My daughter Grace and I hurried from the packed parking structure of the Music Center to our seats opening night of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” (hence referred to in this article as A Gentleman’s Guide). Like every parking spot in the multilevel lot, every seat in the multilevel theater was filled. A lot of knowing eye contact and smiles were shared between audience members as we bustled in our seats waiting for the Los Angeles premiere of the 2014 Tony Award Winning Best Musical (among four total awards). We were poised to be entertained, and entertained big, when, BOOM, up went the curtain and the razzle-dazzle began. From the whimsical prologue “A Warning to the Audience” to the big fat finale, the pitch perfect cast walked an exquisite line of winking at the play, and the audience, but never at each other.
Monty Navarro (Kevin Massey), the disinherited heir of the wealthy D’Ysquith family, dances, connives, and sings along his merry schemes of murder after murder after murder; eight to be exact.
With his eye on the chieftain family seat of Earl, Navarro seeks to knock off each member of the royal family while wooing both his crooked lover Sibella (Kristen Beth Williams) and his sweet cousin Phoebe (Adrienne Eller). Massey charms to the point of garnering cheers for his dastardly deeds; clever Williams allows the tiniest hints of Cruella De Ville to color her dripping seduction of Navarro; and Eller is as sweet as a posy, no, wait – a spoonful of sugar – no, wait – a baby chick on Easter morning, making her Act II turn all the more delightful. With perfect pitch, singing Steven Lutvak’s melodious score, these three bring the goods as if straight from Broadway, perhaps even better. With Mary Van Arsdel as the mysterious Mrs. Shingle and a rock solid ensemble, A Gentleman’s Guide is high musical theatre with shades of opera in the sopranos and baritones.
The gem of the evening is the agile John Rapson bringing to life (and death) the eight members of the D’Ysquith Family, poking fun at Edwardian culture with every prinked pinkie and raised eyebrow. When well executed, few theatrical devices are as immediately funny as one actor sashaying his way through multiple broadly drawn characters. Rapson lives just as easily in wig and bosom to uproarious result as Lady Hyancinth D’Ysquith, as he does wearing coat and hat as the Lord Asquith D’Ysquith, and singing with Monty an irreverent duet of “Better With A Man.”
Linda Cho’s costumes are stunning to the point of near distraction, the fit of the corsets, the fall of the fabrics, the symbolism of the colors, themselves are like a character in the play. Director Darko Tresnjak keeps everything a pace. A bit reminiscent of the 1972 murder mystery musical spoof “Something’s Afoot”, “A Gentleman’s Guide” keeps up the fine tradition of firmly planting tongue in cheek while telling the story.
Photo cred: https://www.centertheatregroup.org/tickets/ahmanson-theatre/2015-16/a-gentlemans-guide-to-love-and-murder