39 Steps NYC Reviews and Tickets
Member Reviews (269)
See it if you want easy-breezy entertainment. Nothing new (if you've seen the movie), but cleverly staged w/good actors. Fun and fast-paced.
Don't see it if you want meaningful theater. 39S is just for the sheer imaginative recreation (w 4 actors) of a full, action-packed movie. Read more
See it if You like quick witted British humor.
Don't see it if you only like musicals.
Critic Reviews (16)
"It remains indomitably funny...This bare-bones production is as disciplined and as precise in its footwork as a 'Firebird' from the Bolshoi Ballet. '39 Steps' remains a gallant and giggly ode to make-do resourcefulness...The cast members are as crude and as refined as they need to be."
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"It’s a supporting actor—Arnie Burton, reprising his 2008 Broadway role—who really carries this welcome revival...It’s the silly stage business that milks the laughs. Shedding and switching secondary roles faster than they can doff or trade their cloaks and caps, Burton and sidekick Billy Carter really put their backs into it."
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"Author Patrick Barlow and director Maria Aitken have created a unique piece of screwball comedy to call their own...This loving sendup is part madcap romance, part mistaken-identity thriller, and pure absurdity...At times, it feels a bit like a backyard production from the neighborhood kids, but Hitchcock himself couldn’t have helped cracking a smile at the self-referential hijinks."
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"One of the funniest plays Broadway had seen in years is now majorly head-scratching in just how unfunny this mounting is...It seems that the show was rushed to the stage without enough rehearsal...the pacing is so far off, the chemistry nonexistent, and the campiness too big for a house of this size."
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"The cast is aces and the production is still full of funny delights, but while certainly an enjoyable diversion, '39 Steps' never builds to any real comic climax and, though never dull, generally remains on the same lightly amusing level. As foreshadowed in its opening scene, 'Something mindless and trivial. Something utterly pointless.'"
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"This is in every other way 'The 39 Steps' as it's been for the last seven years — clever (sometimes to a fault), theatrical, not especially Hitchcock — just more in need of a fresh set of batteries and perhaps a good kick in the rump. If this isn't ever going to be everyone's cup of tea, it would still benefit from going heavier on the caffeine and a little (or a lot) lighter on the milk and sugar."
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"A new production opened Monday with good cheer and manic energy...Director Maria Aitken makes miracles with the minimal scenery and few props, propelling her actors with astonishing fluidity...It’s good to have the looney clowns back."
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"This fast, frothy exercise in legerdemain is throwaway theater at its finest. And that’s no backhanded compliment...The actors themselves seem to be having a helluva good time. As does the audience. 'The 39 Steps' stands out for its plying of minimal resources to maximal effect...This show flies lightly into an ether of escapism."
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"The George Street production of 'The 39 Steps' is not quite as intoxicating or as maniacally inspired as the Broadway production but it is a great piece of theatrical fun with a cast you might easily want to take home...Their quick-change artistry is a running joke that never gets old."
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"I can’t think of a single thing about 'The 39 Steps' that will whip any seasoned theatregoer into a frenzy of hysterics...Lacking a ripe comedic target, they’re unable to sell 'The 39 Steps' as anything other than an elaborate time-waster that has nothing on its mind, even within the limited realm of frivolous entertainment in which it so shamelessly operates. No, not every play must say something. But must one with so much potential for originality say nothing with such dizzyingly familiar force?"
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"We laugh at theatre's inability to create realistic impressions of a steam train, a Highland landscape and the Forth bridge; and we laugh, too, at the playfulness of a production that persists in the attempt regardless...It's a witty, high-energy show".
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"The bowels of The Criterion Theatre was resplendent with laughs of all types. It is, from beginning to end, very funny...The acting is superb and the timing impeccable...If you fancy a spiffing, unpretentious evening out suitable for all of the family, look no further than 'The 39 Steps.'"
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"'The 39 Steps' is fun, fast and funny...'The 39 Steps' is a guaranteed all-ages good time running...The show clocks in at two hours with an intermission that sadly spits us out from a crazy, joyful, energized world for a spell before we can return."
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"The result is a brilliant, fast-moving spoof in which the entire company, remarkably only four actors, entertain us all hugely with great skill and real wit...'The Thirty-Nine Steps' now thrives on the deepest stage in London, an appropriate setting for mystery and intrigue."
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"'The 39 Steps' somehow manages to combine spies, shadow puppets, death-defying feats of escape and not so staggering special effects. For some reason it really works. The production is silly in the very best sense of the word and if Monty Python style humour tickles your funny bone you are in for a treat! This fast paced spoof spy thriller makes for a jolly good evening!"
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"The point's to spin the straw of theatrical mediocrity into gold standard comedy, and to watch clowns Rupert Degas and Simon Gregor playing four people at once in a flying frenzy of wigs and accents is one of many highlights. If Buchan had ever done anything as girlie as giggle, surely he would have done it here."
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