Review | 'Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder," now in Tampa, is amusing and visually impressive
One of the most talked-about Broadway shows in the past few years has been "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder." It hit New York in 2013, created and performed largely by people who had never worked on Broadway before, and won four Tony Awards including Best Musical.
Bradenton-area audiences are among the first to get a chance to see the Broadway production in their own back yard. The first-ever national tour of "Gentleman's Guide" opened in September, and its third stop is at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa. It runs through Sunday.
It's the laugh-riot that many reports have promised, but it's overwhelmingly clever, steadily amusing and, given its subject matter, oddly charming.
The story, set in the early years of the 20th century, has to do with a young man named Monty Navarro, who is of no societal standing. After the death of his mother, he learns that he is eighth in line to become the heir of one of England's most famous families. In the unlikely event that eight specific members of his family pass away before he does, he'll gain unspeakable wealth and become an earl. (His mother was a member of that family, but was disowned after she married a penniless Castilian, and never told her son she was from nobility.)
The news of his noble heritage doesn't change his life as much as he'd hoped. Monty's beautiful but shallow girlfriend dumps him anyway, and the family, called the D'Ysquiths, wants nothing to do with him. So Monty decides to murder his way to the top, killing older family members one-by-one in inventive ways.
(If the plot sounds familiar, you may have seen "Kind Hearts and Coronets," a 1949 film that's based on the same novel as "Gentleman's Guide," in which Alec Guinness played all the victims.)
The humor is silly, bordering on slapstick, and only gruesome in an Edward Gorey kind of way. Steven Lutvak's music is delightfully old-fashioned, at times sounding like Lerner and Loewe mixed with Kurt Weill. (Lutvak co-wrote the lyrics with Robert L. Freedman, who also wrote the book.)
The show's song-heavy -- it could be considered an operetta -- and some of the laughs get lost because it's hard to catch every single word of the lyrics. (It'd be a good idea to get the cast album, or at least some tracks from it, to familiarize yourself with the lyrics before you see the show. The album is well worth its price.)
The cast of the touring production is undeniably phenomenal. Most of the cast members take more than one role, and they do it so effectively that it's a shock to see so few people come out to take bows at the show's end.
John Rapson plays all eight of the ill-fated D'Ysquiths, men and women, and in the course of the musical he tumbles from a belfry, falls through the ice while skating on a frozen leg, eats poison and runs afoul of a tribe of cannibals.
He's amazing to watch, but the other cast members, including Mary Van Arsdel as Miss Shingle, Kevin Massey as Monty and Kristen Beth Williams as the woman Monty falls in love with in the midst of the mayhem, are all just as impressive in less flashy turns. And they're accompanied at the Straz Center by a pristine pit orchestra.
Even more striking than the songs, the story and the performances, though, is the design work. Scenic designer Alexander Dodge has created a beautiful and clever set -- a proscenium stage within the theater's own proscenium stage -- that imparts the perfect tone and allows for the many quick set changes that the shows requires to happen unobtrusively. Linda Cho's Tony-winning costume design is a marvel of Edwardian beauty, and Aaron Rhyne's projections are stunningly original and effective.
Maybe "Gentleman's Guide" is a victim of its own hype. It's not as funny as some of us here in the provinces have been led to believe. If you expect one of the best shows you've seen, you may be disappointed. Reasonable expectations will be satisfied or surpassed.
Details: Through Oct. 25, Morsani Hall at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa. Show times: 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Sunday. Tickets: $40-$95 plus service charge. Information: 813-229-7827, strazcenter.org.
Marty Clear, features writer/columnist, can be reached at 941-708-7919. Follow twitter.com/martinclear.
This story was originally published October 23, 2015 at 1:28 PM with the headline "Review | 'Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder," now in Tampa, is amusing and visually impressive ."