Opening Night

By: Ngaio Marsh

Narrated by: James Saxon

Dreams of stardom had lured Martyn Tarne from faraway New Zealand to make the dreary, soul-destroying round of West End agents and managers in search of work.

The Vulcan Theatre had been her last forlorn hope, and now, driven by sheer necessity, she was glad to accept the humble job of dresser to its leading lady. And then came the eagerly awaited opening night.

To Martyn the night brought a strange turn of the wheel of fortune - but to one distinguished member of the cast it was to bring sudden and unforeseen death....

©1951 Original Text of 1951 by Ngaio Marsh (P)2015 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

"Miss Marsh at her best...she is thoroughly at home in the wings with a pack of actors locked in the grip of rehearsals and jealous intrigue." ( New Statesman)

"Miss Marsh’s best yet." ( Observer)

One of Ngaio Marsh’s Best

A great British period piece. If you are a theater lover you will enjoy this one particularly. Outstanding narrator.

classic Marsh

Starting as a valentine to theater, Marsh develops the characters so well that I found myself rooting for my favorites. Beautifully performed by Saxon. Highly recommended.

Intensely written, performed and enjoyed

You don't have to know all about theater to enjoy the wonderful recreation of backstage and onstage life created here by mystery master Ngaio Marsh, who was also immersed in theater herself. This little troupe finds itself in a crisis. We are drawn in wondering first who will be killed (because someone always is) and then who did it? Plenty of motives and clues, as usual, brilliant and unbelievably speedy detection by Alleyne, but we still don't know who did it until the very end. How nice is that!

Fun at the theatre

Ngaio Marsh is known for setting several of her Golden Age-era mysteries in the theatre, which she knew very well as a vocation and avocation. Just for fun, I have been revisiting those theatre-set stories.

Opening Night/Night at the Vulcan (pub. 1951) is fascinating. I like the characters -- most of them anyway. (As an aside, I have noticed that even though Marsh loves the theatre, she may not love all actors. Some of them are very unpleasant, even if innocent of murder.) The mystery was very good as well.

Unfortunately, this is one of those books where Alleyn does not appear until more than halfway into the story, but once he does enter the stage he dominates. Marsh kept me guessing until the end.

James Saxon narrated many -- perhaps all -- of Marsh's books, and I have found his performances to be oddly uneven. In this case, he was excellent.

Characters trump plot

Would you consider the audio edition of Opening Night to be better than the print version?

I read the book years ago and remember really enjoying it for the characters and the theater setting. Listening to it again years later, I see why I enjoyed it. While dated by time, the characters are interesting (except for the purposely annoying ones) and the insider's view of the theater is interesting. The murder is really secondary to the characters and their relationships.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Opening Night?

The opening moments with literally "starving artist" and her serendipitous finding of a job and food captures both attention and sympathy.

What about James Saxon’s performance did you like?

Real variety of voices.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The kindness of Badger and Jacko to Martyn is poignant.