After ten years of huge success with his Agatha Christie Theatre Company, producer Bill Kenwright has now launched a new company – The Classic Thriller Theatre Company – presumably to give the other murder mystery authors the same prominence that he has offered to Miss Christie.
Richard Levinson and William Link are the first authors to feel the benefit of this decision as it is their play, Rehearsal for Murder, that is being performed. You know the one, that “classic thriller” from the writers of Murder, She Wrote. Ok, so maybe it’s not what most of us would call a classic, as it previously only surfaced back in 1982 as a “made for TV” movie starring Robert Preston, Lynn Redgrave, Jeff Goldblum and Patrick McNee.
The story tells of leading lady, Monica Welles, who is found dead from an apparent suicide after the opening night of her, critically savaged, stage debut. Playwright Alex Dennison, who is also her fiancé, is left heartbroken. On the first anniversary of her death, he gathers the cast and crew from that ill fated opening night in the same theatre, supposedly to read through a new play he is working on but, as the reading progresses, the scenes seem to be uncomfortably close to the actual events leading up to Monica’s death. When pressed, Alex finally reveals that he believes that Monica was murdered, and that someone in that theatre is her killer.
Like the film, the stage production also contains some well known names and, like the film, that still doesn’t really help, as the numerous “flashbacks” to explain the plot, and the lack of any real character development, offer up a first act that plods along at a snail’s pace, allowing the audience more than enough time to begin to put the, often poorly delivered, pieces together. Luckily, the second half is far superior and delivers a very convincing twist in the finale.
Alex Fearns, Eastenders “baddie” Trevor Morgan, takes on the role of Alex Dennison and seems to peak almost before he gets started. His opening lines are shouted and he moves about the stage in such a frenzy that he fails to deliver a convincing character and his performance seems to fizzle out long before we reach the emotional highs that arrive at the end of the piece.
The whole plot revolves around the successful movie star Monica Welles, played by Susie Amy from Footballers Wives, but her performance is so far off track that is is very hard to imagine her as the instantly recognisable and unbelievably famous diva she is supposed to be portraying.
As the lead characters both struggle, it is left to the rest of the cast to provide as much support as they can, and some do try very hard. Anita Harris is surprisingly good as theatre producer Bella Lamb and Lauren Drummond works well as Monica’s understudy, Karen Daniels, with Ben Nealon delivering a solid performance as Karen’s ex-boyfriend Leo Gibbs.
The remaining cast members, Gary Mavers, George Beach, Georgia Neville, Gwynfor Jones, Alex Dee and, standing in for Mark Wynter, Peter Amory, all help to flesh out the piece but, ultimately, it’s very easy to see why this made for TV murder mystery has never really left the realm for which it was created and why it is, by no stretch of the imagination, one of the “Classic Thrillers” that, hopefully, this company will go on to deliver.
*** Three Stars
