Everyone loves a good thriller, and because we have had so few lately, the National Actors Theater revival of Emlyn Williams' 1935 chiller Night Must Fall proves a real treat. To hear an entire audience scream with the curtain up only a few minutes into the play should say something about its power. Actually, it says more about the cleverness of director John Tillinger, who has devised a stunning new opening sequence. We get a glimpse of a nude man burying a body. It is actually a body double for Matthew Broderick, who otherwise plays Dan, the psychopathic killer who seductively worms his way into the home of a miserable and miserly old invalid Mrs. Bramson. That is, after the disappearance of a young woman Dan was having an affair with, and later murdered and buried. A police investigation goes on about the property all the while Dan gains the confidence of the old invalid, her equally duped caregiver, and the unmarried pregnant maid, also Dan's doing.
Although the play is not a whodunit as we know it but rather a why-do-they-fall-for-it, the buildup of suspense is palpable. This, as the women appear to grow strangely fascinated, if not altogether intoxicated, by Dan. As uncharacteristic as it seems for Broderick to play this sensual, but loony, loser, the two-time Tony winner pulls off the cockney accent and his cockamamie behavior with aplomb.
