Two performers, one piano and no accompanying musicians. Is that enough for a satisfying cast recording?
That’s the frame on which the Off-Broadway murder-mystery musical-comedy "Murder for Two" is built on. The story is a good-natured spoof of every Agatha Christie novel you've ever read. The plot is simple. A great American novelist has been shot at his surprise birthday party and everyone gathered - people he has embarrassed in one or the other of his novels - is a suspect from his wife to his niece. But this murder won't go unsolved if fresh-faced policeman Marcus Moscowicz has anything to say about it. The twist of the murder comedy, though, is that as one actor (Brett Ryback) plays the detective investigating the crime, the other actor (Jeff Blumenkrantz) plays every suspect. And they both play the piano.
The overarching theme for the score and the recording seems to be: you can accomplish a whole lot with little. With only two performers and one piano, the show makes for low running costs, but listening to the cast recording there's never the sense that quality is sacrificed in an effort to save money. The sound on the recording is crisp and the score is dynamic, entertaining and hilarious, everything a good musical comedy ought to be. Even as the humour descends into the silly occasionally, it's all part of the show's charm which manages to be palatable in its weight (for audience 8 to 98, it boasts) without being unrewarding. The score suggests great thing to come from the new creative team of Kinosian and Blair who manage to eke out energetic music with a single piano and two voices. One can only imagine what they could do with a full orchestra at hand.
As effective as the music and lyrics are, though, even through the cast album it's easy to see that "Murder for Two" is an actors showcase. Jeff Blumenkrantz gets the chance to do more as he plays multiple characters. He is particularly excellent on the recording singing for Barrette Lewis, a somewhat deranged ballerina who seems to emerge as a prime suspect. With only audio, and no visuals, Blumenkrantz’s vocal transformation from character to character seems even more seamless. Brett Ryback's work as the bumbling detective should not be undervalued, though. He brings an easy, appealing energy to his role proving a great partner for Blumenkrantz. It's a pairing that proves essential to one of the highlights of the album – the duet “He Needs A Partner”. The number succeeds both as a hilarious look into our detective as well as a yearning romantic number and emphasises the best thing about the album: the recording is at its best when Blumenkrantz and Ryback are singing together. (And it gets a sweet reprise at the end of the album.)
Released by Ghostlight Records (a subsidiary of Sh-K-Boom Records) the album is one in a long line of Broadway and Off-Broadway shows that have managed to find a larger audience through cast recordings. And, in its way, the "Murder for Two" cast album does the best thing that any cast album do – it makes the listener want to see the show. How does this all work on stage? – that might be the question which most listeners have after finishing the recording. If you’re near New York the show is running until June 29th. For those who can’t see it, though, this recording is a more than satisfying experience. With bits of dialogue interspersed throughout the album the listener gets enough perspective to follow the narrative and the recording gives us enough to leave us entertained, amused and satisfied.
