Featuring Meryl Streep, John Lithgow, and Mary Beth Hurt in one of their earliest television appearances, this 1895 thriller by William Gillette tells the tale of a Union spy working to seize control of the telegraph office in Richmond, Virginia in 1864. Posing as a wounded Confederate captain named Thorne, the spy's false orders to a Confederate Army commander raise the suspicions of a southern agent, who uses a local girl in love with Thorne as his reluctant accomplice to set a trap. "...more turns then a corps de ballet in frenzied heat." --The New York Times

Meryl Streep and John Lithgow star in this Broadway revival of an 1895 thriller. The action is set in Richmond in 1864 as the South is making one final stand in the Civil War. Demure but headstrong belle Edith (Streep) is determined to keep her dashing beau, Captain Thorne (Lithgow), at home and away from the front lines. She manages to win him a commission running the Confederacy’s telegraph office just as word gets out that there’s a Yankee traitor trying to infiltrate that very post. The man running the investigation is--oh, no!--Edith’s bitter rejected suitor. Fun as that would be as a standard melodrama, Secret Service actually has a few twists in store that turn it into quite a good potboiler. Mary Beth Hurt adds humor and charm in a terrific performance as the flighty young Caroline, and sharp-eyed film fans will notice a young Jeffrey Jones playing a soldier. --Ali Davis