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Two Cape May theaters offering more Shore diversion

What's the Jersey Shore for in summertime if not diversion - at least to all of us flocking there for the last seasonal rays? And along with 30 flavors of fudge, lazy evenings in barrier-island restaurants, Skee-ball competitions, and heels dug into the sand, there's theater down the Shore that's suitable for the occasion.

In "The Poe Mysteries" at East Lynne are (back row from left) Shelley McPherson, Mark Edward Lang, Grace Wright, and James Rana, and (front row from left) Thomas Raniszewski and Fred Velde.
In "The Poe Mysteries" at East Lynne are (back row from left) Shelley McPherson, Mark Edward Lang, Grace Wright, and James Rana, and (front row from left) Thomas Raniszewski and Fred Velde.Read moreGayle Stahlhuth

What's the Jersey Shore for in summertime if not diversion - at least to all of us flocking there for the last seasonal rays? And along with 30 flavors of fudge, lazy evenings in barrier-island restaurants, Skee-ball competitions, and heels dug into the sand, there's theater down the Shore that's suitable for the occasion.

Cape May's two professional theater companies, both downtown, are currently offering nightly diversion.

Cape May Stage, at its Robert Shackleton Playhouse - which has been outfitted with additional seats in a modest but roomy mezzanine that opened in the winter - is running The 39 Steps, the highly physical and goofy version of the Alfred Hitchcock film, itself an adaptation of John Buchan's novel.

At East Lynne Theater Company, which operates inside a church and is devoted to old plays and characters, there's a world premiere: The Poe Mysteries, which adapts the tales of three Edgar Allen Poe pieces said to be the first detective stories ever written.

Summer theater in the region, it seems, mostly means Shakespeare on the one hand, and Stage Lite on the other. Shakespeare has had his summer; at Cape May, everything's on the other hand.

The 39 Steps, which was a hit on Broadway several years ago thanks to its four actors' shenanigans and feats of physical theater, is clever and at the same time silly, a dogged spoof of a 77-year-old film that assumes we love, and know, the original. (If you don't know the movie, the plays still makes sense, in a silly way.)

When I first saw it in New York, it seemed to wear itself out by being technically perfect and emotionally empty. How many overarched eyebrows, supercharged interchanges, and purposely telegraphed laugh lines can we handle in the course of a couple of hours?

But then I saw a later version at the Walnut Street Theatre, not so technically hyped yet a little richer, and understood more clearly the reasons people like this show, which retains maybe 85 percent of the movie's script and also calls to mind a trove of Hitchcock works in offhand ways.

It's often witty in its shtick, given the inventiveness of the director. It's a fun detective-on-a-chase story whether serious (as in the film) or zany (as in its stage adaptation by Patrick Barlow). And the demands it makes on actors can lead to impressive performances.

Those performances are nicely realized in the Cape May Stage version staged by Penny Bergman, whose TV directing credits are as disparate as All My Children and Live From Lincoln Center. The tall and lanky Mark Campbell gamely plays Richard Hannay, caught up in finding the secret of an organization called the 39 Steps - a venture that takes him from England into Scotland, and pairs him with strange women, all played with gusto by Nicole Lowrance (Broadway's Dividing the Estate).

In a wildly large number of other roles, sometimes coming within seconds of each other, are David Deblinger, who cofounded New York's LAByrinth Theater Company, and Ron Piretti, who was Officer Krupke in the recent Broadway revival of West Side Story. They're great fun as they move the plot along with makeshift windows to climb through, plenty of hats, and lots of general quick turns of characters.

Such a level of stylized high jinks needs a seamless production - not the bulky in-the-dark scene changes that plague this one, or the occasional background music that should stir us but is amplified too weakly to come close. These problems don't kill the deal, they just make it all the more difficult for actors who have to keep the action constant.

Edgar Allen Poe's three mysteries involving C. August Dupin have been adapted for the stage by James Rana, also one of six able actors who deliver "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," "The Mystery of Marie Roget" and "The Purloined Letter." Put together as The Poe Mysteries, the show is directed with crisp, clear simplicity by Gayle Stahlhuth, East Lynne Theater Company's artistic director.

The company performs in the sanctuary of Cape May's First Presbyterian Church and, with help from minor scenery, generally uses the pulpit area for one tier of the action, the church floor below for another. It works well here, because the show has a two-tiered conceit: We see the stories unfold as a newspaper reporter (Thomas Raniszewski) interviews the noted detective Dupin (a wizened character, played endearingly by Fred Velde) about the highlights of his career.

Along with Rana, Shelley McPherson, Grace Wright, and Mark Edward Lang play a number of characters in the stories, which demonstrate Dupin's use of deduction. These are embryonic mysteries, and you can't expect the world's greatest plots - "The Purloined Letter" is particularly disappointing in that even I could have found a stolen missive that led to blackmail, given Poe's plot.

Ah, but how to purloin it from the purloiner? That's the sort of thing the cast pulls off well, in these little, delightful tellings.

Cape May Theaters: Hitchcock (sort of), Poe

The stage adaptation of The 39 Steps runs through Sept. 7 at Cape May Stage, 31 Perry St., Cape May. Tickets: $35.

Information: 609-884-1341 or www.capemaystage.com.

The Poe Mysteries is an East Lynne Theater Company production, through Sept. 1, at First Presbyterian Church, 500 Hughes St., Cape May. Tickets: $30.

Information: 609-884-5898 or www.eastlynnetheater.org.

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