REVIEW: MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, THEATRE ROYAL BATH – ‘OUTSTANDING THEATRE'

By GILL KIRK for B 24/7

Do not miss Chichester Festival Theatre’s Murder on the Orient Express with Henry Goodman. It’s outstanding theatre, with marvellous theatricality, wonderful set, pacy script, magnetic Poirot and excellent ensemble cast.

Christie’s a hard one if you want to really wow an audience. Ticket buyers often know whodunnit, they’ve seen a few TV versions, maybe even a stage show or two. Done lazily, characters feel like cut-outs, and the plots can then plod like grandpa’s tango. Your Poirot’s inevitably compared to David Suchet and there’s always the danger that that’s who they’re playing; not Christie’s little Belgian.

But wonderfully, Jonathan Church’s direction of ‘Orient Express’ blows these issues out the water. Henry Goodman (Poirot) is a warm, witty, watchable lead, more than ably supported by an excellent ensemble. Casting director Gabrielle Dawes has done something remarkable. Every actor fills their role fully; there’s no dead weight here.

Henry Goodman in Murder on the Orient Express – photo: Johan Persson

Leading the travellers on this famous train is the ever-enjoyable talent of Sara Stewart, a familiar face at Theatre Royal Bath. She’s the painfully brash Helen Hubbard (played onscreen by Lauren Bacall, Meredith Baxter, Barbara Hershey and Michelle Pfeiffer), who’s agonisingly awful; the worst fellow traveller you could hope to meet. And she does it so well, making the part so unforgettably her own, that there’s a case to be made for a delightful Hubbard-Poirot spin-off.

Ken Ludwig’s snappy adaptation is what makes this all possible. There’s wise trimming of the book for stage, and warm wit injected in all the right places. This is no surprise – Ludwig’s the writer of international hits Lend Me A Tenor and Crazy for You – with (the programme notes say) plays and musicals on stage “every night of the year”.

But there’s no sitting on laurels here; it is an excellent script, with sublime dramatic pacing, canny variation for the eye and- importantly for the audience (and the Christie estate), it keeps faith with the novel.

However, the star of the show may be set, sound and lights. As those who work in theatre know, until those ingredients are added, we might have something tempting, but we don’t know for sure. So if you want to see what sets theatre apart from every other art form – even in its most commercial forms – then this show could be your case study.

With stunning lights (Mark Henderson), exciting and engaging music (Adrian Sutton) and sound (Christopher Shutt) and a set whose various elements move so pitch-perfectly that the audience feels fully immersed (Robert Jones), this production could not be bettered. “Watch out for the tunnel” is all I can say!

The show opened in Chichester in May. It’s in Bath ’til 25 June. After that, nothing’s booked, so don’t make assumptions that you’ll get another chance – just do not miss it.