Alfred Hitchcock Presents – the Musical: The master of suspense deserves more craziness than this

Telegraph

27-03-2025

Airing from 1955 to 1962, the US TV anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents famously began with the jowly 'Master of Suspense' greeting viewers with the words 'Good evening' and introducing that night's spine-tingler. This intriguing yet disappointing musical spin-off also begins with that phrase, but it's cosily imparted in a wry jazz number by the cast, converging in a mock Fifties TV studio. 'What makes an evening good?' they croon.
I don't know, but throwing a confusing clump of inter-cut storylines into a gloop of songs struggles to qualify as the right answer. The show's late composer Steven Lutvak – the New Yorker behind the Tony-winning A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder – apparently sought the blessing of the series' producer Norman Lloyd, but was met with a horrified response. Persistence in the face of resistance can pay off – witness PL Travers warily consenting to a stage musical adaptation of Mary Poppins before her death. But while this slick, big-budget venture attests to the talent of those involved – with John Doyle directing and employing a monochrome design faithful to the series' aesthetic – it doesn't convincingly argue the case for making the jump to tune-filled theatricals.
Indeed, if the show, with script by Jay Dyer, also an American, misses a trick by leaving Hitch out of the frame, it also oddly lacks the maestro's artful use of sound. Whether it was the frenzied violins in Psycho or the avian noise-fest of The Birds, the auteur's vision was allied to his nerve-jangling auditory daring. Lutvak's contribution, however, is almost lulling in its sweet, period-pastiche lushness, the lyrics sometimes pulse-slowingly pat too.
The show takes valid note of the fact that everyday passions can fuel crimes, and the aura of controlled charm catches the deceptive nature of affluent post-war American society. But it's too choppy, by turns earnestly heartfelt and lightly comic, for its own good.
I wanted more of the crazed edge that defines Sally Ann Triplett here as a woman loving the spotlight of police attention after drab years of being a babysitter. There's memorable operatic mania too from Scarlett Strallen as a housewife whose sure touch in the kitchen proves a recipe for lethal success.
Those two numbers take their cue from season 1's The Baby Sitter and season 3's Lamb to the Slaughter (derived from Dahl), and buffs may spot other tales from the TV series – here 'Man with a Problem', there 'The Woman Who Wanted to Live'. Other scenarios swim in and out of view – a botched blackmail attempt yields a droll number 'Where did I go wrong?', part-warbled by a trussed-up hoodlum – without the plot-focus being sustained long enough to engross us fully. The constant fixing of lights and cameras distracts from the action too.
A quirky summation of the series overall, factoring in the impact on popular culture – a touch of James Graham, perhaps – might have worked better. That said, a straightforward staging of choice episodes, with music kept to a tactical minimum, could work even better still; sometimes it's wisest not to think outside the box.
Until April 12; theatreroyal.org.uk