Lyric's "Murder": Twelve Suspects Walk into a Car

Remo Airaldi & Will McGarrahan in "Murder on the Orient Express"
(photo: Mark S. Howard)



Well, make that eight suspects walk into a pullman car. The self-appointed jury of twelve first seen in the iconic novel by Agatha Christie and seen subsequently on several movie and TV screens over the years has been reduced to eight (thus canceling out Christie's clever allusion to a jury of one's peers); hence the current stage adaptation by Ken Ludwig (“at the request of the Christie estate”) of Murder on the Orient Express , now being produced by Lyric Stage Company, has already lowered expectations somewhat. This is not necessarily a bad thing, since anyone who has seen any of the more successful iterations of this concept might not want to revisit an exact reenactment of the popular story with a full dozen backstories. Yet it's actually hard to envision a potential audience member out there who hasn't already experienced the absurdly coincidental tales of the interrelated passengers who all happen to find themselves on the same track at the same time, or the clever twist at the end, which was, and continues to be, literally unforgettable . That said, this offering, Directed by Spiro Veloudos, makes up for its possible element of real mystery with a chance to see some local actors theatrically strut their shtick.

The Cast of "Murder on the Orient Express"
(photo: Mark S. Howard)

And strut they do, as the famed Orient Express train is trapped by an avalanche in a snowstorm shortly after midnight. As the script puts it, “And so it begins”. In no time at all, an American tycoon is suddenly found murdered in a compartment which is locked from inside. Among the other passengers and crew are eight potential suspects, all of whom have ironclad alibis (and motives). By chance or by choice (Agatha Christie's, that is), it just so happens that one of the passengers aboard the train is none other than the justly famed Belgian private detective Hercule Poirot (Remo Airaldi). It is his role to interrogate and investigate the Conductor Michel (Scot Colford, who also plays the Head Waiter), Princess Dragomiroff (Sarah deLima), Helen Hubbard (Kerry A. Dowling), Greta Ohlsson (Marge Dunn), Monsieur Bouc (Will McGarrahan), Colonel Arbuthnot (Davron S. Monroe, who also plays Rachett), Hector MacQueen (Michael John Ciszewski), Countess Andrenyi (Celeste Oliva), and Mary Debenham (Rosa Procaccino). One semi-spoiler: the Butler didn't do it (seeing as there isn't one). But the heavily expository nature of most of the entire first act doesn't help; it was disorienting. Some jokes fit, some do not, and some arrive overdone (three times we're told Poirot is Belgian, not French). Fortunately, the overly familiar plot becomes less involving than the appreciation of the acting chops on display as well as the creative contributions.

The Cast of "Murder on the Orient Express"
(photo: Mark S. Howard)

On that creative side, the Scenic Design is by Brynna Bloomfield (serviceable and clever but not nearly as posh as the real Orient Express, which the script extols as a “legend”), with Costume Design by Gail Astrid Buckley (becoming threads from the period, which is 1934), effective film noir-ish Lighting Design by Scott Clyve, Sound Design and Original Music by Dewey Dellay (with some snippets from Anything Goes, and Flight of the Bumblebee as well as Chattanooga Choo-Choo) and fluid (in fact, constant) Projection Design by Seaghan McKay. They're the true suspects in this melding of art deco and film noir. The Direction by Veloudos is solid, especially in the second act, and the acting turns are universally tantalizing, with standouts from Airaldi, Dowling and McGarrahan in the meatier roles. It's also the screen debut (no, that's not a typo) in a brief role by young actress Josie Chapuran as Daisy Armstrong.

The Cast of "Murder on the Orient Express"
(photo: Mark S. Howard)

Whodunnit? Or who didn't? Did he/she deserve it, and does it really matter? Find out who, what, where and most of all why. In the beginning, the script proclaims that “If you break the rules, you pay the price”; in the end, it was “all about justice”, and “doing the right thing”.

It's now deducible at Lyric Stage Company through December 22^nd. And oh, what a cast of characters to suspect!