The 39 Steps Eyes Off-Broadway Transfer

It looks like the long-running stage adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps is headed off-Broadway. In a November 15 interview with The Washington Post, the show’s Tony-nominated director, Maria Aitken, confirmed the rumors that the comedy thriller will move from Broadway’s Helen Hayes Theatre to an unspecified off-Broadway venue, “where my producers optimistically think it will run forever.” A production spokesperson declined to comment on Aitken’s remarks.

The 39 Steps is scheduled to close on January 10, 2010, after a 771-performance run at three Broadway theaters. The four-character play opened at the American Airlines Theatre on January 15, 2008, moved to the Cort Theatre in April 2008 and moved again in January 2009 to the Helen Hayes, where it will finish its run. It was nominated for six 2008 Tony Awards, including Best Play and Best Director.

Equal parts whodunit, espionage thriller and quick-change comedy, The 39 Steps centers on Richard Hannay, who is lured into a world of intrigue by a mysterious woman claiming to be a spy. When she winds up dead in his flat, he flees London with the police hot on his trail. The Broadway production currently stars Sean Mahon as Hannay; Jill Paice as Annabella Schmidt, Pamela and Margaret; Jeffrey Kuhn as Man #1 and Arnie Burton as Man #2.

If The 39 Steps transfers, it will become the second Broadway show this season to decamp to smaller, less expensive theatrical digs: Avenue Q moved to New World Stages in October shortly after ending its long run at the Golden Theatre.

"It's the oddest little show," Aitken said of The 39 Steps in the Post interview. (The actress-turned-director is currently at Washington’s Shakespeare Theatre mounting a production of As You Like It set on a Hollywood sound stage, with musical numbers by Michael John La Chiusa.) "When I first received the script, I threw it across the room. I thought, 'Nobody can do The 39 Steps with four people.' "