Musical receives its world premiere in Bath. With an incredibly high bar to reach to match the quality level associated with Hitchcock, would this prove to be a killer show or would it end up murdering the name?

Originally running on TV from 1955 – 1962 when it was then adapted to The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, Alfred Hitchcock Presents comprised of 268 episodes and this musical adaptation attempts to tell eight of those stories. As these standalone stories play out amongst each other, they all have one common theme – murder. With betrayal, blackmail and homicide, each separate story is full of the suspense that someone won’t be making it out alive, meaning that by the time closes, the stage is essentially full of corpses.

Describing itself as a theatrical journey through the imagination of Alfred Hitchcock, Jay Dyer’s book attempts to weave the differing stories together to create a through narrative and, though admirable in its attempts, it doesn’t quite execute this as successfully as hoped, resulting in a jumbled story that proves clumsy, chaotic and hard to follow. It’s main stumbling block comes from its tone – never quite knowing how much it wants to step into camp, pastiche territory, it simultaneously suffers from taking itself too seriously while not taking itself seriously enough at other times. If that sounds rather strange and inconsistent, you have stepped into one of the pitfalls with this production.

Having a director as accomplished as John Doyle at the helm of Alfred Hitchcock Presents gave me high hopes for this production but sadly this does not come close to the high quality you would usually associate through his shows. Though the show was originally a TV series, the choice to play this out on stage as if they were recording episodes of the TV series is a bizarre choice and the main reason the show falls as flat as it does. With the stage resembling a soundstage, the cast deliberately exaggerate their lines and look into fake cameras dotted around the stage. Where this might sound fun, in actual fact, it makes the show cold and disconnected. At one scene two cameras point on two cast members interacting with each other with their backs turned to give the impression it was being filmed. That is all well and good for the medium of television but here you have a real-life audience in front of you, seemingly being ignored. Theatre succeeds when an audience can connect with the piece, and with some of the baffling choices made here, they made it harder than they needed to and almost impossible to connect to.

It is this one choice that set Alfred Hitchcock Presents on a downward spiral. They could have embraced the soundstage aspect of it a lot more, but this would have been a case where live video (as overused and divisive as it might be) would have benefited the production. The stories used could have landed had more care been taken with telling the story for the audience present rather than pretend to be recording the television series – a choice that not only created a disconnect but also lost any of the stakes. A drum beat whenever someone got shot and the over-the-top way people die and then smiled as if nothing had happened felt tonally at odds with what we were supposed to be watching. Had they wanted to highlight the exaggerated nature of this, the ridiculous factor would need to be upped considerably, almost descending into farcical territory or even parody. Alfred Hitchcock presents is incredibly confused, never quite knowing what exactly it is or even what it wants to be, and so it is hard for audience members to go along for the ride as we don’t know what we are watching ourselves. Poor pacing is also an issue despite the relatively speedy runtime meaning that the suspense was not exactly killing me - something you would expect more from when associated with the Master of Suspense.

I went to a rehearsal of Alfred Hitchcock Presents a couple of weeks ago and was excited to see how it would translate when it was fully-staged, not realising I was watching it fully-staged. The famous “Man on a ledge” is standing on a ladder – without spoilers, the climax to this one story isn’t exactly astonishing given the fact you have to watch a cast member walk down the ladder afterwards. Yes, it is meant to resemble the magic of TV but by having the audience watch all of the tricks being undone, it ruins all of the magic and just feels rather tacky. This is such an easy problem to be fixed if the narrative could be rethought to lose the TV show and focus more on the stories being told for the theatre. As it is, the staging and design all feels rather subpar – wobbly doors and a leg of lamb that looks nothing like a leg of lamb may be a deliberate attempt to be charming, but to me, it just didn’t feel strong enough for what I expected this show to be.

The musical boasts original songs by Steven Lutvak, bringing a jazz influenced score to the story in a choice that does work to an extent. The problem is that, though the songs are pleasant enough in their own right, they aren’t exactly memorable. ‘Everybody Wants To Kill Someone’ is the closest it comes to a memorable number with an instant refrain I feel people will be attempting at their cabaret shows. Other than that, if you put a gun to my head and asked me to hum any song from the show, you would have to be ready to hit your drum as I would be a goner. The cast breaking the fourth wall with the opening and closing numbers feels apt, but doesn’t feel as slick as it should be -a common concern I had throughout the show. It is worth noting this is the world premiere of the show so nobody would expect to be at its best version just yet – it’s just a shame it didn’t feel as put-together and cohesive as I would hope at this stage.

If there is one thing Alfred Hitchcock Presents has going for it, it is its killer cast. Some of the West End’s finest have assembled for this with Alistair Brammer, Joaquin Pedro Valdes, Ahmed Hamad, Scarlett Strallen and Liam Tamne among the incredible talents filling the stage with life (and death, admittedly). The problem is they are all fighting for stage time in a production that resigns many of them to the side-lines for much of the runtime. You get little nuggets and glimpses of these characters then don’t see them again for a large portion of time, if at all, feeling like a waste of their talents. All cast members showcase their strengths in their fleeting moments but all lead to the frustration of not being able to show this enough – perhaps this is a case of less is more? Sally Ann Triplett is a fine example of this, scene-stealing when she is front and centre, but then never quite used enough. Similarly, Nicola Hughes has frustratingly little to do, though in the rare moments the spotlight is on here, she truly shines.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents certainly has a lot of potential. It just doesn’t feel like it is there just yet. More like a work in progress, those who are fans of the original series and Hitchcock in series will be surely be rewarded with a good evening but those who are less familiar may struggle to follow what is going on throughout. One of the musical numbers in the show asks the question “Where did I go wrong?” and that was a question I found myself asking while I was watching it. As an observer to the chaos, I could see what missteps they took and how they could steer things back on course, in my own humble opinion anyway. Though it is still enjoyable enough, it has a few too many flaws in it currently and certainly not befitting the huge expectation that comes with the name Alfred Hitchcock. A couple of creative tweaks could undoubtedly see this be a killer success but, in its current form, it is sadly more of a misfire.

Alfred Hitchcock Presents – The Musical plays at Theatre Royal Bath until 12th April. Tickets from www.theatreroyal.org.uk 

Photos by Manuel Harlan