The 39 Steps
New City Players' Production in South Florida
By: Aaron Krause - Oct 01, 2025
“The work they’re doing in this show is the equivalent of tightrope walking while juggling – and adding a new pin to their hands every day,” says Ali Tallman.
The New City Players (NCP) ensemble member is talking about the challenges of staging the live adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic film, The 39 Steps. Opening night of NCP’s professional production is approaching, and Tallman, the director, is excited for audiences to experience the final product. The running time is roughly two hours and 15 minutes.
The fun begins with a “Pay What You Wish” preview on Friday, Oct. 3 at 8 p.m. The official opening follows on Saturday, Oct. 4, with performances continuing through Oct. 19. In all, a four-member cast portraying many different characters will perform 13 times between Oct. 3 and 19. The venue is Island City Stage’s intimate black box theater on North Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors.
A Hitchcock Classic with a Comic Twist
If you recognize the title, that’s probably because the show is an adaptation of Hitchcock’s famous 1935 thriller/mystery film. The stage version is a two-time Tony and Drama Desk Award-winning play.
“Mix a Hitchcock masterpiece with a juicy spy novel, add a dash of Monty Python, and you have The 39 Steps – a fast-paced whodunit for anyone who loves the magic of theater,” reads NCP press material.
Meet the Cast
NCP’s production stars Brandon Campbell as the unwitting protagonist, Richard Hannay, and Camille Schiavone in the challenging triple roles of Annabella, Margaret, and Pamela. Meanwhile, the “theatrical heavy lifting” falls to Rayner Gabriel and Kalen Edean as “the clowns.” Gabriel and Edean “tackle the Herculean task of embodying dozens of characters throughout the evening’s escapades.”
Tallman praised her “dream team” of four performers, who she says are tackling work “equivalent to tightrope walking while juggling — and adding a new pin to their hands every day.”
“The cast is spectacular,” she says. “It was an incredibly difficult show to cast – there are WAY too many talented actors in South Florida and it killed me that I could only cast four. The cast we have is another dream team situation. They are one of the most detail-oriented, dedicated, talented groups of actors I’ve ever worked with. And I’ve gotten to show off many of their special skills as well – piano, dancing, singing, playing the mouth trumpet. They have talent pouring out of their ears.”
Tallman says communication, experimentation, playing, and risk-taking have been keys to the cast working well together.
“At the beginning of the process, we created a community agreement – in it, we agreed to embody the spirit of the theatrical clown – to take risks and to embrace both process and failure.”
Behind the Scenes: Building the World
Behind the scenes, the design team is equally ambitious.
“Our designers are building so many creative, incredible elements – evocative shadow puppetry, detailed (and sometimes silly) props, cinematic musical deep cuts and hilarious sound effects, really striking lighting moments, gorgeous costumes, and cool set pieces that get repurposed in unexpected ways. I can’t wait to see the world we’re building come to life on the stage.”
Tallman says NCP Producing Artistic Director Timothy Mark Davis wanted a fun, comic, and visually surprising show “with a dash of Halloween energy” to open the company’s 10th anniversary season.
A Timely Story in Comic Form
“My hope is that audiences have a really fun time,” Tallman says. “This play is in many ways a love letter to vaudeville and the theater, so I hope it lets theater lovers give a bear hug to storytelling. I hope that they walk away feeling empowered to embrace the playfulness and vulnerability of the theatrical clown for themselves. I think the world might be a better place if we could find ways to be a little more serious about being less serious.”
While the show delivers plenty of laughs, Tallman says the piece is also appropriate for the moment. The play follows a man who starts the story in an existential crisis – overwhelmed by the things happening in the world around him and struggling to get invested. He is “wrestling with himself and his relationship to the world,” the director says.
“There is a lot, unfortunately, about our current climate and the big fears and anticipations that many people have, that are reflected in the play’s pre-World War II setting,” Tallman says.
A Challenge of Scale
Folks planning to experience NCP’s production should expect an afternoon or evening of live theater that “celebrates both the absurdity and artistry of theatrical storytelling,” according to NCP.
Consider the scope: “With this show, we have to travel from London to the Highlands of Scotland and back again – ride a train, crash a plane, hike the moors, take over the stage at the London Palladium – it's a challenge of scale on any stage,” Tallman says. She praised the backstage artists, crediting them for creating a space “that feels unlike anything I’ve seen on the Island City Stage before.”
The 39 Steps marks Tallman’s fourth show in Island City Stage’s intimate black box theater.
“I’ve loved it more every time,” Tallman says. “Every theater in South Florida has its own quirks and challenges, but there’s nothing like the intimacy of a black box.”
A New Era for New City Players
She also says the production is a “real level up technically for NCP.” The company is a professional, ensemble, respected troupe that will receive the first-ever Jan McArt Award at the 2025 Carbonell Awards in November. The award recognizes significant achievement by a small theater company. McArt was a South Florida theater legend who died on Jan. 31, 2021.
Veteran and respected South Florida director Stuart Meltzer has called NCP “the little theater that could,” and a company of “humility and gumption.”
Staging The 39 Steps “definitely feels like a step into a new era for NCP,” Tallman says.
“Stylistically, the artists in the ensemble at NCP are creative, bold, and ambitious,” she says. “I'm extremely proud to be a member of the ensemble and I can't wait to see and be part of NCP's ongoing work.”
A Love Letter to Theater
Tallman says The 39 Steps is the “perfect show for me to sink my teeth into – a historically rich story rooted in a place I spent a lot of time studying in school, playing with heightened style and genre, all saturated in physical theater, which is where I started as an artist and what really holds my heart.”
The show has presented “the perfect overlap of so many things I’m interested in with my personal love as a dramaturg of digging into the past with a contemporary lens.”
For her directorial approach, Tallman drew from a wide variety of sources and styles such as commedia dell’arte, theatrical clowning, vaudeville, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, Roscoe Arbuckle, The Three Stooges, Monty Python, Mischief Theatre, Indiana Jones, Casablanca, The Thin Man, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, and Scooby-Doo.
“The show’s relationship to clowning was very important to my approach,” Tallman says. “The two central ensemble roles are titled ‘Clown 1’ and ‘Clown 2,’ and it was important to me that the female roles also lived in a clown space. To me, Annabella and Margaret are 100 percent clowns.”
Expect, among other things, a famous “hat act” in the train station.
“For our production, it was important to me to ground this dramaturgically in vaudeville, so we're incorporating hat manipulation (or hat juggling) into their performances. The actors have such an amazing sense of precision in the comedy they're finding within this fast-paced, chaotic scene. They blow me away and I think audiences will feel the same.”
IF YOU GO
WHAT: New City Players’ professional production of the stage adaptation of The 39 Steps.
WHEN: Thirteen performances from Oct. 3-19.
WHERE: Island City Stage’s intimate black box theater, 2304 N. Dixie Highway in Wilton Manors.
TICKETS: Tickets are $40-45 except for the "pay what you wish" preview on Oct. 3rd. You can buy tickets at https://newcityplayers.org/shows/the39steps. For student and group discounts, email the box office at boxoffice@newcityplayers.org, or call (954) 376-6114.
MORE INFO: In addition to 13 performances spread over 3 weekends, NCP has planned engaging post-show events that take audiences “Beyond the Stage.”
Pay What You Wish Preview: In an effort to make theatre more accessible this special "pay what you wish" performance features prices from $5-25. The preview will start at 8 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 3.
Opening Night Reception: Enjoy libations and small bites compliments of Union Kitchen & Bar and Clearwave Dental with the cast and creative team immediately following the opening night performance on Oct. 4.
Weekend Wine Downs: Enjoy a casual time of conversation, laughs, and libations after the Friday and Saturday night performances where patrons can discuss the play with each other and members of the creative team. .
Sunday Talkbacks! For those looking to go deeper on the process of bringing this play to life and step into New City Players' theatre-making process, you can join the cast and creative team after every Sunday performance for an interactive and engaging talkback.