Deathtrap: A production that remains entertaining despite assorted weak moments
Diana Franz. Photo: Maria Vartanova
Deathtrap has a powerful ending. The problem is that it dribbles on for one scene too many after that.
Ira Levin’s 1978 comedy/thriller was a hit that ran for four years on Broadway, a further hit as a movie starring Michael Caine, and it continues to be an effective send-up of the whodunit genre, with its many twists and layers.
A play about a playwright trying to overcome a writer’s block and write a hit thriller, the audience is set up to believe he is ready to kill for an idea. Just then, the perfect commercially viable play, written by one of his students, falls into his lap.