TV Detective 'Columbo' to Take the Rap on Broadway

A theatrical mystery based on the TV classic "Columbo" is headed for Broadway, according to the New York Post's Michael Riedel.

Columbo Takes the Rap, which was a hit at the International Mystery Writers festival in Owensboro, KY last month, will be written by William Link.  With Richard Levison, Link created the easily distracted, cigar-smoking detective Columbo; that show, starring Peter Falk, ran regularly from 1971 through 1978, and then more sporadically from 1989 to 2003.  Produced by Zev Buffman (Private Lives with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor), Columbo Takes the Rap will launch on a national tour before its Broadway run next year.

Chicago-based actor Norm Boucher, and not Falk, will take on the title role.  Boucher previously played Columbo at the Mystery Writers Festival.  In the play, Columbo "plays cat-and-mouse with a record producer who kills one of his young rap stars....All the classic 'Columbo' elements are in the play: The slick villain who commits what appears to be the perfect murder; the ritzy settings (in this case, a Beverly Hills mansion); the class tension between a slovenly Columbo and an elegantly tailored killer; and, of course, the final, clever clue that unravels the mystery," writes Riedel.  Columbo Takes the Rap marks the second time the Columbo character has been seen within a play; Levinson and Link's 1961 piece Prescription Murder toured 55 cities in 1961, although a clash between the writers and producer kept it from making it to Broadway.  It had starred Thomas Mitchell as Columbo, with Joseph Cotten and Agnes Moorhead.

Although the mystery thriller genre has been considered somewhat moribund of late, Buffman believes that such plays (of which Ira Levin's long-running 1978 play Deathtrap is a notable example) retain their appeal: "We're bombarded by thrillers and mysteries on television, so a new generation has grown up with them in their blood.  And everything that was ever good on Broadway always comes back," he said. 

Buffman is currently searching for a star to play the murderer role.

Photo - Peter Falk as Columbo