(Above: Rebecca Nachison stars in a classic radio mystery thriller, Sorry, Wrong Number; photo by August Frank)

By Randi Bjornstad

Radio Redux founder and director Fred Crafts promises “goosebumps” when his troupe performs a pair of suspense thrillers that first aired on radio in the 1940s: Sorry, Wrong Number and Backseat Driver.

Crafts calls Sorry, Wrong Number one of the “greatest shows in radio history” that starred famous actress Agnes Moorehead in the role of the rich, demanding, and bedridden Mrs. Stevenson, who happens to overhear a telephone conversation that appears to be a plot between two men intent on murdering a woman.

The radio show was vastly popular — it was re reworked seven times as a radio production and made into a film noir in 1948, when it starred Hollywood giants Burt Lancaster and Barbara Stanwyck, the latter who garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for her performance.

She didn’t win — the field that year also included Ingrid Berman, Olivia de Havilland, Irene Dunn, and Jane Wyman — with Wyman taking home the statue for Johnny Belinda. But actor and director Orson Welles pronounced Sorry, Wrong Number “the greatest single radio script ever written.”

The name Backseat Driver by itself is scary enough by itself, and the plot, in which an unwitting couple gets into their car only to find a man with murderous intentions in the back seat, should be enough to scare most people into never getting in without checking the back seat first. It was written by Sally Thorson, who wrote many such suspense episodes for radio mystery programs.

Oddly enough, Crafts shares, radio comedians Jim and Marion Jordan, who created hilarious shows of their own on mid-20th century radio, actually took on the decidedly unfunny roles of the besieged couple in Backseat Driver, twice.

When Radio Redux brings the two thrillers to the Soreng Theater stage, the lead role features Rebecca Nachison as Mrs. Stevenson in Sorry, Wrong Number, with Achilles Massahos and Judi Weinkauf as the couple in the car with the serial killer, played by Ken Hof, in Backseat Driver.

Additional characters include Diana Aday, Joseph Gilg, Dan Pegoda, Jennifer Sellers and Daniel Squire.

The cast also includes Al Villanueva, along with Judy Sinnott, Jennifer Sellers and Debi Noel, who also sing as The Jewel Tones, creating the sound effects. Villaneuva also plays piano with Dean Livelybrooks on bass and Gary Fetter on drums.

Before the performance and during intermission, another musical group, The Redux Rhythmaires, pla 1940s-style jazz, with Livelybrooks joined this time by guitarist Michael Anderson, pianist Matt Treder drummer Rob Neidig , and vocalist Kirstin Parmeter-Nusser.

Sorry, Wrong Number

When: 7:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 8, and 2 p.m. matinees on Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 9-10

Where: Soreng Theater, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, One Eugene Center, Seventh and Willamette streets in downtown Eugene

Tickets: $23 for adults, $20 for people 65+, $16 for youths through college age and groups of five or more, available at the Hult Center box office, 541-682-5000, or online at radioreduxusa.com or hultcenter.org

Additional activities:

•    A free, illustrated behind-the-show talk by radio-film historian Patrick Lucanio 60 minutes before show time in the Hult Center’s Soreng Theater, at 6:30 p.m. Friday and 1 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.
•    A lobby exhibition of radio collectibles by curator Dennis Wright of the Radio Days Theater of the Mind Museum in Sutherlin.
•    An informal meet-the-cast encounter in the Hult Center lobby after the show.