By: Darryl Reilly
Hints of gay male sex, Nietzschean debates, and grisly violence are all wildly on display during this jolting revisal of Rope. A strangled corpse is still hidden in a trunk used as a table for party guests to dine on.
The 1924 Chicago murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks by college students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb inspired English dramatist Patrick Hamilton’s London and Broadway 1929 play Rope; Alfred Hitchcock’s film version was released in 1948.
Playwright Gordon Greenberg’s crafty homoerotic adaptation maintains the movie’s Manhattan high society setting, reimagines the characters, and moves the time to 1957 after Christmas. Referred to are Sayanora with Marlon Brando which is in theatrical release and Jack Paar who is the host of The Tonight Show. Mr. Greenberg’s bouncy dialogue channels Algonquin Round Table-style wit which is fused with psychological overtones. The unsettling plot twists recall yesteryear stage thrillers such as Sleuth and Deathtrap.
Princeton senior Nate Singer has been staying in his affluent parents’ Sutton Place apartment during their absence with his lover and fellow student Garrett Stern. They are both Jewish, but Garrett (renamed from Gary) is a lower middle-class striver. Nate is besotted with the more dominant Garrett; both are highly intellectual. When Rope begins, they have just killed a jock classmate out of a twisted philosophical motivation and concealed the body. The lovers’ psychosis inspires them to hold a post murder dinner party.
The guests include the slain young man’s patrician judge father, a hard drinking and chain-smoking sarcastic woman, and an amiable nerdy Princeton pal. Also invited is the couple’s influential professor. He is a poet of distinction whose leg was maimed as a W.W. II serviceman during D-Day.
Greenberg’s taut and intense scenario has the teacher in a psychosexual triangle with his students and explores the complexities of Jewishness and gayness in 1950s America. Each character in the play delivers a biting autobiographical soliloquy depicting these and other themes. Queasiness and momentum abound during Rope’s 90 mesmerizing minutes.
The rugged and charismatic Cameron Monaghan commands as the increasingly maniacal Garret. Willowy Corey Fogelmanis hauntingly veers from sensitive to malevolent as the obsessed Nate. This duo’s sensual rapport is integral.
Limping on a cane and perpetually imbibing, magnetic Jason Butler Harner grandly exhibits inebriated articulation and palpable lust as the wily professor. Mr. Harner offers a wicked Peter O’Toole-style portrait of self-ruination.
While tossing off numerous zingers vivacious Elizabeth Gillies still conveys pathos with her zesty old-time wisecracking dame characterization. Bespectacled Graham Phillips is quirkily charming as the conventional classmate. He and Ms. Gillies’ appealing chemistry inform their characters’ burgeoning offbeat romance. Sedate James Waterston’s benevolence and steeliness as the judge gives way to giddiness when he is gifted a pile of rare books. Mr. Waterston also suggests aching foreboding as to the fate of his missing son.
Director Scott Elliott’s thrilling physical staging emphasizes the piece’s psychological facets and mounting terror through precise placement of the cast and lively stagecraft. Scenic designer Derek McLane’s stately living room is of tasteful grandeur. Jeff Croiter’s noirish lighting design highlights the eerie tone and connotes the period. Sound designer Leah Gelpe provides periodic unnerving crashing thunder and lightning. Catherine Zuber’s smashing costume design richly visualizes upper class 1950s American stylishness.
This incarnation of Rope is a spellbinding and thoughtful entertainment.
Rope (through December 6, 2026)
The New Group
Theater at St. Clement’s, 423 West 46th Street, in Manhattan
For tickets, visit www.thenewgroup.org
Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission