The 39 Steps
Adapted by Patrick Barlow
Directed & Choreographed by Ali Tallman
New City Players
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Adapter | Patrick Barlow
Director & Choreographer | Ali Tallman
Stage Management | Amber Mandic
Assistant Stage Manager & Sound Designer | Andrea Guardo-Cuao
Scenic Design | Michael McClain
Lighting Design | Annabel Herrera
Props & Set Dressing Design | Jameelah Bailey
Costume Design | Casey Sacco
Intimacy Choreography | Grace Cirillo
Master Electrician | Desirae Gairala
Technical Director | JB Green
Scenic Construction | MNM Builds
Run Crew | Summer Davis
Board Operator | Lonnie Donavan
Photography | Kevin Ondarza
Producing Artistic Director | Tim Davis
Co-Producers | David Christopher & David Munro
Season Producers | Community Foundation of Broward, Broward County Cultural Division
Cast | Brandon Campbell, Camille Schiavone, Rayner Gabriel, Kalen Edean
Take a Hitchcock masterpiece, blend it with Monty Python’s madness and you get The 39 Steps, a fast-paced comedic thriller for anyone who loves the magic of theatre! This two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning treat is packed with nonstop laughs, dozens of zany characters (played by a ridiculously talented cast of four), an onstage plane crash, missing fingers, and some good old-fashioned noir romance!
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"Comic theater is a challenging adroit meld of wry humor, physical slapstick, verbal timing, invisible stagecraft and a devotion to maximizing the opportunities for unscripted bits of business. All of this is delivered with an infectious joy in New City Players’ rendition of the ever-reliable The 39 Steps... The performances under Ali Tallman’s deft direction not only goes over the top intentionally but then stands atop the structure and twirls. The company seems to be having a hell of a good time and the opening night audience was perpetually giggling, grinning and sometimes stopping the show with applause... Tallman’s boundless imagination and endless energy merges with that of her equally invested cast who all indulge in the script’s specific invitation for the liberal unrestrained exercise of hilarity... Tallman’s Brightline express pacing keeps this slightly too long script moving pretty well. She allows it to breathe a bit when a scene contains opportunities for those bits of business to explore...The imagination and skill is evident from the opening scene in which four unidentified trench-coated figures flit in and out of a complex mimed ballet through the half-light, handing off a messenger case that we will learn has great import." - Florida Theatre On Stage: New City Players’ The 39 Steps Revels In Wicked Lampoon
"Leave it to New City Players (NCP) to find the perfect “new” (to South Florida audiences) play to open their milestone Tenth Anniversary Season...This time, advertently or inadvertently, they’ve managed to put their finger on exactly what our head-spinning, daily-news-cycle weary community needs most! Namely, a fresh-air burst of clowning around like we’ve never experienced!...NCP company member Ali Tallman, who’s also often credited around town as a keen-eyed dramaturg, completely aced her role as director/choreographer of this lightning-fast-moving production. Tallman’s “Note from the Director” is a deeply observant reflection (her inner dramaturg speaking out) on some of the play’s more serious underpinnings. I suggest you read it and ponder (maybe in a quiet place, once you get home). And, Ali, you certainly aren’t alone in that “familiar feeling” of a world plagued by rising fascism. In fact, it’s how I describe the storyline. [Ali] really did find the perfect cast." - South Florida Theater Magazine: New City Players’ THE 39 STEPS is an Insanely Funny, Clever, Hitchcock- Meets-Monty Python Comedic Masterpiece … And Likely the Most Fun You’ll Have at the Theater All Year!
"Who among us wouldn’t welcome a light, comic diversion from today’s grim headlines? Fortunately, New City Players (NCP) delivers just that with a gleefully chaotic, golden comic treat: the company’s endlessly entertaining professional production of The 39 Steps... Under Ali Tallman’s brisk, precise direction, the two-hour-and-15-minute production, including intermission, whizzes by like a bullet train. Yet Tallman wisely allows time to savor the show’s metatheatrical jokes and winking references to Hitchcock’s films. But you don’t have to be a Hitchcock devotee—or know a MacGuffin from a McMuffin—to enjoy the carefully choreographed chaos that unfolds onstage... Deft comic timing and seemingly boundless energy define NCP’s memorable mounting, thanks to Tallman and her abundantly talented four-performer cast... Tallman’s direction embraces the spirit of the theatrical clown—a resourceful, indomitable figure able to adapt to whatever curveballs life flings, unafraid to take risks or appear foolish. 'In the end, [Hannay’s] greatest discovery isn’t a spy secret, but a profoundly human one,' Tallman writes in her program note. 'Authenticity is found not in how we are perceived, but in caring about something so much, we are willing to look truly foolish.'... We know it’s make-believe, yet we happily suspend disbelief because the performers are so fully invested in the play’s joyous illusions.... To this critic, Hitchcock’s 1935 The 39 Steps, however famous, feels slow-paced and lethargic. How welcome, then, is NCP’s delightfully lively, brisk, and imaginative production of Barlow’s silly and suspenseful stage version. During a post-show talkback, one audience member declared that NCP’s production was “better than any Saturday Night Live episode.” That’s high praise—and well deserved.... Unquestionably, NCP’s The 39 Steps is a comic treat that invigorates and reminds us why this small company so richly deserves the first-ever Jan McArt Award... It’s a little early to think about next year’s Carbonells, but this production deserves such consideration. And just as Hannay hoped at the top of the play, a dose of escapist live theater is, indeed, the antidote for many of us who struggle to climb out of bed every day under the constant barrage of bad news." - Berkshire Fine Arts: New City Players Presents 'The 39 Steps': Hilarious and Energetic Production in South Florida
"Leave it to New City Players (NCP) to find the perfect “new” (to South Florida audiences) play to open their milestone Tenth Anniversary Season...This time, advertently or inadvertently, they’ve managed to put their finger on exactly what our head-spinning, daily-news-cycle weary community needs most! Namely, a fresh-air burst of clowning around like we’ve never experienced!...NCP company member Ali Tallman, who’s also often credited around town as a keen-eyed dramaturg, completely aced her role as director/choreographer of this lightning-fast-moving production. Tallman’s “Note from the Director” is a deeply observant reflection (her inner dramaturg speaking out) on some of the play’s more serious underpinnings. I suggest you read it and ponder (maybe in a quiet place, once you get home). And, Ali, you certainly aren’t alone in that “familiar feeling” of a world plagued by rising fascism. In fact, it’s how I describe the storyline. [Ali] really did find the perfect cast." - South Florida Theater Magazine: New City Players’ THE 39 STEPS is an Insanely Funny, Clever, Hitchcock- Meets-Monty Python Comedic Masterpiece … And Likely the Most Fun You’ll Have at the Theater All Year!
"Who among us wouldn’t welcome a light, comic diversion from today’s grim headlines? Fortunately, New City Players (NCP) delivers just that with a gleefully chaotic, golden comic treat: the company’s endlessly entertaining professional production of The 39 Steps... Under Ali Tallman’s brisk, precise direction, the two-hour-and-15-minute production, including intermission, whizzes by like a bullet train. Yet Tallman wisely allows time to savor the show’s metatheatrical jokes and winking references to Hitchcock’s films. But you don’t have to be a Hitchcock devotee—or know a MacGuffin from a McMuffin—to enjoy the carefully choreographed chaos that unfolds onstage... Deft comic timing and seemingly boundless energy define NCP’s memorable mounting, thanks to Tallman and her abundantly talented four-performer cast... Tallman’s direction embraces the spirit of the theatrical clown—a resourceful, indomitable figure able to adapt to whatever curveballs life flings, unafraid to take risks or appear foolish. 'In the end, [Hannay’s] greatest discovery isn’t a spy secret, but a profoundly human one,' Tallman writes in her program note. 'Authenticity is found not in how we are perceived, but in caring about something so much, we are willing to look truly foolish.'... We know it’s make-believe, yet we happily suspend disbelief because the performers are so fully invested in the play’s joyous illusions.... To this critic, Hitchcock’s 1935 The 39 Steps, however famous, feels slow-paced and lethargic. How welcome, then, is NCP’s delightfully lively, brisk, and imaginative production of Barlow’s silly and suspenseful stage version. During a post-show talkback, one audience member declared that NCP’s production was “better than any Saturday Night Live episode.” That’s high praise—and well deserved.... Unquestionably, NCP’s The 39 Steps is a comic treat that invigorates and reminds us why this small company so richly deserves the first-ever Jan McArt Award... It’s a little early to think about next year’s Carbonells, but this production deserves such consideration. And just as Hannay hoped at the top of the play, a dose of escapist live theater is, indeed, the antidote for many of us who struggle to climb out of bed every day under the constant barrage of bad news." - Berkshire Fine Arts: New City Players Presents 'The 39 Steps': Hilarious and Energetic Production in South Florida
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