Based on the John Buchan novel (1915) and Alfred Hitchcock film (1935) by the same name, 'The 39 Steps' has been adapted for stage by Patrick Barlow with great success. Since it's opening at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in June of 2005 the play has been performed in the West End (it is still one of London theatre's most popular shows), on Broadway, and in countries as far afield as Australia, Germany and Israel. The initial West Yorkshire production was in fact so successful that a revised version by Maria Aitken opened at the Tricycle Theatre in London soon after, and was quickly moved to the Criterion Theatre in the West End, opening there in September 2006. Broadway took note of the early success of the play and the Buchan/Hitchcock classic opened there at the Roundabout Theatre in January 2006. Awards soon followed - in 2007 'The 39 Steps' West End production was awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best Comedy; in the United States the Broadway version won two Tony Awards (Best Lighting Design and Best Sound Design) and was nominated for a further four.
Following the same general storyline as Alfred Hitchcock's classic, 'The 39 Steps' opens with Richard Hannay, a Canadian, taking in the skills of a certain 'Mr Memory' at a London theatre. During the performance gun shots are heard and the crowd panics; in the ensuing confusion Richard stumbles into Annabella Smith, who insists on taking him back to her flat for safety. Though frightened, Annabella reveals that she is in fact a spy who has been following an evil man with a disfigured finger who is plotting to steal top secret plans from the British military. Having been discovered as a spy, Annabella is now being tracked by assassins. During her story she mentions 'the thirty-nine steps', but does not reveal the meaning. Later in the evening, whilst Richard is still hiding at her apartment, Annabella is stabbed with a bread knife (one that Richard had used). As she lays dying she warns Richard to go into hiding; Richard, knowing that Annabella's apartment is clearly being watched, uses a disguise to escape the building and board a train bound for Scotland where Annabella's next contact is located. At the latter part of the journey Richard sees on a newspaper that he is being tracked by the police, accused of Annabella's murder. When the train reaches a station several policemen board and begin searching the compartments; in an effort to avoid detection Richard pulls a passenger - Pamela - into a deep kiss. Pamela, appalled by the stranger's behaviour, alerts the police to his whereabouts and Richard has to escape from the train.
Locating Annabella's suspect, the man with the disfigured finger, Richard tries to question him about the plan but is shot. The bullet does not penetrate (it is stopped by a prayer book inside Richard's coat), but the strange man believes him to be dead and flees the scene. Richard, completely unharmed, contacts the local police and tries to warn them of the man but they refuse to pay him any heed. Later, after a second chance encounter with Pamela (from the train), Richard is captured by spies posing as police and is held captive. Richard escapes once again, though this time he drags Pamela with him. Once in hiding, Pamela overhears a conversation between two suspect 'policemen' that confirms the story Richard has relayed to her. Richard urges her to go to London ahead of him so that she can tell the entire story to the police; once there they fail to take her seriously and instead use her connection to Richard to track down the fugitive.
Richard has arranged for Pamela to meet him at another performance of Mr Memory - Richard believes that the gun shots he heard during the first performance must be somehow linked to the plot. The police follow Pamela to Richard and capture him; at the same moment Richard realizes that Mr Memory is the link - his routine is actually passing on secrets from spy to spy. He asks Mr Memory what the thirty-nine steps are, to which the performer answers that they are a group of spies collecting government secrets. The man with the disfigured hand is also in the audience and shoots Mr Memory to prevent him revealing any further plans; Mr Memory however manages to relay the rest of the plot before dying and thus the mystery is solved.
Said to be a funnier, more light-hearted version of the story than Alfred Hitchcock's murder mystery, 'The 39 Steps' is presently taking bookings up until the first week of February 2009. The cast at present includes Martyn Ellis (performing as 'Man 2', the role originally taken by Mark Hadfield and later Rupert Degas), Jo Stone-Fewings (as 'Richard Hannay', once performed by Robert Whitelock and Charles Edwards), Josefina Gabrielle (as 'Annabella Schmidt', 'Pamela' and 'Margaret', all initially performed by Lisa Jackson and later Catherine McCormack) and Simon Gregor (as 'Man 1', which he has performed throughout).