

Roberts wrote the little music flourishes, which veer dangerously between major and minor keys, and wrote the eerie sound design as well, which evokes the mad howl of winter. Mangan is gracious and comical as the business manager of the rail line. And what could be more difficult than stepping into an intensely puzzling and mechanized work like this one?

And Webster University ensemble member Aria Maholchic smoothly stepped in on opening night to substitute for Janie Brookshire in the role of Mary Debenham, the torn, illicit love of the married Scotsman, Colonel Arbuthnot (brave and commanding as played by Christopher Hickey). And in this case, anything can happen on a train.Įllen Harvey is deliciously over the top as the outspoken dowager from the American Midwest, Helen Hubbard, and Janie Brookshire is the beautiful Countess Andrenyi, promoted in this version from drug addict to battlefield doctor and investigative sidekick. The year is 1934, right between the stock market crash and World War II. Over and over we lean forward, waiting for the next big reveal, in a two hour and fifteen minute magic act of great detective fiction. The unveiling of the railcars' innards again and again, and the strange fallible staginess of the passengers all provide a steady stream of "aha!" moments. The whole thing is (successfully) designed to trick us into a permanent state of revelation, to which we willingly succumb.
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Joshua David Robinson has his hands full as the off-stage dialect coach in a Baedeker's tour of European accents all-aboard. The stage is a fraught Barbie's DreamHouse of murderous clues, interlocking alibis, and high-style distractions. Samuel Ratchet (played with gangster-ish bravado by Joel Moses).
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The stage version changes the pool of suspects from 12 to eight, plus a Mr. But, strangely, the whole first class section happens to be sold out in the middle of winter on a legendary vehicle suddenly crowded with an international cast of characters. The tale is set in the dismal off-season for tourists traveling between Istanbul and Paris. Armando Durán is 100% made for the role, elegant and ferocious by turns, as the Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot. Michael Salvatore Commendatore is the designer of the lavish spectacle, and Tim Mackabee designed the dazzling train set, which turns the Browning Mainstage of the Loretto-Hilton Center into a great railroad roundhouse, once the train is revealed revolve-by-revolve (by revolve-by-revolve, and yes, my head is still spinning). The only mystery now is, how do you criticize a perfect show?

Sharif has mounted the whole thing like a fabulous jewel in her new production at the Repertory Theatre of St. Celebrated playwright Ken Ludwig adapted Murder on the Orient Express for its debut in 2017. And in Agatha Christie's most famous mystery, the world's greatest detective is also trapped along with the suspects, and tasked with the job of solving the murder. The world's most opulent passenger train is trapped in a snowdrift between Sofia and Belgrade when a violent murder takes place on board. Also see Richard's recent review of Grand Horizons
