“Alfred Hitchcock Presents – The Musical”, Theatre Royal Bath
Simon Thomas in Southwest England
29 March 2025
Turning well-loved films into stage musicals has been a thing for some time now. Doing the same with 268 episodes of a long-running TV series, which Alfred Hitchcock Presents – The Musical now premiering at Theatre Royal Bath attempts, is altogether more ambitious. Of course that’s not exactly what book writer Jay Dyer and composer Steven Lutvak have done. They’ve focused on a generous handful of favourite episodes, although I suspect there are fleeting references to other stories too, something that will pass over the heads of non-aficionados.
Photo credit: Manuel Harlan.
Lutvak, who sadly died two years ago, has provided a driving jazz-infused score but one can’t help feeling that the jaunty theme tune to the TV show (composed in 1872 by none other than the great French opera composer Charles Gounod) makes the most memorable contribution. Lutvak’s music is in-yer-face and largely formulaic, including everything that a great musical theatre score should have, but it never quite convinces. It’s well-crafted (as is Dyer’s sometimes witty book) but hardly inspired. He is best remembered for winning a raft of prizes, including a Tony, for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder on Broadway in 2014. That title could apply equally well to the present show.
Having multiple story lines, some of which go nowhere (what was the Lottie Croakham section about?) makes for a disparate and sometimes frustrating evening. The seasoned cast includes Scarlett Strallen, Sally Ann Triplett, and Alistair Brammer, who was a notable Chris in a recent revival of Miss Saigon, and they are part of a strong and experienced ensemble. Nicola Hughes, who scored a significant hit on this stage as The Witch in Terry Gilliam’s production of Into the Woods a couple of years ago, is back in quivering femme fatale mode. They belt out the numbers as though this was the greatest musical ever written, which is commendable but, if anything, shows up the weaknesses of the material.
John Doyle, with a track record as long as your arm, directs with characteristic dash and verve. He’s been producing exemplary work in the theatre for a long time now, including in the West End and on Broadway. He did his best with another below-par musical Road Show, a late offering by the great Stephen Sondheim, at the Menier Chocolate Factory (as well as in New York) when he threw everything at it. He does the same with Alfred Hitchcock Presents – The Musical with similar less-than-satisfactory results through no fault of his.
One particularly eye-catching piece of staging has two cars from different storylines pulling up alongside each other at traffic lights, with an unwitting motorcycle cop between them and a trussed-up hoodlum stashed away in one of the trunks. It’s an effective response to a demanding stage direction and the production is never less than inventive.
One of the best-known tales from the series, which ran on TV from the mid-fifties into the sixties, is based on a Roald Dahl short story which later turned up in Tales of the Unexpected on ITV. Strallen plays the role originated by Hitchcock favourite Barbara Bel Geddes of a housewife who wallops her straying husband with a hunk of meat and serves the murder weapon up to the investigating cops. It’s an effective storyline that is unfortunately preceded by a long-winded and nonsensical prelude where Strallen bakes a cake for little apparent reason.
Other stories that intertwine are about a murderous felon on the run, a husband and his mistress held up by the aforementioned hoodlum, an insurance investigator who is outwitted by a grieving mother, a would-be bride stymied by her oppressive mother, and a cop trying to rescue a suicide from a rooftop. Twists abound and it’s a dizzying display of storytelling that is not fully digestible.
As co-designer, Doyle (with David L. Arsenault) effectively create a fifties atmosphere with adaptable sets and ever-present TV camera and sound boom. Costumes by Jonathan Lipman and make-up by Sam Cox are excellent and contribute to an authentic Hitchcockian feel. A long-term collaborator with Doyle, Music Supervisor Catherine Jayes directs a punchy seven-person offstage band.
Some recent Bath productions have gone on to enjoy West End runs, including The Score with Brian Cox which will be followed at Theatre Royal Haymarket by the excellent The Deep Blue Sea starring Tamsin Greig. Whether Alfred Hitchcock Presents – The Musical joins them is a matter of suspense.
