The following review is based on a preview performance

NORTHVILLE, Mich. – The history of theater is full of plays and musicals that spawned film versions: West Side Story; 12 Angry Men; Inherit The Wind; Rent, and so on.

There are some writers and producers, though, reversing the trend with greater regularity, converting films with name equity into plays: “Miracle on 34^th Street,” “The Quiet Man,” and “Rocky” come to mind.

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Tipping Point has just begun a run of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, a play based on the story that spawned the iconic 1962 film of the same title starring James Stewart, John Wayne, Lee Marvin and Vera Miles.

This play was adapted from the original short story by Dorothy M. Johnson by European writer/producer Jethro Compton. It is doubtful that it would have been do so, though, without the film becoming the classic that it is.

The plot, set in the late 19^th century, concerns the arrival of a learned stranger named Ransom Foster (David Bendena) in the western backwater town of TwoTrees. Foster is assaulted on the prairie by outlaw Liberty Valance (Patrick Loos) and brought to the saloon, owned by Hallie Jackson (Hallie Bee Bard) in half-dead condition by rancher Bert Barricune (Jim Porterfield).

Foster stays on in TwoTrees and comes to teach African-American saloon employee and Hallie’s best friend Jim Mosten (Dez Walker) and Hallie to read. Liberty doesn’t care for Foster’s intervention in the Wild West backwater, and has no interest in anyone bringing education to the community he dominates with crime and intimidation.

The conflict culminates, as the title of the play suggests, with a showdown where Liberty gets his comeuppance.

Following indelible performances on film is never easy. But director Angie Kane Ferrante did such a splendid job of casting and leading this ensemble that the play holds up extremely well, supported by a wonderful saloon set designed by Monika Essen. The intimate Tipping Point performance space feels every bit the 1890 saloon.

Bendena as Ransom works his slight frame and scruffy face to embody the educated interloper who has to toggle between resolute rock-ribbed liberal to shaky, vulnerable victim. Porterfield slips into the Barricune part like he was born to it – playing the tough, gravitas-filled don’t-mess-with-me rancher, but doing a lovely job of showing the character’s vulnerability as he shows his devoted, un-returned romantic love for Hallie.

Hallie Bee Bard is every inch the independent frontier woman entrepreneur who owns two dresses, doesn’t bathe very often, but has a heart of gold. She loves Bert like a brother-father-friend. She loves Jim, whom she grew up with and counts as her best friend. And she predictably gives her heart to the strong-willed but vulnerable Ransom. Her characterization is key to anyone who knows the history of the story, as the Hallie character is based upon the original author, Dorothy Johnson, herself. Dez Walker rounds out the leads beautifully as the black man who is extremely intelligent, but fights being marginalized by the community and even his own low expectations of what is possible for him.

Overall, the play is very tight. It gets a bit talky in the last half hour or so, as the showdown between Ransom and Liberty unfolds. Loos does a fine job of playing the nasty marauding title character, and he and Bendena do an especially good job of moving around the set, sizing one another up, and creating delicious drama with guns alternating between their holsters and on the tables of the saloon.

It’s not often that modern theatre deals with the 19^th century American West. Tipping Point succeeds in a big way in transporting us to another time and place, but with themes of love, courage and civil rights that are as timely and relevant today as they were sixty years ago.

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Editor’s Note: In the original review,the character of Jim Mosten was referred to as a “negro.” While the word “negro” is out-dated and seen as derogatory in most quarters of society, it was used in this case because of the time context of the play –1890. The author certainly meant no offense to anyone and we apologize to anyone who was offended.