Deathtrap

Deathtrap (1978), a thriller by Ira Levin. [ Music Box Theatre, 1,809 perf.] Sidney Bruhl (John Wood), a mystery writer suffering a dry spell, tells his wife, Myra (Marian Seldes), that he intends to steal the play a young writer, Clifford Anderson (Victor Garber), has sent him and then kill the young man. To his wife's horror he apparently carries out his plan, burying the young man in their garden. When Clifford later seemingly returns from the dead, it proves too much for Myra, and she dies of a heart attack. That was Sidney's intention from the start, for Sidney has homosexual leanings and would set up a new life with Clifford, whose murder was a hoax. But in a falling out, Sidney mortally wounds Clifford, who has just enough life in him before he dies to kill Sidney. John Beaufort of the Christian Science Monitor wrote, “Mr. Levin has a fiendishly clever way of mixing chills and laughter, clues and climaxes. . . . He can twist a plot until it almost cries out for mercy.” If many playgoers felt the evening was sometimes more claptrap than deathtrap, the play's small cast and low budget allowed the Alfred De Liagre, Jr.–Roger L. Stevens production to become the longest‐running mystery in New York history.