Hercule Poirot investigates Murder on the Orient Express. Courtesy photo

Partially inspired by the kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh’s son, Agatha Christie’s ingenious murder mystery, “Murder on the Orient Express,” was first published in 1934. A best-seller, in time it inspired films and TV adaptations, and a thrilling play by Ken Ludwig, which Maui OnStage will present at the Historic Iao Theater on Nov. 8.

“I read the script last fall and just loved it,” says director Kalani Whitford, whose previous credits include “Rocky Horror,” “Xanadu,” “Mamma Mia” and “Cabaret.” “There’s all that wonderful Agatha Christie mystery that she does so well and it’s much funnier. Ken Ludwig really injected a lot of humor into it. So it’s been really fun to work on it with the actors.”

The setting is the famed Orient Express train, traveling from Istanbul to Western Europe. On board is legendary Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who is called back from Istanbul to London on urgent business.

Securing a first-class seat, while aboard the train, Poirot encounters a host of assorted characters: an aging Russian princess, her Swedish companion, a Hungarian countess, a Minnesota housewife, a Scottish colonel, an English governess, a French conductor, a disgruntled American businessman and his anxious secretary. When a shocking murder occurs it is up to Poirot to solve the mystery.

With a cast that includes Paul Jackel as Hercule Poirot, Francis Tau’a as Monsieur Bouc, Jamie Nicole Wilcox as Mary Debenham and Aaron Pardini as Hector MacQueen, the Maui production features a cast of 12.

“This group is such a great group of actors,” he says. “And we have six understudies who are wonderful.”

In a Broadway World interview, playwright Ludwig reported: “I think what Agatha Christie wrote in essence are comedies or great standard mysteries being sort of comic because it’s so satisfying and has extravagant characters like comedies do. ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ is such a stunning mystery in so many ways. The setting is exotic, the characters are colorful and it’s based on an historical event.”

Setting a play on a train on a Wailuku stage called for masterful ingenuity.

“I’m doing the scenic design with David Negaard, and he and I have come up with a design that is not what people are going to expect,” Whitford explained. “It’s not a physical train. It’s much more stylized.”

Even though folks might know the solution to the murder mystery, it still promises a highly engaging experience. A Guardian review of a London production praised: “Even for those who know its audacious payoff, ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ remains a joy for the author’s exemplary plotting – it’s a different sort of fun to be in on where Christie is leading and misleading us.”

The best-selling novelist of all time, Christie is also the most successful female playwright, holding the world record for being the only female playwright to have three of her plays running simultaneously in London’s West End.

Christie created the character of Poirot while working as a nurse and pharmacist during the First World War when thousands of refugees fled fighting in Belgium and settled in England.

On a Grand Tour around the world in 1922, she traveled to South Africa and learned to surf in Cape Town. Believed to be the first Western woman to surf standing up, Christie spent three months in Hawaii, surfing daily at Waikiki. She took her first trip on the Orient Express in 1928, and began working on “Murder on the Orient Express” in Iraq.

Tony-nominated playwright Ludwig’s adaptation of Christie’s classic captures all the glamor, intrigue and suspense of her novel. The goal was to give the audience two hours with “glamorous, interesting people,” Ludwig reported.

“I think it’s going to be something that people haven’t seen before on Maui,” says Whitford. “Jennifer Oberg is doing the costumes and the costumes alone are worth buying a ticket. I’m really excited. It’s going to be a lot of fun.”

“Murder on the Orient Express” will be presented at the Historic Iao Theater at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 8 and 9, Nov. 15 and 16, Nov. 22 and 23 and at 3 p.m. Nov. 10, 17 and 24. Tickets range from $25 to $45 for adults, and children 12 and under are $10.