From beginning, ‘Deathtrap’ sets the stage for its success

You sense danger and comedy before Las Vegas Little Theatre's "Deathtrap" even begins.

First, we spot Ron Lindblom's set: a theatrically elegant study, stuffed with what looks like antique weapons, playbills and expert furniture. The room plays host to a foyer, a French window, a functioning fireplace and a ceiling window. There's something about the grandness that spells trouble, and the fuss with which everything has been properly placed suggests lightness. In addition, Gregg Gerrietts' sound includes a myriad of effects and music bites that anticipate a dark and stormy night ahead.

Director Shawn Hackler has achieved something many directors don't pay enough attention to: letting us know at the beginning of a production what kind of show we're in for.

Author Ira Levin gives us a tongue-in-cheek look at middle-aged thriller playwright Sydney Bruhl (Gary Lunn), trying desperately to come up with a new script. He thinks he's hit paydirt when he meets young Clifford Anderson (Justin Hopkins), who has sent him an apparently perfect first draft of his first play. Simple solution, thinks Bruhl: kill the kid and claim the script as your own. But needless to say, things are not what they seem, and Levin works up so many reversals that it isn't until the evening's final moments that we know for sure what's going on.

As fine as Lindblom's set appears initially, you grow even fonder of it as the show progresses. Every emotional and physical game that the characters play seems to belong in this chess board of a study.

Lunn's a hilarious Bruhl: pompous, mad, bullying, obsessed and a little boy lost. He's Henry Higgins with the heart of Jack the Ripper. Hopkins comes across as an innocent, vain Ivy Leaguer, and all I'll give away is that he can play opposite qualities as well.

As a neighboring psychic with a hysterically horrible Teutonic manner, Barbara King as Helga Ten Dorp makes regular appearances to warn the household of her premonitions of gloom and doom. King elevates the comedy with every prediction.

The age difference between Lunn and Hopkins is a bit extreme considering the personal aspects of their relationship. There are some serious voice projection problems that easily could have been corrected. And while Hackler achieves a superb sense of pace, the show's final moments don't feel properly set up. So, a strong production ends with a whimper.

But this "Deathtrap" does what stage thrillers should: give you a gigantic scare or three, a few laughs, and an exit smile.

Anthony Del Valle can be reached at DelValle@aol.com. You can write him c/o Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125.