{"id":8058,"date":"2019-07-09T06:42:42","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T10:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8058"},"modified":"2019-07-30T06:58:32","modified_gmt":"2019-07-30T10:58:32","slug":"deathtrap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=8058","title":{"rendered":"Deathtrap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A good many regular theater goers\nat some point will have seen Deathtrap<\/em>,\nIra Levin\u2019s supremely popular comedy thriller, which premiered on Broadway in 1978,\nran for almost 1800 performances, and was nominated for four Tony awards,\nincluding best play. Princeton\nSummer Theater<\/a>\u2019s production, directed by Annika Bennett, premiered July 4 (perfect\nchoice for making a bang) and will be on stage at Princeton University\u2019s\nHamilton Murray Theater Thursdays through Sundays until July 21.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s been so long since I last saw Deathtrap<\/em>, I\u2019d forgotten the story\u2019s\ntwists and turns and appreciated anew its delicious surprises. This isn\u2019t a\nplay where you want to reveal overmuch about plot except to say Sidney Bruhl\n(played by C. Luke Soucy) is a formerly successful playwright specializing in\nmurder mysteries. His wife Myra (Kathryn Anne Marie) is increasingly worried\nabout the lack of money coming in and the diminishing prospects for more. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a cleverly conceived play\ntitled \u201cDeathtrap\u201d arrives unexpectedly from one of Bruhl\u2019s former students, Clifford\nAnderson, it\u2019s almost too tempting. It would be Bruhl\u2019s perfect comeback\nvehicle, if only he\u2019d written it! Levin\u2019s dialog is full of jibes at the\ntheater world and its vicissitudes, such as when Myra asks Bruhl \u201cIs\n[Anderson\u2019s play] really that good?\u201d and he says, \u201cI’ll tell you how good it\nis. Even a gifted director couldn’t hurt it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDeathtrap\u2019s\u201d author Anderson\nappears (Dylan Blau Edelstein), a babe who\u2019s wandered into some rather devious\nwoods, as does a famous Dutch psychic (Abby Melick) living nearby, and Bruhl\u2019s\nattorney (Justin Ramos). The Deathtrap<\/em>\nyou\u2019re watching, just like Anderson\u2019s \u201cDeathtrap,\u201d conforms to Bruhl\u2019s favorite\nformula: two acts and a cast of five. All are fine in their parts, with special\nmention of Marie and Melick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The play takes to heart Chekhov\u2019s\nfamous admonition that \u201cif in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall,\nthen in the following one it should be fired.\u201d Guns, maces, swords, a crossbow,\nknives\u2014Bruhl\u2019s study d\u00e9cor is a catalog of mayhem, with even a pair of trick handcuffs\ndevised by Houdini. The set design is particularly strong, though the costumes\nwere puzzling. (What era?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When viewing a play forty years on,\nit\u2019s fair to ask, does it hold up? In this case, the answer is a definite yes.\nConsider Deathtrap<\/em> a solid choice for\nyour summer entertainment!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Princeton Summer Theater\nproductions are staged in Hamilton Murray Theater on the university campus,\neasily reached from New York by car or train. Take New Jersey Transit to the\nPrinceton Junction station, then the shuttle train into Princeton. The shuttle\nends a short walk from the theater, which is also walking distance from\nnumerous restaurants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For tickets, call the box office at 732-997-0205 or visit\nthe ticket office\nonline<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A good many regular theater goers at some point will have seen Deathtrap, Ira Levin\u2019s supremely popular comedy thriller, which premiered on Broadway in 1978, ran for almost 1800 performances, and was nominated for four Tony awards, including best play. … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8059,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Deathtrap - a perfect summer entertainment. This classic mystery is full of twists and laughs. On stage in Princeton.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[272,3,104,147],"tags":[1594,1595,1587],"class_list":["post-8058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedy","category-mystery","category-the-morgue","category-theater","tag-deathtrap","tag-ira-levin","tag-princeton-summer-theater"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Deathtrap.jpg?fit=1280%2C853&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-25Y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8058"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8060,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8058\/revisions\/8060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}