Review: A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER Dazzles at TUTS

A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER plays out as if you took SWEENEY TODD, let Gilbert & Sullivan rewrite the score, and staged it on a revolutionary picture book set that utilized digital scenery. It's a show that will have you smiling from start to final curtain, and it's got an amazing amount of energy to share with an audience. Theatre Under the Stars has brought the Tony Award Best Musical of 2014 straight from Broadway into Houston with a cast that delivers it expertly. If you're a musical theatre aficionado this is a "must see" this year! You won't see anything as beautifully done anywhere else.

The story is about a poor young man living in Clapham of 1907 named Monty Navarro who has just lost his mother. A mysterious old woman shows up to reveal he is actually part of a very wealthy family called the D'Yqsuiths and the 8th in line to inherit their fortune. He tells this to the woman he loves, but she rejects him as hopelessly poor and runs off to marry a wealthy suitor of convenience. Soon Monty puts into place a plan to knock off the gentrified family one by one until he is the rightful heir. The rest of the play follows his misadventures in love and murder. He learns much as he seeks to avenge his disowned mother and justify the adoration of his beloved.

It all sounds a good bit darker than it is, because the entire production is played as broad comical farce. Actor John Rapson plays the entire D'Ysquith family, and he gets to die on stage eight times over to increasing laughter for the ridiculous circumstances. He creates no less than nine completely different characters that cross genders and affectations with hilarious results. He sings incredibly to boot, and also manages to distinguish his multiple roles both in music and conversation. It is a tour de force performance that makes the musical work extremely well. He's the best special effect this show has got, and given the levels of the others that is impressive.

The rest of the cast are well up to the challenge of farce meeting music hall as well. Kevin Massey makes a fine romantic lead as Monty, and manages to make murder seem perfectly acceptable and congenial. He has a strong singing voice, and his comic timing is a match for Rapson. Kristen Beth Williams is a gorgeous woman with an equally matched singing voice for the love interest named Siebella. She is striking in every scene both visually and audibly. Adrianne Eller plays the brunette Phoebe D'Ysquisth who seeks to marry Monty. She is the yin to Siebella's yang, a prudish beauty who seeks proper actions in her men. Eller is solid and suitably stoic where needed. The trio of Monty, Siebella, and Phoebe at the top of Act Two is a stunning bit of musical theatre that is a high point of the show and the entire TUTS season. The rest of the ensemble cast does pristine perfect work rounding out the townsfolk and innocent bystanders to all of this mayhem.

I would be remiss if I didn't point out the technical marvels in A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER. The sets, the costumes, the special effects are all first rate and innovative. There is a digital screen that makes for very fast scene changes and also allows for spectacular filmic effects to happen throughout the production. The costumes are all appropriately over the top with as much comic flair as anybody wearing them. This is a topnotch show from a design standpoint, and fans of Tim Burton's films will clap with glee at the similar look and feel to these sets.

All in all you have a great comic cast that can sing, a top-notch technical presentation, and a fun show that has sly fun with a dark concept. The only pity is that the songs are rather presentational, and we don't truly have any memorable musical moments that you will leave humming or singing the next day. 24 hours later and I can't sing a bar or tell you much about the lyrics other than they conveyed the story nicely. I wonder what kind of legs this show will have if it gets divorced from the high production levels that Broadway or TUTS can provide? But that is all the more reason to catch it now, because regional theatres will have a hard time replicating this one. A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER needs to be seen big and pretty. And that is exactly what we have here, a grand scale farce played out on a fantastically well appointed stage.

A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER runs through May 15th at the Hobby Center. Tickets can be acquired at www.tuts.com/shows/gentlemans-guide-love-murder or through Theater Under the Stars box office.

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