[NEohioPAL] Review of "Dial M For Murder" at Great Lakes Theater

[Bob Abelman via NEohioPAL]

Great Lakes Theater's 'Dial M For Murder' fails to connect 

 

Bob Abelman

Cleveland Jewish News, The News Herald, The Morning Journal

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

It is no mystery that Frederick Knott's "Dial M For Murder" is more psychological thriller than murder mystery.

 

After all, in the early-1950s, this long-running hit at London's West End and on Broadway was turned into an Alfred Hitchcock film and the great Hitchcock didn't dabble in things that were not disturbingly psychological and fundamentally thrilling.  

 

Unlike the plays of Agatha Christie, where a body is discovered and everything about its demise remains a mystery until the end, Knott's "Dial M For Murder" reveals from the get-go that former tennis star Tony Wendice is planning to kill his wealthy wife.  

 

The playwright even lets us in on Tony's detailed and devious plans - the blackmail, the extravagant set up, the foolproof alibi, and the meticulous staging of the murder itself.  And then we watch it all unfold in the living room of the Wendices' sophisticated London apartment.

 

The only mystery is what the good folks at Great Lakes Theater have in store to keep the plot twists camouflaged, make the abrupt turns sufficiently disorienting, and serve up Tony's pathology in a fresh and interesting way.  

 

As it turns out, what they have in store is not nearly enough.  

 

For more of this review, go to:  http://www.clevelandjewishnews.com/features/great-lakes-theater-s-dial-m-for-murder-fails-to/article_eaf55c5c-c12d-11e4-939a-6bb73bd8a947.html
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