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Political "Change" Comes to B'way

January 16, 2008 6:14 PM

ABC's Ronnie Reiss Reports: A politician standing at a podium talking about the need for change. Sounds like a typical day on the campaign trail.

But it's also a scene being played out each night on stage at Broadway's American Airlines Theater in New York City.

The hero of "The 39 Steps," a comedy/spy thriller/drama, which premiered Tuesday night, is a man falsely accused of murder. While fleeing from police, he finds himself mistaken for a politician and forced to make a speech.

So what does he tell the crowd? He talks about the need for change. Sound familiar?

"...So long as I stand on this platform," he says, "I am delivered for the moment from the cares and anxieties that are always the lot of a man in my position. Anyway, what can I say (pause), change, (pause), change is good."

The line gets one of the biggest laughs in the show.

The "change" line of script was added to the play by a producer just last week, we are told by a Amy Kaas, of the Boneau/Bryan-Brown, who represent the producers. The line was meant as a nod to all of the current presidential candidates who have been fighting to become the quintessential "change candidate."

"39 Steps" is an adaptation of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film of the same name. In her review in today's USA Today Elyssa Gardner called the production an "impeccably crafted trifle."

January 16, 2008 | Permalink | User Comments (0)

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