Review: A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER at Arizona Broadway Theatre

Guest contributor David Appleford unravels the nuances of Arizona Broadway Theatre’s production of Robert L. Freedman’s A GENTLEMAN'S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER.

If the plot of a struggling young man in Edwardian England who discovers he’s ninth in line to earn an aristocratic title sounds familiar, it should, especially when that young man plots to murder the eight other heirs standing before him. It’s from the 1949 Alec Guinness and Dennis Price black and white Ealing comedy, Kind Hearts and Coronets.

When author and lyricist Robert L. Freedman wrote the musical A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, now playing on Arizona Broadway Theatre’s mainstage in Peoria until June 1, it was a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the classic film. And even though the theatre program gives credit to the original 1907 novel by Roy Horniman as the basis for the show, the Tony Award-winning musical is really a re-telling of the movie version, including its updates and character changes. However, due to a legal dispute, for whatever reason, the movie’s title could not be used.

Considering the show’s style of presentation and its comical, fast-paced tone – it’s a show within a show presented in the style of an Edwardian London Music Hall with its own set of curtains and a lighted proscenium arch – the new title becomes considerably apt. Before events unfold, the show’s ensemble gathers at the foot of the stage to sing a short but ominous warning to the audience It’s letting us know that what we are about to witness is not for the faint of heart, “So if you’re smart/Before we start/You’d best depart.” Then the plush, red-lighted curtains of the Music Hall stage rise, and we’re off.

Monty Navarro (Ryan Michael Crimmins) is already in jail for crimes committed. In a recorded voice-over narration, we learn that it’s now the eve of Monty’s execution. He decides to admit to all and spend his last night writing his memoirs, which he titles A Gentlemen’s Guide to Love and Murder. 

It was originally the idea of Alec Guinness when making the film that all the upper-crust family members standing in Monty’s way should be played by one person. Originally he was meant to portray just four of the relatives, but Guinness asked, why not play all eight, including the women?  In the show, the same technique is used. 

In ABT’s new production of the 2013 hit Broadway musical, the eight family members, both men and women of the aristocratic D’Ysquith family, are played with a broad, over-the-top relish as deserving of an old-fashioned musical hall-styled production by James Schultz. Each character is so well defined, there’s a good chance that some audience members may not initially realize it’s Schultz in every role. 

His performance of I Don’t Understand the Poor, sung under the guise of the uppish Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith, is one of the show’s two musical highlights. Because of his lordship’s imagined sense of superiority and his snotty attitude toward those in a class below him – a character trait belonging to all the privileged D’Ysquith family members -  there’s a point where Monty’s murders become less of a crime and more of a public service. Director and choreographer Danny Gorman has tapped nicely into a rich vein of black humor that makes each of the D’Ysquith family members thoroughly objectionable.  Even though Monty is in reality a serial killer, you spur him on to see how he’ll commit the next crime.

The other musical highlight, I've Decided To Marry You, comes in the second half.  It’s not only a great scene, as time passes, it may well take on the guise of one of the standout musical moments of modern musical theatre. Monty has climbed the social ladder and finds himself caught between the affections of two women, the worldly, married, and somewhat conniving socialite Sibella (Kelsey Seaman) and the more innocent though thoroughly charming Phoebe (Katie Scarlett Swaney). Both women are inconveniently at Monty’s home at the same time, with Monty frantically guiding them into separate rooms to keep them apart. The music by Steven Lutvak coupled with Freedman’s wonderfully witty lyrics echo Gilbert & Sullivan together with a dash of Sondheim. Imagine what a classic farce like A Flea in Her Ear or even Noises Off might look and sound like if presented as musical theatre, complete with slamming doors, identity changes – Monty pretends Sibella is his imagined noisy manservant – and frenetic exits and entrances into different rooms. 

The murders Monty commits are comically staged, aided by the never-ending visual invention of the company’s digital backscreen projection that helps illustrate the cause of each character's demise. The vicar appears to fall from a spiraling church tower; another disappears under cracked ice, while another is hilariously pursued by killer bees. Christian Fleming’s scenic design on the music hall stage-within-a-stage is forever attention-grabbing with its quick set changes and its dazzling color, brought to life by Jose Santiago’s effective lighting.  At the sudden conclusion of each murder, Santiago bathes the stage in immediate blood red. 

The conclusion of the show differs from the 1949 film, though to tell you how would be committing a bigger crime than any of Monty’s murders. Interestingly, when the film was readied for American audiences, censors would not allow the British version to play – back then, a murderer could never get away with his crimes – so an extra few seconds were added to remind audiences that Monty’s character (named Louis in the film) had left his confessional memoir in his jail cell for others to find. That’s not what happens here. The show includes yet another layer that only adds to the surprises of the musical and strengthens the show’s outcome even further. 

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder won’t change anyone’s view when it comes to the advancement of musical comedy, but it’s a great evening’s entertainment employing the Great British Music Hall tradition of broad comedy, some low-brow humor, lots of mugging, jaunty, upbeat songs, inventive staging, comic operetta, and grand ensemble voices. If recent modern musical fare such as the glut of jukebox musicals has left you wondering whatever happened to storytelling with a new, original score, then this show is yours.  A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER is that rarity – a new musical with a score inspired by a theatrical style of the past that will forever remain timeless. And it’s so much fun.

Arizona Broadway Theatre ~ https://azbroadway.org/ ~ 7701 W Paradise Ln, Peoria, AZ ~ 623-776-8400

Graphic credit to ABT

To post a comment, you must register and login.