A jazz virtuoso couldn't have improvised much better than Tony Wendice, a dapper Londoner married to fashionable socialite Margot Wendice.
After his murder-for-hire scheme goes awry in "Dial M for Murder," Tony begins to inventively find ways to keep suspicion at bay. He is so good at making up alibis on the fly, in fact, that you can hardly blame him for taking sly moments to smirk at his own genius.
But Tony's self-satisfaction with his brilliance — and his confidence that the slowpokes around him won't ever catch wise — only heightens our interest to see whether he will get away with it or get his comeuppance.
We know how this story ends. "Dial M," after all, is one of the standards of the murder-mystery genre. But director Tracy Brigden's production that opened Friday at the Guthrie Theater is still thrilling, even after an exposition-heavy beginning that has a humorous cadence but is more workmanlike than witty.
Brigden's staging is detailed and intricate, and it is the execution of all these details that makes her version so stylish, taut and absorbing. "Dial M" has strong acting by lead actors David Andrew Macdonald, who is so devilishly magnetic as Tony, and Gretchen Egolf in an emotionally wrought and rangy turn as Margot.
These two stars evoke the memories of Grace Kelly and Ray Milland, headliners of Hitchcock's 1954 film. With her blond hair and red dress, Egolf moves between allure and vulnerability when we first meet her. Later, as her character becomes partly undone in a white nightie, Egolf plays Margot's vulnerability with expertise and aplomb.
Macdonald, who is putting on a theatrical master class, is damning smooth. His Tony is so charming and self-assured, you are conflicted about whether you want to see him get his just deserts or get away with whatever he's planning just because.
As they perform in Valérie Thérèse Bart's fashionable costumes and on Walt Spangler's period set that mixes Victorian Era luxury with practical urban elements, Brigden's ensemble never gets ahead of the action. We get to ride along with them as they uncover all of the intrigues in this suspenseful thriller.
Excelsior-based playwright Jeffrey Hatcher has cleverly updated Frederick Knott's script for the 21st century, turning Margot's ex-lover Mark Halliday into Maxine Hadley (Lori Vega). Hatcher has done a lot to make this chestnut relevant and contemporary, even as it remains a throwback.
And in changing the gender of the love interest in the triangle, he has made the show more relatable. Still, Tony is supposed to be threatened by Maxine in this version but that subplot seems a little dimmed. Tony, in fact, doesn't mind Margot leaving the marriage. He just doesn't want her money to leave with her.
"Dial M" is an intimate show with good history in the Twin Cities. Bain Boehlke mounted repeated edge-of-your-seat productions at the Jungle Theater over a decade ago. Brigden's production squeezes a proscenium staging onto the Wurtele Thrust Stage by opening up the sides, almost like taking off a horse's blinders.
Brigden's performers all deliver in this five-hander. Peter Christian Hansen gives a hulking turn as Tony's shady, name-changing college chum Lesgate. Vega's Maxine has perhaps the most fun in the evening. She gets to model a variety of couture outfits, and the actor slays in them.
Surprisingly, my favorite "Dial M" character is Inspector Hubbard. As played with sphinx-like cool by Brian Thomas Abraham, he draws you in by his curiosity. The inspector's questions land like elevators lowering onto stops in a subterranean garage.
There are always layers of questions below whatever is on the surface, and just asking them gets us deeper into the heart of a murder not so foul.
'Dial M for Murder'
Who: Adapted by Jeffrey Hatcher. Directed by Tracy Brigden.
When: 7:30 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 1 & 7 p.m. Sun. Ends Feb. 25.
Where: Guthrie Theater, 818 S. 2nd St., Mpls.
Tickets: $29-$82. 612-377-2224 or guthrietheater.org.
