This review is adapted from my critique during the show’s premiere at Hartford Stage in October 2012.
Pity the D’Ysquith family. One by one they are being,
unceremoniously, knocked off during the thoroughly enjoyable new musical, A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder. Transferring to Broadway after its
world premiere engagement at the Hartford Stage last year, the musical is
smart, funny, and entertaining.
There are many aspects of the production to praise with primary honors
going to the tour de force performance of actor Jefferson Mays. He inhabits all eight members of the
D’Ysquith family who are creatively and precipitously disposed of throughout
the show.
The production itself, housed in what could
be viewed as an elegant Victorian dollhouse of a set, lovingly designed by
Alexander Dodge, is not the big razzmatazz musical typically inhabiting the
Broadway stage. A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder is
more understated, smaller in scale, but nonetheless wholly satisfying.
The plot of the musical is based on a 1907
book by Roy Horniman and was the source material for the 1949 British black
comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets,
where Alec Guinness famously played eight members of the D’Ascoyne family. In
A Gentlemen’s Guide the story unfolds as we are introduced to Monty
Navarro, a handsomely charming young man awaiting a verdict in his sensational
murder trial. How did he end up in
such a predicament? We begin to
find out why as the action adeptly switches to the beginning of Navarro’s
tale.
Slightly downtrodden and impoverished, he
discovers his recently deceased mother was a disinherited member of the
D’Ysquith family. Joyful, yet
reserved, he contacts his newfound relatives about his current familial status
seeking acceptance, but finding nothing but rejection. Learning, off-handedly, that he is now
eighth in line to become the head of the family Navarro, quite innocently at
first, begins to ingeniously find ways to bump off the relationships in front
of him for succession. Driving him
onward is his need for retribution, greed, and the desire to impress the love
of his life Sibella who, while loving the beguiling Navarro, desires someone
more monied to settle down with.
Enter Jeffrey Mays in the guise of all the
soon-to-be fallen D’Ysquith members.
He is variously pompous, arrogant, highfaluting, overbearing, and
self-centered in his various portrayals.
All of them are very funny.
When he is onstage, A Gentlemen’s
Guide shines and bubbles over with merriment. This is the one slight problem I have with the show. Mays is so masterful in his
performances that in Act II, when almost all the D’Ysquith clan had by then met
their untimely demise, the production focuses mostly on the loves of Navarro’s
life, a slight letdown from the over-the-top shenanigans of Act I. But this is a small complaint of the
book by Robert L. Freedman and doesn’t detract from the overall enjoyment of
the musical.
In addition to Jeffrey Mays, Bryce Pinkham
is wonderful as Monty Navarro. At
first soft-spoken and unassuming he slowly blossoms into a determined and
devious gentleman of the world perfectly complementing Mays’ more over-the-top
characterizations. Lisa O’Hare, as
Sibella Hallward, is sexy, alluring, and more than a bit of a tease as the love
of Navarro’s life. She, along with
the two male leads, provide a rollicking good time throughout A Gentlemen’s Guide.
The score by Freedman and Steven Lutvak
actually provide tuneful, witty songs, which seems such a rarity these days
with new musicals. The well-crafted ballads are beautifully sung and the comic numbers perfectly executed. Jeffrey Mays,
while not the keenest vocalist as his co-stars, nonetheless, knows how to
deliver a song with aplomb as he does with the comic numbers “I Don’t
Understand the Poor” and “Better With a Man.”
Having directed the show in Hartford, Director
Darko Tresnjak, in his first Broadway outing, assuredly guides the musical
through its paces. He knows
the musical well, adding a number of creative flourishes throughout the
production, primarily surrounding the deaths of the D’Ysquith family (which I
won’t spoil). Tresnjak keeps
the show lighthearted and sprightly.
A Gentlemen’s Guide
to Love and Murder, delivering hilarity and mayhem at the Walter Kerr Theatre.
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