If ever there was a textbook specimen of the stage thriller, what Ira Levin called the “one-set, five-character moneymaker,” it’s Dial M for Murder. Frederick Knott’s 1952 favorite has been reliable hokum for decades on stage, and was made into a movie by Alfred Hitchcock in 1954, with Grace Kelly and Ray Milland. But now Arizona Theatre Company is presenting a 2022 revision by Jeffrey Hatcher, who also reworked Knott’s later hit Wait Until Dark in 2013.
There can be no doubt that Dial M feels a little dated; even its title refers to outmoded telephone practices. Perhaps because the era of the cell phone has rendered its plot mechanics inhospitable to updating, Hatcher keeps the play set in 1952. His revamp of Knott’s script is more about intensifying the motivations of the characters.
The story involves a plot by charming but heartless Londoner Tony Wendice to have his wife Margot killed. His reasons are mostly to get his hands on her money, but also because she’s cheated on him; she’s been blackmailed over an explicit letter from her lover, an American mystery writer. It’s the idea of somebody, especially of Tony and Margot’s social set, paying 5,000 pounds over a naughty letter that might seem a little quaint even in the 1950s, much less to a modern audience.
This, along with a few embellishments to give poor Margot a bit more agency, is Hatcher’s major alteration to the material (spoiler alert!): Margot’s lover Max in this new version is a woman, Maxine. And the potential consequences of this being revealed in the 1950s really do seem like a more serious scandal, for all parties, and might also further fuel Tony’s murderousness.
Whether or not any of this was needed for Dial M to grip a contemporary audience can be debated, but the ATC production, directed by Michael John Garces and playing through November 3, still entertains. Played out on James Noone’s set, a charcoal sketch of the apartment in translucent scrim through which the outside stairway, so crucial to the plot, is clearly visible, the story retains its tone of casual, almost nonchalant upscale nastiness, leavened with touches of humor.
The sharpest and most vibrant performance is from Lucy Lavely as Maxine, quickly engaging our sympathies with her brittle intelligence. Dan Domingues is odious but also amusingly harried as the frantic Tony — as he deals with unexpected complications to his plot, he’s a bit like an actor doing an improv exercise — while Awesta Zarif is quietly enigmatic as Margot. Aaron Cammack is serviceable as the shady Lesgate, and tall, gesticulating Peter Howard takes his blustering singsong over the top as Inspector Hubbard, but the audience responds happily to him. A good slice of ham needs no updating.
Dial M for Murder plays through Sunday, November 3 at Tempe Center for the Arts. Go to atc.org for details.
