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.
