Four actors, 100-plus characters add up to '39 Steps'

Call "Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps" the little hit show that could. With just four actors, the show conjures up more than 100 characters to pay comic homage to film director Alfred Hitchcock's 1935 spy caper of the same name.

"The 39 Steps" is still running in London after winning the 2007 Olivier Award for Best Comedy. It is also running off-Broadway in New York after winning two Tony Awards during its two-year Broadway run.

Now "The 39 Steps" is finishing up its first North American tour with a two-week run at Chicago's Bank of America Theatre before closing up shop in June in Baltimore. Adapted for the stage by Patrick Barlow and director Maria Aitkin, "The 39 Steps" focuses on the narrow escapes of the dashing Richard Hannay, a man who is framed for murder by a network of dastardly spies.

But for all the action onstage, the real workout for "The 39 Steps" happens behind the scenes. At least that's according to Claire Brownell, an actress in the tour.

"Backstage we have five dressers and one wig person, who as soon as we come offstage they're taking off one layer of clothing and putting on the next one," Brownell said. "And generally while they're doing that, I'm changing wigs and all of my makeup and taking off my shoes and stepping into new shoes at the same time. The action offstage is just as fast onstage, but we're quiet."

Though the cast is small for "The 39 Steps," touring the show has been a challenge since everything is timed so exactly. Every new city means a new theater and a new local backstage crew that has to adapt immediately.

"The first night we're in town, we get to the theater two hours before and (the crew) have to learn all the very fast costume changes from our wardrobe supervisor," said Scott Parkinson, a former Chicago actor who had a 12-year career here before moving to New York. Luckily for Parkinson, "the crews have been really great wherever we've gone."

"There's a sequence at the end of the play where I have to change characters about four times in the space of maybe four or five minutes - so I have three people who are whipping things off me, whipping things onto me as I'm running back onstage doing a little bit of a scene and then running off and doing the same thing again."

The differing audience reactions have been a compelling aspect of touring "The 39 Steps" for both Brownell and Parkinson, particularly in Los Angeles where all the stage versions of Hitchcock film techniques got an enormous response.

"The show really isn't dependent upon your knowledge of Hitchcock," Brownell said. "It's just another layer that if you get it, it's even more delightful."

"What's great about 'The 39 Steps' is that it appeals to audiences of all ages," Parkinson said. "The physical comedy is just so timeless that even kids today really respond to it, and I think people of my generation respond to it because there's sort of a postmodern deconstructive element to it in terms of what the show is doing, and then older people love it because they grew up with Hitchcock and they're aware of where this all came from. It's just a fun theatrical evening."