Asolo Rep goes for thrills with updated ‘Dial M for Murder¨

Frederick Knott’s thriller “Dial M for Murder” is best remembered as a 1954 film by Alfred Hitchcock that starred Ray Milland as a jealous husband plotting to kill his wealthy wife, who he suspects has had an affair with his best friend.

Grace Kelly played the wife, Margo, and Robert Cummings played the friend, Mark.

Knott’s story, which began as a stage play in 1952, was updated and revamped by playwright Jeffrey Hatcher for a production at the Old Globe Playhouse in San Diego in 2022, and it has become something of a sensation at theaters around the country.

The murderous plot unfolds next at Asolo Repertory Theatre, where Associate Artistic Director Céline Rosenthal and their cast are relishing the twists, turns and surprises awaiting audiences.

“It’s very specifically a thriller as opposed to a mystery,” said Rosenthal, who directed “The Incident at Our Lady of Perpetual Help” and “The Lifespan of a Fact” at Asolo Rep. “The question isn’t whodunit, it’s will they do it and get away with it.”

In addition to those new twists Hatcher “added an enormous amount of humanity and touches,” Rosenthal said. “Margot is more of an active participant in trying to save herself. Grace Kelly is iconic, but in a lot of the film, she’s just there observing and reacting. Now, in a lot of ways, Margot is in the driver’s seat trying to figure out what is going on, how does this happen and how do you get out of it.”

Rosenthal’s cast features Tony Carter, a newcomer to Asolo Rep, as Tony Wendice, the husband who sets the plot in motion. In the original, Tony was a tennis player, but in Hatcher’s version he is a former writer now doing public relations work for another writer, Maxine Hadley, the new version of Tony’s friend, Mark. Another new Asolo Rep actor – Zia Lawrence – plays Maxine, a budding crime thriller novelist who outlines the reasons why someone would kill, all of which factor into the plot.

A gender-switching update

In this update, it is Maxine who has an affair with Tony’s society wife, Margot, played by FSU/Asolo Conservatory student Brooke Turner. Margot is eager to keep her relationship with Maxine secret because of how homosexuality was viewed in the 1950s.

Mark Benninghofen, who just finished a run as attorney Henry Drummond in Asolo Rep’s “Inherit the Wind,” plays the detective looking into the threatening situation, and another conservatory student, Mikhail Roberts, who also had a significant role in “Inherit the Wind,” plays the mysterious character of Lesgate.

Turner said Margot is still in the same situation as in the original play and film. “It’s still 1952. She’s a rich housewife who doesn’t have a career and is having an affair. What I love about Margot is her guilt about the affair but her innocence to anything Tony is doing. She’s committed to her marriage, the affair is in the past,” Turner said. “She has tried really hard to act like the best housewife she can be. She has relinquished that power in that scenario and that’s what makes us feel sorry for Margot. She’s stuck doing her best in this 1952 world. Her freedom is right in front of her.”

The San Diego Union-Tribune said Hatcher’s updates trimmed some outdated language and overlong expository speeches, but “heighten the stakes for the play’s characters.”

Lawrence describes her character as “whip-smart and intelligent and the most honest character in the play, deeply dedicated to the truth and excited by the investigation into the truth. She’s deeply loving and that plays consistently in how she shows that love. There is yearning that radiates through her, not only for her own happiness but for Margot’s happiness.”

A Hitchcock style

Rosenthal said the tone of the production will be familiar because Hatcher “is playing with Hitchcockian style. Hitchcock talked about how he didn’t need to have monsters and ghouls in his world. The scariest thing to him was human nature and things we could do with each other.”

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The production features costumes by Tracy Dorman, who previously designed Asolo Rep’s “The Three Musketeers,” “Murder on the Orient Express,” “The Little Foxes” and others, and scenery by Antonio Troy Ferron, who designed last season’s “Chicken and Biscuits.” Rosenthal said Ferron was inspired by the color films that Hitchcock made and how he played with color theory.

Turner said Patricia Delorey, the Asolo Rep dialect coach and a faculty member in the Conservatory, helped her find her British accent. “It was kind of interesting to trying to find where Margot lives. She is upper class but I had a tendency to sound more like the queen than a regular person, but once we started working it out, she became someone who is really based in London.”

‘Dial M For Murder’

By Jeffrey Hatcher, based on the play by Frederick Knott. Directed by Céline Rosenthal. Runs March 20-April 25, Asolo Repertory Theatre, 5555 N. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota. Tickets are $29-$95. 941-351-8000; asolorep.org

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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Asolo Rep stages updated 1950s thriller ‘Dial M for Murder’