![]() Too much description of the means by which the D’Ysquiths (pronounced DIE-skwith) meet their maker would spoil the merriment, which is heightened by the ingenuity of Mays, the chameleonic actor who won a Tony in 2004 for the multicharacter solo play I Am My Own Wife. ![]() Eight people would have to die for that to happen! How likely is that?” Very, it turns out, as Monty explains in the prison confessional letter he composes, which provides the story’s efficient framing device. Monty’s girlfriend, Sibella ( Lisa O’Hare), a vain beauty determined to marry not for love but for wealth, inadvertently plants an idea in his head: “As if you could ever be an Earl. And while he learns that subsequent attempts by his mother to renew her noble blood ties were rebuffed, Monty discovers he is eighth in line of succession to become Earl of Highhurst, the D’Yysquith family seat. Fresh from his mother’s funeral, Monty learns from her old friend Miss Shingle ( Jane Carr) that his dear departed was disinherited from the aristocratic D’Ysquith family when she married his father, a Castilian musician. “For God’s sake, go!” is their mock-urgent entreaty.Ĭut to the poky garret in Clapham, London, occupied by Monty Navarro ( Bryce Pinkham). A prologue sets the arch tone as members of the company file on to warn the faint of heart, in song, to depart while there’s still time. ![]() Heightening the artifice of the presentation, set designer Alexander Dodge creates an ornate proscenium draped in ruched curtains made of the bloodiest red velvet, with a promenade playing space down front behind the old-fashioned footlights. The material clearly has benefited from the fine-tuning rigors of two pre-Broadway runs, at Hartford Stage and San Diego’s Old Globe. With its sumptuous design elements and versatile ensemble taking on multiple roles, this is a small-scale show that feels both intimate and lavish. Freedman to Steven Lutvak’s tuneful songs to the inventive direction of Darko Tresnjak, a seasoned veteran of the Off Broadway and regional trenches, graduating to theatrical primetime with honors. That applies to the devilish book by Robert L. This is a case where a creative team of first-timers yields rewards across the board. The Broadway musical can often seem a hermetic art form, with the same handful of directors bringing their signature stamps to the majority of new projects. Just hearing Mays as the ridiculously posh Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith scoff his way through “I Don’t Understand the Poor” (a wicked anthem for the one percent) is enough to restore an audience’s faith in musical comedy while getting them in the mood to off some toffs. While there’s some overlap in the pastiche score and vintage British music hall-style staging, Gentleman’s Guide is far superior, propelled by a rollicking story, humor of the most delectable amorality and the cleverest lyrics assembled in quite some time. ![]() Suzanne Shepherd, 'Sopranos' and 'Goodfellas' Mother, Dies at 89ĭuring previews, Broadway chatrooms have drawn facile comparison to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the Tony-winning 1986 Rupert Holmes musical that was given a sparkling revival last season. But that’s by no means the sole enticement of this toothsome new musical. The virtuosic comic turn here belongs to Jefferson Mays, taking on dizzyingly quick changes of costume and characterization with hilarious aplomb. That wonderful 1949 Ealing Studios black comedy cast the incomparable Alec Guinness as eight English aristocrats standing in the way of a murderous commoner’s noble birthright. While the source material credited for A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder is Israel Rank, an Edwardian novel by Roy Horniman published in 1907, the show’s key inspiration lies in the film adapted from that book, Kind Hearts and Coronets. ![]()
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