SEE because:
Think “Sweeney Todd” by way of Gilbert & Sullivan. “Guide” is lighter and not in the same league, but still oodles of fun.
Unlike so many movies-into-musicals, this takes a great comedy (the Ealing classic “Kind Hearts and Coronets”) and finds its own tone and method of storytelling. It’s broader, bigger and longer, of course, but it’s a real musical, not just a transplanted movie with character songs.
As in the film, there’s joy in watching the lead character knock off rival after rival in different and comically ghoulish ways.
Three deaths: the tower fall, the ice-skating pond, the weight room – riotous all.
The scene wherein Monty’s mistress and fiancée are in adjoining rooms with xx caught in the middle is musical farce of the highest order.
Lisa O'Hare as Monty's mistress Sibela is perfection personified. If she doesn’t get a featured-actress Tony nomination, she needs to start bumping off the other contenders.
Unlike a Sid Caesar, who could play different characters hilariously but was always recognizably himself, Jefferson Mays is a comic actor who becomes different roles and then makes them funny in character.
If "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" had better, funnier writing and songs, it would be this.
SKIP because
Bryce Pinkham is a perfectly good lead, though he has a tendency to mug that might swamp his work if it goes unchecked later in the run. Also, his speaking and singing voices can leap into high, scratchy territory that isn’t easy on the ears.
Jane Carr, as Monty's solicitous cousin, is already in mugging mode, drawing out the play’s opening scene with her elongated delivery and long pauses. She’d be perfect for the part if she dialed herself back. As she is now, she’s borderline cringe-worthy.
Act one is a tad longish, as is the show as a whole. Nearly all the killings are committed before intermission, so it’s surprising to find act two running nearly an hour.
FINAL CALL: SEE because
"A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" has wit and playfulness to spare, a hilarious Mays, an exquisite O'Hare and, in that farcical act-two trio, farce so perfectly written and played, I had to hold back from squealing with delight.
