brief review of "Double Indemnity" at the Roundhouse Theater (Bethesda, MD)

Given the fact that a remake in any form of the highly-regard 1944 film "Double Indemnity" has some mighty big shoes to fill, adapters David Pichette and R. Hamilton Wright do a very good job translating the original 1936 serialized novel to the stage.  Whereas the film makes quite a few changes to the book, some of which arguably improve the narrative, the play follows the original material much more closely.  This faithfulness to the original source may surprise playgoers whose only frame of reference is the film.  Much of the dialogue of the play is lifted directly from the pages of the book.  Most notable is the extended monologue by claims adjuster, Barton Keyes (performed solidly by Todd Scofield, who has the thankless task of trying to make viewers of the film set aside their memory of Edward G. Robinson's iconic performance), who rattles off without blinking an eye all of the ways a person might commit suicide.  Marty Lodge as Walter Huff (played by Fred MacMurray in the film) looks, moves, and speaks as if he stepped right out of a 1940s film noir, but Celeste Ciulla as femme fatale Phyllis Nerlinger doesn't ooze enough intense sexuality to convince me that Huff would succumb to her charms the moment he lays eyes on her (certainly not the way Barbara Stanwyck, wig notwithstanding, does in the film).  The play does well to draw nearly exclusively from the novel rather than the film, and with sparse sets and long-looming shadows, it breathes deeply the seamy soul of 1930s pulp fiction to life