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Regional Reviews: St. Louis Dial "M" For Murder Also see Richard's reviews of Topdog/Underdog and Tempest in a Teapot
And the bad guy here is very bad indeed, and played by Jordan Coughtry, full of ingratiating smirks and winks. But that's probably also as nature intended. His character, Tony Wendice, gives an off-the-rack performance of public school bonhomie, barely covering the stench of hate in a cuckolded husband–which also fits with the genre: the clever mastermind who cloaks himself in an off-key charm. Mr. Coughtry, as Tony, drops the psychological quotation marks in act two and seems a lot more natural, just watching as the others try to penetrate his scheme, and sometimes get alarmingly close in the process. Melissa Rain Anderson directs, and I guess I'm really just complaining that the actors don't somehow make Chekhov out of it. It is, quite intentionally, a stylish, murderous romp. Still, the two and a half hour play (with intermission) is so inherently great that even the first act's heavy coat of artificiality won't diminish it. Act Two keeps us on the edge of our seats, as Tony's wife Margot (lovely Jenelle Chu) struggles to understand something so strange that an equal measure of incomprehensibility gradually fills our minds as well. Margot has ended an extramarital affair with her American boyfriend Max (idealistic Jayson Heil), but Tony has secretly kept an incriminating letter that Max sent her at the height of it all. The vengeful husband has arranged a fake blackmail scheme around it. And yes, someone dials "M." And yes, the trail of the monster is filled with delicious twists and turns. Under the direction of Ms. Anderson, there's this whole giddy, wobbling sense of truth and lies jousting at one another, knocking them off-kilter in the second half, by turn, as Tony has to think fast on his feet before his scheme can come a-cropper. Max, a TV detective fiction writer, keeps coming up with alarmingly close guesses about Tony's conspiracy. And the American tries to come up with his own plan to exonerate Margot, who's on death row in the final hour. A strange emotional texture (in his scenes with Ms. Chu) undergirds the whole show, as the former lovers seem still very much in love, right under Tony's nose. A wily police detective (Eric Dean White) proves highly engaged, though he's so comparatively low-key and polite that it's hard to know if he'll be of any help at all. A clue so simple (in terms of plot) becomes the maddening key to it all in the end. The subtle light changes on stage by Minjoo Kim add a great deal to the mood. But for me, the best part in the play is the role of Captain Lesgate, the poor fellow who is blackmailed into a murder scheme in Act One. David Weynand is very fine as that character, his pleasantness curdling into self-hatred. And this Lesgate turns out to speak the same clubby language of deceit as Tony, when they finally chat in private. Bit by bit he's degraded, and drawn into a matter that will end Act One with a bang. In a great play, almost everybody goes through some hideous spectacle of destruction on stage. And here, Mr. Weynand gets the extra-spicy version. We find ourselves back in our seats and ready for Act Two with no stragglers left behind, for the show's gripping conclusion. Dial "M" twice: for magnificence and mischievousness. Dial "M" For Murder runs through October 13, 2024, at the Loretto-Hilton Center, Browning Mainstage, 130 Edgar Road, St. Louis MO. For tickets and information, please visit www.repstl.org. Cast: Production Staff: |
