THEATER REVIEW : Eerie Timeliness in Pasadena’s Successful Revival of ‘Murder’

An aging jock is accused of trying to murder his wife, and the police are accused of planting evidence. Has a familiar ring, doesn’t it?

We have heard it all before, in Frederick Knott’s 1952 crime classic “Dial ‘M’ for Murder,” which the Pasadena Playhouse has shrewdly and, for the most part, successfully revived.

Director Alan Bailey has made little attempt to underscore the eerie timeliness of Knott’s text. But then, why would he need to? The comparisons to the O.J. Simpson murder case become obvious.

The play’s villain, Tony Wendice (Neil Dickson), is a smooth-talking, likable former tennis champ. His beautiful blonde wife, Margot (soap star Fiona Hutchison), had a not-so-secret affair that threatened the marriage. The well-to-do couple have been trying to resolve their differences. But then Margot is attacked late one night in their posh London townhouse.

Tony even has trouble with pesky reporters, looky-loos and detectives, though there is not an impish houseguest in sight.

Given the play’s many parallels to the Simpson case, Pasadena viewers can hardly be blamed for releasing a collective giggle when Tony, facing the heat of a murder probe, protests: “I’ve heard of police deliberately planting clues to make sure of a conviction. I just didn’t realize they did it in this country.”

If not the stuff of classic tragedy, then, the People vs. Simpson may find its most fitting artistic analog in this devilishly clever, expertly plotted bit of crowd-pleasing suspense.

Hardly a whodunit, the audience knows almost from the outset that Tony intends to blackmail a small-time con artist (Michael Halsey) into murdering Margot so that he can inherit her fortune.

The fascination of “Dial” lies in the twists and turns that slowly unravel this conspiracy, and also in the tension between these characters’ rarefied British manners and diction and the monstrous betrayals that are thereby disguised.

Bailey, who directs efficiently if not boldly, has little trouble surpassing Alfred Hitchcock’s rather stiff 1954 film version, notable mainly for Ray Milland’s impossibly suave Tony. Contemporary allusions aside, this production gives the play the straightforward, thoroughly professional rendering it deserves.

One technical cornerstone comes from costume designer Dawna Oak, who adds a pinch of facetiousness in her re-creations of the bright, narrow-waisted sack dresses made popular during the ‘50s by Givenchy and Dior. And there could be few handsomer sites for a drawing-room murder than Gary Wissman’s set, with its sky-blue decor, ivory trim and elegant furnishings.

Dickson has wisely avoided trying to out-Milland Milland, and so succeeds in owning the role himself. His Tony is glib, boyish, haughty and convincingly athletic, with a palpable undercurrent of nervous energy. Compact and taut, he looks as if he could easily leap over a tennis net--or elude a dragnet. To this mocking ex-jock, murder is just another game.

Strong support arrives courtesy of the strapping Halsey, who brings out both the charm and menace of the pseudonymous Capt. Lesgate, and S. Marc Jordan, as the plump, sublimely skeptical Inspector Hubbard, who with a coy twinkle in his eye attempts to piece together the whole mystery. Michael Spound is an agreeable enough presence as Margot’s lover Max Halliday, an American TV writer, though at times he overplays the character’s gee-whiz innocence.

Hutchison, who bears a hair-raising resemblance to the late Grace Kelly, is something of a disappointment, if only because she has not found a way to convey deep emotion or irony in what is admittedly a passive role. It is a perfectly capable performance, though never an arresting one.

Making a personal dent on Knott’s warhorse is a difficult task, of course, especially when current headlines give the play an uncanny air of verisimilitude. But art has many advantages over life. Real murder trials may drag on for months, but with “Dial ‘M’ for Murder” we can get our crime-drama catharsis in just one evening.

* “Dial ‘M’ for Murder,” Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m., Saturdays, 5 and 9 p.m., Sundays, 2 and 7 p.m. Ends June 18. $33.50. (800) 233-3123. Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes.