A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, Broadway’s big surprise this season, has helped to warm the hearts of many a wintertime-depressed New Yorker and tourist during one of the coldest seasons on record. The show is a whimsical, fun, and sometimes downright hilarious new musical that will leave you humming a tune, smiling and feeling good all the way home.
With song titles like “Poison in My Pocket,” “Why are all the D’Ysquith’s Dying?,” and “Looking Down the Barrel of a Gun” you would expect a dramatic tragedy along the lines of Sweeney Todd rather than a fun, comedic experience reminiscent of Spamalot or The Drowsy Chaperone. Comedy, however, is what you get. And it comes in large doses.
In A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER, our bad-guy hero of sorts, played brilliantly and cunningly by Bryce Pinkham (Ghost, Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson), takes us on a raucous journey into the mind of lover and murderer, Monty Navaro, who has discovered he has been disinherited by the pretentious D’Ysquith family. That is, if you actually accept that his murders are truly murder. At least they don’t seem to begin as such, and to Pinkham’s credit, we don’t really care. He creates a character you can’t help but love.
As for the D’Ysquith family, Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife, Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Pygmalion, Journey’s End, Of Thee I Sing) brilliantly brings them all to life (yes, all eight of them) so convincingly that you won’t even realize one man is portraying all characters until after the murders of at least three!
A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER arrived on Broadway bringing with a breath of fresh air. Robert Friedman gives us a book and lyrics (along with Steven Lutvak) filled hilarious characters, witty lines and a plot that is full of wonder and farcical suspense right through the final number. At which time we still don’t know for certain how the story ends – but we know enough.
Steven Lutvak’s lively score ties the show together, complimenting the slapstick nature of the action and leaves you singing a happy tune. At the same time, scenic designs from Alexander Dodge and fabulous period costumes by Linda Cho (making her Broadway debut) put a nice big whimsical bow on the entire package.
To sum it up, A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER is laugh-out-lond, roll-in-the-aisle funny, and will keep you smiling for days. You will no doubt want to come back again and again… just for fun!
A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE AND MURDER is currently running at the Walter Kerr Theatre. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.agentlemansguidebroadway.com. Don’t miss it!
