Review: ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ – a train to stop for at Drury Lane in Oakbrook Terrace

The first of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot mysteries I ever read as a young teen was “Murder on the Orient Express,” and that’s all it took to get me to avidly read every whodunit with Christie’s famous Belgian detective and his “little gray cells.” I also love the typically humorous plays by Ken Ludwig (such as “Lend Me a Tenor,” plus a show I acted in some years back, “Leading Ladies”). Ludwig’s adaptation of “Murder on the Orient Express” – currently on stage at Drury Lane Theatre in Oakbrook Terrace – may not have as many characters/passengers/suspects as the famous book, but trust me: This is one train to catch before it departs on Oct. 23.

To bring this mystery to life, you need an excellent actor as Poirot, and casting director Matthew D. Carney and director Jessica Fisch clearly have one: Chicago treasure Larry Yando (often seen as Scrooge in the Goodman’s “A Christmas Carol” and winner of five Joseph Jefferson awards). After an opening that features projection designer Anthony Churchill’s intriguing animations and recorded voices of a little girl being terrified at someone she doesn’t know coming into her bedroom (“Who are you? Go away!”), we meet Poirot recalling a murder that he says may have been the “greatest case of (his) career” and certainly the “most difficult.”

The plot begins at a restaurant in an Istanbul hotel, where Poirot is taking a much-needed respite after solving a recent case. He overhears intriguing conversations and runs into an old friend, Bouc (the endearing Sean Blake), who runs the train line for the luxurious Orient Express. Bouc assures Poirot that despite the first-class compartments being unexpectedly sold out, Poirot will have a compartment that very evening.

At the train station later, Poirot meets the other travelers: a demanding American businessman, Samuel Ratchett (Keith Kupferer), who’s been receiving threatening letters and wants to hire Poirot to protect him; Ratchett’s secretary, Hector MacQueen (Sam Boeck); a many-times-married, very vocal American, Helen Hubbard (the talented Janet Ulrich Brooks, recently seen as Ouiser in Drury Lane’s production of “Steel Magnolias”); a Russian princess (Peggy Roeder) and her conservative, religious traveling companion (Leah Morrow); a French train conductor assigned to the first-class compartments (Karmann Bajuyo); a tall, intimidating Scottish colonel (Ryan Imhoff); the woman who’d secretly met with the colonel earlier at the restaurant (Sarah Lo); and a commoner-turned-countess (Diana Coates), who greatly interests Poirot.

The next morning, after an eventful night in which the train was halted by a major snowdrift after midnight, one of the passengers is found stabbed to death in bed in their locked compartment with no signs of a struggle. Bouc begs Poirot to investigate, comparing the local police to the Three Stooges in terms of their effectiveness at solving a major crime. Poirot reluctantly agrees, discovering clues and interviewing all of the passengers and crew before finally revealing the solution to the murder.

In addition to the fun of trying to beat Poirot to the solution from your seat in the audience, the humor sprinkled into dialogue to provide comic relief, and the projections Churchill includes beyond the windows of the train’s dining car and occasionally above, and on the sides of the stage, this particular production is worth seeing just for the set itself. Scenic designer Andrew Boyce uses a rotating stage to show you one part of the train (such as three of the train sleeping compartments including Poirot’s). Then, as the scene changes to another area (for example, the dining car), the stage rotates to the accompaniment of dramatic music – no “dead air” here, so to speak – to show the new set, with entryways (doors into the dining car) sliding in to connect from either side.

When it comes to a locked-room mystery, or in this case a stranded-train mystery with a locked compartment as the scene of the crime, Drury Lane’s production of “Murder on the Orient Express” is definitely worth tracking down. I don’t know how else to express it.

• Paul Lockwood is a singer, local theater actor, Grace Lutheran Church (Woodstock) and Toastmasters member, occasional theater reviewer, podcaster, columnist and past president of TownSquare Players. He’s lived in Woodstock for more than 21 years.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: “Murder on the Orient Express”

WHERE: Drury Lane Theatre, 100 Drury Lane, Oakbrook Terrace

WHEN: Most Wednesdays through Sundays until Oct. 23

INFORMATION: 630-530-01111, DruryLaneTheatre.com