‘Laura’ @ Rover Dramawerks
Show photos courtesy of Fable Light Photography
—Jan Farrington
The 1944 hit film Laura, directed by Otto Preminger, was possibly my introduction to American film noir: the deep shadows and sudden stabs of light, the parade of sketchy characters, the mysterious murder at the center. Gene Tierney’s alluring portrait haunted the dreams (waking and sleeping) of police detective Dana Andrews, and at age 12 or 13, it never occurred to me that Laura’s other gentleman caller, played by the elegant and sarcastic Clifton Webb, was deeply gay. (“Not that there’s anything wrong with that,” in the words of Seinfeld—but it’s amusing what lengths the performing arts went to back then to avoid spelling it out.)
The Rover Dramawerks production of this vintage post-war murder mystery, well directed by Carol M. Rice, is a pleasant surprise. For one thing, who knew there had been Laura the novel, Laura the movie, and Laura the stage play, the latter written by Broadway and Hollywood veterans Vera Caspary and George Sklar, both much admired writers—though the script’s extremely smart, layered portrayals of the women in the story has me guessing that Caspary had the upper hand in the partnership.
Each version of Laura has some differences, so don’t go in expecting a carbon copy of the ‘40s film. Most of the characters are the same, but not all—and as director Rice notes in her commentary on the production, there are some differences in how the story (and the characters) come out.
Costumes by Benjamin Taylor Ridgeway are nicely accurate for the time (I developed a real yen for Laura’s ribbon-tied chunky heels); Rachel Velasco has done a fine ‘40s set design in deep color tones; and it’s all lit atmospherically by Kenneth Hall, who keeps the lights low when he can, and dims them for shadowy entrances that add suspense and a shiver. Matthew James Edwards and Elizabeth Kirkland are, respectively, the show’s fight choreographer and intimacy director, giving us a hint of what to expect from the plot.
Director Rice sets a quick pace through the many twists and turns of the story—and in her attention to a script that holds even a heavier load of witty lines, banter, and back story than the movie did, we stay quite interested in what’s happening.
Troy Murray is perhaps a tad too nice-guy for the cynical Mark McPherson, a police detective who’s seen plenty—but in later scenes particularly, his bright -eyed warmth comes into its own, and we see who he might be if life gave him a chance at happiness. Laura’s fiance Shelby Carpenter (Bradley Langan) does well by his what-did-she-see-in-him? character, though his “Southern” accent only comes through here and there. Laura’s building “super” and her son (Vivian Reed and Dylan Hilbert) both build their roles well: she as a mean-spirited mother and businesswoman, he as a young jazz fan (with some unsettling emotions) who loved talking to Laura about the music they both admired.
Waldo Lydecker, the worldly New Yorker who says Laura was his “creation,” is played by Alex Eding, who gives him plenty of showy but questionable charm, a massive ego, and a temper that flares in a flash—all of them making us wonder about what his true relationship with Laura might have been. Jay Matherly’s outer-boroughs accent makes us smile in his short role as McPherson’s police sidekick Olsen, and Savannah Valdez gives Laura’s housekeeper/cook Bessie an open, loving heart, an interest in her employer’s love life—and an Irish accent that never wanders off.
It’s a challenge to say what we know of the murdered Laura, but in her scenes as the mysterious victim the talented Andie Pace surprises us with a character who is quick-thinking, funny, ironic, and a pretty good detective herself. Yes, she admits, she once was a sort of “country girl” come to the big city—but she’s a lot more than that now: savvy, witty, sharp about people’s motives. McPherson, we think, is a goner: she’s the right mix of hard-boiled dame and lively beauty.
Laura wonders, though, why her picks in men go so badly. How can she run a big company (a rarity in the ‘40s), handle dozens of employees—and not see through some of the con men and “big babies” she tries on as possible husband material? Pace has a slight film noir curl to her lip, and an edgy way of talking that intrigued me from the start. This isn’t a maiden to be rescued: she’ll be a help to McPherson, and make her own choices in the end.
WHEN: June 4-20, 2026
WHERE: Cox Playhouse, 1517 H Avenue, Plano TX
WEB: https://www.roverdramawerks.com/
