39 Steps,’ ‘Body Detective’ come off without a Hitch

You’ll laugh at the thriller homages even if you’ve never seen the originals first-hand

The kids in the audience won’t get the reference in The Center for Puppetry Arts’ The Body Detective when a rotund silhouette appears, accompanied by the whimsical strains of Charles Gounod’s “Funeral March of a Marionette.” Their parents probably can’t name that tune, either, but grown-ups will almost certainly make the connection with suspense director Alfred Hitchcock. The whimsical music and the shadow of Hitchcock’s plump profile served as the introduction to the old “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” TV series and became such a familiar piece of pop iconography, you can recognize it even if you never saw the show.

By coincidence (… or is it?), the Center’s revival of The Body Detective’s coincides with Theatre in the Square’s The 39 Steps, a giddy Hitchcock homage. Playwright Patrick Barlow adapted 39 Steps based on the unflappable English director’s 1935 hit (as well as John Buchan’s original novel). The 39 Steps and The Body Detective both frolic in thriller-genre styles so highly esteemed that audiences will get the jokes even if they don’t know the originals first-hand.