Cary Grant's place in the pantheon of Hollywood greats was more or less confirmed after his role as Roger Thornhill in the 1959 thriller North By Northwest.
Now, the story about an advertising exec whose mistaken identity gets him wrapped up in deadly spy plot — and featuring iconic scenes such as Thornhill being pursued through a cornfield by a machine-gunning bi-plane, plus a hair-raising denouement atop Mount Rushmore — is coming to the London stage.
Wise Children's adaptation — penned and directed by Emma Rice (who lately won plaudits for her spin on The Buddha of Suburbia) — promises to be a "riotously funny" riff on the high octane adventure. With "six shape-shifting performers, a fabulous 50s soundtrack and a LOT of hats", Rice's version sounds like it'll have a familiar timbre to another stage adaptation of an old Hitchcock film, The 39 Steps, which did SERIOUSLY well in the West End, not to mention globally.
North By Northwest starts touring the country in March, arriving at Ally Pally for 12 nights in June. We cannot wait to see how they do that plane chase in a theatre...
North By Northwest, Alexandra Palace Theatre, 11-22 June 2025
