Murder on the Orient Express at HCT

I am a huge fan of Agatha Christie (I made a goal to read all of her books when I was a teenager) and one of my favorites is Murder on the Orient Express. I've seen several screen adaptations but never the stage play so I was really excited about HCT's production! I was able to see it last night (closing night) and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  After finishing a case in Syria, the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Mark Knowles) is called back to London on urgent business. Despite the fact that it is fully booked, a compartment is found on the Orient Express for Poirot by Monsieur Bouc (Benjamin "BJ" Whimpey), the director of the railway. Poirot is immediately approached by Samuel Ratchett (Kelton Davis), an odious American businessman on board, who asks him to investigate some threatening letters he has been receiving but Poirot declines. The train becomes snowbound on the first night of the journey and in the morning Ratchett is discovered dead, having been stabbed multiple times, in his locked compartment. Knowing that the murderer must still be on board the train, Monsieur Bouc asks Poirot to investigate. There are numerous clues which Poirot finds puzzling but, as he interviews his fellow passengers including a Hungarian Countess (Natalie Peterson), an aging Russian Princess (Heidi Scott), her Swedish companion (Wendy Oltmanns), Ratchett's secretary (Zachariah Combs), a Minnesota housewife (Tamari Dunbar), a Scottish colonel (Kelton Davis), an English governess (Lisa Zimmerman), and a French conductor (James Bounous), he discovers that they all have an alibi for the time of the murder and that they all have a connection to the infamous kidnapping and murder of Daisy Armstrong by Bruno Cassetti (who is believed to be Ratchett). Poirot eventually discovers evidence of a mysterious second conductor with a grudge against Ratchett but is he the real murderer? The big plot twist is a lot of fun and the resolution is a thought-provoking examination of retribution vs. revenge. The ensemble cast does a really great job, especially Whimpey, but the stand-out in this production is the rotating set featuring both the interior and exterior of a full-size railway car. The interior space includes an opulent club car and several first-class compartments which rotate to give periodic glimpses of action taking place in a narrow corridor between the two areas. The attention to detail is absolutely amazing, with Art Deco light sconces, peacock blue velvet upholstery on the chairs and sofas, cut glass lamps, mahogany paneling, and, my personal favorite, giant murals featuring dancing swans. The turntable allows for very quick transitions and seeing characters move from the club car to their compartments is a brilliant bit of staging. The sound design also creates the illusion of a real train and the costumes do much to add to the characterization (I loved Mrs. Hubbard's fox stole). This was such a nice evening out but, unfortunately, the run for this show is now over and many of the upcoming shows are sold out because of stricter Covid-19 guidelines.