‘A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ one clever devil of a musical

NEW YORK — A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder may walk away with this year’s Tony Award for Best Musical. With little competition so far, and an onslaught of movie-to-stage adaptations (Aladdin, Bullets Over Broadway, The Bridges of Madison County), originality is missing from the Great White Way in a big way. So sitting down at the Walter Kerr Theatre is a refreshing exercise because for two-and-a-half hours audiences are entertained by a musical that is truly original and quite fun.

Jefferson Mays plays a motley variety of family members in the D’Ysquith family, all of them in line to inherit a huge family fortune and all of them a target of the sly scheming of Monty Navarro (Bryce Pinkham). Monty, a clever chap, recently found out that he’s a D’Ysquith as well and possibly able to inherit the riches, that is unless he dispatches the rest of the family that stands in front of him.

The action of this farcical music, where Mays makes more costume changes than should be humanly possible, takes place on a two-tiered stage at the Walter Kerr. Downstage, actors address the audience, while in the jewel box, curtained stage upstage, they perform the unfortunate fates of the many D’Ysquiths. Each death is creatively concocted by Monty, and Mays plays the ludicrous results with great humor.

The songs by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak are enjoyable and hummable, although they prove unmemorable as the night progresses. They come off more as passing asides, ways for the characters to let the audience know their next move. The company numbers add some vigor to the evening, but the humor and skill of the show actually are found in the individual performances, many of them coming from Mays. The music in this musical is quite secondary.

Mays is the draw here, and he’s definitely a frontrunner for Best Actor in a Musical at the Tonys. Minute to minute he becomes a new family member, sporting a different voice, costume and sense of humor. His creations are masterful, from an old lady ready to travel the world to a strange priest with a combover. There’s the young man infatuated with Bryce Pinkham’s Monty and the dastardly husband who hates his wife. In less than three hours, Mays travels the world (and stage) in many different shoes.

Pinkham is also quite skilled, adding this show to his impressive Broadway roster (he’s an alumnus of Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson and Ghost the Musical). Not so much a villain as a man enamored with the possibility of his new allotment in life, Monty is an interesting antihero, one who has two love interests (played by Lisa O’Hare and Lauren Worsham) and a long list of murder victims. The scene where he tries to keep this love interests separated in the same house is classic farce, almost like a page out of the Noises Off! book.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, winningly directed by Darko Tresnjak, is not the strongest of musicals. Its humor can only take the show so far, and there are too many similarities with The Mystery of Edwin Drood, but in a Broadway season devoid of originality, it shines brighter than a marquee. That shine may last all the way to Tony night.

By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com

• A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

• Directed by Darko Tresnjak

• Book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman; music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak

• Starring Jefferson Mays, Bryce Pinkham, Lisa O’Hare and Lauren Worsham

• Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes

• Currently playing the Walter Kerr Theatre at 219 W. 48th St. in Manhattan. Tickets are currently on sale through Sept. 7. $35 rush tickets available. Click here for more information on tickets.

• Rating: