Images: 
Total Rating: 
****
Previews: 
October 22, 2013
Opened: 
November 17, 2013
Ended: 
January 17, 2016
Country: 
USA
State: 
New York
City: 
New York
Company/Producers: 
Tom Kirdahy, Roy Furman, Paula Wagner & Debbie Bisno, Barbara Freitag & Loraine Alterman Boyle, Hunter Arnold, Paul Boskind, Ken Davenport, Lams Productions, Mark Lee & Ed Filipowski, Roberta Pereira/Brunish-Trinchero, Sandford Robertson, Tom Smedes & Peter Stern, Jack Thomas/Susan Dietz
Theater Type: 
Broadway
Theater: 
Walter Kerr Theater
Theater Address: 
219 West 48th Street
Website: 
agentlemansguidebroadway.com
Running Time: 
2 hrs, 30 min
Genre: 
Musical
Author: 
Book: Robert L. Freedman adapting Roy Horniman's novel, "Israel Rank." Music: Steven Lutvak. Lyrics: Robert L. Freedman & Steven Lutvak
Director: 
Dark Tresnjak
Choreographer: 
Peggy Hickey
Review: 

Like a delicious old movie on a rainy afternoon, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder is a clever and hilarious murder mystery, except that we know who-done-it, and the mystery is how he'll do the next one. It's a page-turner, but on stage and with songs.

Bryce Pinkham plays Monty Navarro who receives welcome news from his late mother's friend, Miss Shingle (Jane Carr). She tells him that his mother was a member of the titled and wealthy D'Ysquith family but disinherited when she married his father ("Castilian. And worse, a musician''). This makes Monty rich and the next Earl of Highhurst, except for one glitch. Eight glitches actually. There are those other relatives who stand in his way. What to do? What else? Kill them.

At the top, there is a harmonic warning: "For Those Of You Of Weaker Constitution/ For Those Of You Who May Be Faint Of Heart/ This Is A Tale Of Revenge And Retribution/ So If You're Smart/ Before We Start/ You'd Best Depart." Forget that.

Based on Roy Horniman's 1907 novel, Israel Rank, Robert L. Freedman has written the book for a delightful musical at the Walter Kerr Theater, lavish with Edwardian costumes by Linda Chu and Alexander Dodge's opulent music-hall setting. That killing stuff is brainy and fun, and all the victims are insightfully played by the versatile Jefferson Mayes (I Am My Own Wife). (In a 1949 film version, “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” Alec Guinness did the D'Ysquith eliminations.)

As directed by Darko Tresnjak, Bryce Pinkham's Monty is a handsome devil with subtle sidelong glances, limber, quick moves and a clear tenor voice. Jefferson Mayes sinks into the personalities, investing his various characters with distinctive smarmy charm, hauteur, dippiness and all shades in between. He carefully chooses his weapons to fit the victim, but one favorite is the fabulous “Vertigo” tumble from a church tower.

Composer Steven Lutvak with lyrics by Lutvak and Robert L. Freedman enhance the adventures with bright melodic songs like the ultra-uppity Lord Adalbert's, ''I Don’t Understand the Poor'' (“The lives they lead / Of want and need / I should think it would be a bore”). Lady Hyacinth, ever searching for another charity, observes, "The hottentots and pygmies may appall us/but even they are part of God's design!" Especially clever is a funeral with the mourners singing ''Why Are All the D'Ysquiths Dying?'' with the complaint, ''I'm utterly exhausted keeping track / And most of all, I'm sick of wearing black.''

There is a love angle causing Monty to do some fast manipulating. Lusty Sibella, whose narcissistic and covetous nature, enticingly portrayed by Lisa O'Hare, is pitted against Monty's innocent cousin and fiancee, Phoebe (Lauren Worsham). These two fetching sopranos vocally duel it out with slapstick and slamming doors in "I've Decided to Marry You." Tresnjak's staging and choreographer Peggy Hickey that builds into a masterwork of farce, while Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations are vibrant and polished. Never has murder been more captivating.

Cast: 
Jefferson Mays, Bryce Pinkham, Jane Carr, Lisa O'Hare, Lauren Worsham, Pamela Bob, Joanna Glushak, Eddie Korbich, Jeff Kready, Mark Ledbetter, Jennifer Smith, Price Waldman, and Catherine Walker
Technical: 
Music Dir: Paul Staroba. Set: Alexander Dodge; Costumes: Linda Cho; Lighting: Philip S. Rosenberg; Sound: Dan Moses Schreier; Projections: Aaron Rhyne; Wigs: Charles LaPointe; Orchestrations: Jonathan Tunick; Vocal Arrangements: Dianne Adams
Critic: 
Elizabeth Ahlfors
Date Reviewed: 
May 2014