Mad Over Timeless Thriller ‘ Angel Street’

Since its U.S. premiere in 1941, Patrick Hamilton’s “Angel Street”--later filmed as “Gaslight”--has been a favorite thriller on the country’s stages. There’s good reason.

The play is impeccably crafted, with just a hint of things awry at the beginning, the action building suspensefully during one evening until its strong denouement when the loose ends are neatly tied.

The play’s main clue--the recurrent dimming of the gas lights in Mrs. Manningham’s parlor to encourage her suspicion that she is going mad--has been parroted so many times it might have become a cliche. Except that the original play has never lost its strength or period glow.

For the most part, director Beverly Turner’s revival on the Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage is a respectful and taut staging on Drew Otero’s evocative Victorian setting and in Donna Fritsche’s charming, period-correct costumes.

Mark Shuliger, as husband Jack Manningham--one of the most dastardly villains in thrillerdom--is properly charming and oily as he persists in finding the imagined flaws in his wife’s actions that prove she is slipping into insanity. Heidi Motzkus plays Mrs. Manningham with edginess and the sense of a woman on the rim of a volcano.

The only flaw in the staging is Turner’s decision to turn the suspense on too early. The dissembling opening moments, as Manningham suggests a visit to a theater to his wife and she girlishly bubbles at the idea, are cut short too soon by his too violent anger at another of her supposed lapses and her too overwrought cowering. The evil truth behind this picture of Victorian bliss becomes obvious before its time, leaving little contrast for the high-tension climax.

The evening is almost stolen by Peter Stone’s performance as the intrepid Det. Rough, who has learned of the situation and calls on the harried Mrs. Manningham with the story of the old woman who once lived in the house and was murdered for her priceless rubies. Stone’s sense of humor and his laudable restraint as the well-tempered detective give this staging its core.

Mariyah Montae also adds an authentic and restrained gloss as the under-maid Nancy, who has been patiently waiting for Mrs. Manningham to succumb to her husband’s plot so she can take her place. As the faithful older maid Elizabeth, Lee Anne Moore hits all the right buttons, but her overdone, grating cockney and her mouth unnaturally pulled down at the corners destroy her efforts.

BE THERE

“Angel Street,” Long Beach Playhouse Mainstage, 5021 E. Anaheim St. Friday-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Sunday, April 26 and May 3, 2 p.m. Ends May 16. (562) 494-1616. $10-$15. Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes.