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"A
Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" is a smashing way to deal
with aristocrats
"A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder."
Book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman; music and lyrics by Steven
Lutvak; based on a novel by Roy Horniman; directed by Darko Tresnjak;
choreography by Peggy Hickey.
Walter Kerr Theater, 219 West 48th Street, New York City.
212-239-6200, http://www.agentlemansguidebroadway.com/
Opened Nov 17, 2013.
Reviewed by Lucy Komisar Nov 21, 2013.
This is Jefferson Mays' show from start to finish, and he is brilliant
in it. It's a smart clever musical with definite anti-aristocratic
politics. A fantasy moment when so many of us are trying to figure
out how to get rid of the bad guys.
The story was told in the 1949 British film "Kind Hearts and
Coronets" starring Alec Guinness. That was based on the 1907
novel "Israel Rank: the Autobiography of a Criminal" by
Roy Horniman.
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| Jefferson
Mays as Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith in "A Gentleman's Guide to
Love and Murder". Photo by Joan Marcus. |
It seems that a relative way down the line of a British
(minor) noble family, the D'Ysquiths, would like to inherit the gorgeous
ancestral estate, complete with standing suits of armor and all that
goes with it. (Read castle, framed portraits of forebears, long wooden
dining tables, servants, etc.) And he figures that the only way to
do that is to kill off everyone preceding him in line.
A personal version of contemporary cut-throat capitalism, no? And
probably close to how those aristocrats got their wealth in the first
place. Remember the British enclosures of the 1600s when peasants
were forced off communal lands by nobles who wanted to graze sheep?
This is as fresh and clever as if it were written yesterday. Or today
if you consider it a metaphor. Book and lyrics are by Robert L. Freedman,
music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak. Director Darko Tresnjak finds just
the right place between tongue-in-cheek and outrageous.
The story is presented as a British prison mystery.
But a shirred red satin curtain dropping to the stage emphasizes that
this is a music hall/vaudeville melodrama circa the early 1900s.
Mays plays every one of the D'Ysquiths! He is so good that you might
not realize it. The person who accompanied me to the play had neglected
to look at the Playbill that lists him in eight roles and didn't have
a clue to the mystery!
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| Jefferson
Mays as Henry D'Ysquith, Jennifer Smith as tour guide, and Bryce
Pinkham as Monty Navarro in "A Gentleman's Guide to Love
and Murder". Photo by Joan Marcus. |
It's London 1909. Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith in
red coat and top hat declaims, "I don't understand the poor…We
extend them too much latitude." And he (or some other D'Ysquith)
carries on about "leaving the riffraff behind us." These
self-important minor nobles are so outrageous that you can't feel
too much sympathy when they are imaginatively disposed of.
Henry D'Ysquith, who foreclosed on the land of a farmer, does a show-stopper
with a grin and a stutter that declares, "It's better with a
man." Not necessarily sex, just the camaraderie with his drinking
buddies."
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| Joanna
Glushak as Lady Eugenia, Lauren Worsham as Phoebe D'Ysquith, Bryce-Pinkham
as Monty Navarro, Lisa O'Hare as Sibella Hallward and Jefferson
Mays as Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith in "A Gentleman's Guide to
Love and Murder". Photo by Joan Marcus. |
There's one family member that May doesn't play, Sister
Phoebe D'Ysquith, excellently portrayed by Lauren Worsham with a soprano
that reaches opera-quality high notes.
Catherine Walker as Miss Barley ,who meets her D'Ysquith at a winter
resort, also has a charming soprano. Mays has a very good baritone.
The cast is superb in every way.
To underline how current the story is, Lady Hyacinth D'Ysquith runs
a school for the ragged, under the slogan "Unite for imbeciles
and idiots." The super-rich just love to throw a few coins at
the most miserable they can find!
There is some love interest, of course, with our hero dealing with
two ladies who would like to snare him. A clever diversion.
The projections of Aaron Rhyne add to the excitement. Think of Rev.
Lord Ezekial D'Ysquith falling down a high church circular staircase.
The sets are by Alexander Dodge.
Visit Lucy Komisar’s website
http://thekomisarscoop.com |
