A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder
If you remember Sir Alec Guinness in any role besides Obi-Wan Kenobi, there’s a good chance you remember him playing the entire D’Ascoyne family in 1949’s “Kind Hearts and Coronets.” I didn’t originally intend to see Theatre Denton’s performance of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”, but when I realized it was based on the 1907 novel, “Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal”, I recognized it as the same source material, and my interest was piqued.
As I discovered, “A Gentleman’s Guide” was a Broadway musical that opened in 2013, ran until 2016 with over 900 performances, earned ten Tony nominations in 2014, and won four Tony awards: Best Musical, Direction of a Musical, Book of a Musical, and Best Costume Design. Now it was Theatre Denton’s turn to bring their performance of the black comedy musical to local audiences.
Monty is the vengeful protagonist, played charmingly by Luke Knittle, but he’s certainly no hero. The body count accumulates throughout the first act (which runs an hour and a half), as the D’Ysquiths fall from towers, fall through ice, get stung by bees, get sent off to be eaten by cannibals, get squashed by weights, and have their prop guns exchanged for the real thing--- all with a little subtle help from Monty. In the meantime, Roger Reikofski did a fantastic job of dying repeatedly, creatively, and comically. Caroline Pluscht is Sibella, the woman who Monty never stops loving, and who once might have married him if only he had had a motor-car and some disposable income. Kay Burgess is Phoebe D’Ysquith, the third member of the love triangle and sister to one of his victims, but is not in competition for the title and thus is allowed to live.
The thing that really stood out in this musical was the lyricist’s love for counterpoint. Whether as duets, trios, or quartets, there were numerous instances where multiple people’s songs would overlap and intertwine. “Poison in My Pocket”, “Better With a Man”, “I’ve Decided to Marry You”, and numerous other songs all made use of this technique, to good effect. They were backed by a twelve-piece orchestra playing live in the mezzanine. Theatre Denton made excellent use of its digital backdrops. They were often animated: smoke rising subtly from chimneys, snowflakes falling, bees buzzing angrily. The D’Ysquith family’s costumes were deliberately funny with their clumsiness: fake mustaches, fake muscles, fake bosoms. It was all a joke, and the audience was part of it.
I’d probably find something more wholesome to take children to. If you prefer your stage entertainment to have more depth and nuance, this is probably the wrong show. If you want to turn your brain off for a few hours and enjoy some quirky campiness that brings to mind an earlier, less-polished era on Broadway-- give it a try. The Campus Theatre is in downtown Denton, and performances of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” run through October 1st.