When Marissa Stewart thinks back to watching Dial M for Murder in Rochester, New York’s Geva Theatre Center, she remembers the “buzzing in the theater” after the play concluded. She recalls audience members working together to sort out precisely what happened, discussing the series of events and decisions that led the play’s tale of intrigue and murder to this particular ending.
Now, as a star on the stage rather than a member of the audience, Stewart hopes to capture that same buzz when she plays Margot Wendice in Dial M for Murder at the Dallas Theater Center. “I just want people to walk away with a sense of connecting with each other,” Stewart says.
Presented in partnership with Geva Theatre Center, Dial M for Murder is an updated adaptation of the classic thriller, best known as a 1954 Alfred Hitchcock-directed film starring Ray Milland and Grace Kelly. The Jeffrey Hatcher adaptation premiered in 2021 and features an updated story with several departures from the iconic film.
Director Rachel Alderman calls Hatcher’s 1950’s-set adaptation “a love letter to the genre” that updates the story, modernizes the female characters, and creates more dynamic and complicated relationships.
“Everyone has a bit more agency. Everyone could be a killer. Anyone could be a lover, and with all of that complexity comes a really amazing adaptation that is filled with thrills and laughs and sexiness,” Alderman says.
Hatcher’s take turns Tony Wendice, a retired tennis player in the original story, into a failed author who becomes his wife Margot’s book publicist. When Tony learns Margot had an affair with crime novelist Maxine Hadley—a shift to a female character from the original male character of Mark or Max Halliday depending on the adaptation—he sets a dangerous and devious plot into motion.
Stewart felt a connection to the script changes that turn Margot Wendice from a passive character into someone who “definitely takes charge” and quickly processes the events around her. “She has a lot of agency, and she doesn’t wait around for other people to come and save her,” Stewart says, adding that she felt drawn to her character’s resiliency.
Stewart takes on the role of Margot following the production’s first run of performances from January 16 to February 11 in Rochester, where Awesta Zarif portrayed the character.
Even though she wasn’t playing Margot at the time, Stewart still joined the cast to learn what Alderman calls “the traffic patterns of the show,” like the various blocking and prop work. “It was really helpful getting a chance to spend some time in Rochester, not just from a technical standpoint…but also to get a sense of the other actors and get to know them,” Stewart says.
Stewart and her co-star Danny Gardner, who plays Tony Wendice in both runs of the show, each researched more about the 50s noir style of the production in their respective preparations. Gardner learned about Frederick Knott, who wrote the original stage play of Dial M for Murder, and took inspiration from the Alfred Hitchcock film.
“The style of the movie is just fantastic,” Gardner says. “I tried to imbue that (in my performance), and it’s always that double-edged sword of taking what you can but then also bringing yourself to the role and the piece.”
Stewart watched noir films to familiarize herself with the show’s style, finding that it helped her see the “cadence and rhythm” naturally built into the dialogue of certain scenes. She discovered that the script naturally incorporates the tension of a noir piece without having to create elements like dramatic pauses herself.
Gardner says the audience is a “huge part” of the show, describing how the actors onstage can feel when the audience is intently listening on the edge of their seats. He notes how the script laid the groundwork for the thrilling aspects of the show, allowing the actors to create a “push and pull” with how much they shift their performances in response to the audience.
In addition, Gardner says the audience has helped him see more of the humor in Dial M for Murder, revealing unexpected lines that draw laughs. Stewart explains the show’s humor as an “intellectual frankness and bluntness” along with “circumstantial humor” that comes from the audience having the chance to learn the show’s secrets ahead of the characters.
“Jeffrey Hatcher is wickedly funny, and it’s a very witty script,” Alderman says, pointing to how the script allows the cast to embrace the show’s levity.
Whether through laughter or intrigue, the goal of forging a connection with the audience and having them participate in unraveling the mystery before their eyes remains the same driving force behind the Dallas Theater Center production of Dial M for Murder.
“You can hear when you sit in the audience people who come to the theater together filling each other in on what they’re getting before their neighbor like it’s a competition, and it’s really fun,” Alderman says, calling it a “real treat” for audiences today to have the chance to escape into this story and bond through that community experience.
Dial M for Murder runs through April 28 at the Wyly Theatre. You can buy tickets here.
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