review milt thomas

Normally I take in new shows at Riverside Theatre on opening night partly to gauge the audience’s reaction. But this time I went to a matinee during the show’s second week. What I found was a full house laughing throughout the show, me along with them. Word has certainly spread that A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder is the musical comedy to see.

No wonder it is so popular! A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder is like Agatha Christie high on Devonshire cream channeling Monte Python. As you walk into the theater, the stage is set in early 1900s fashion with nine portraits of people ringing the stage. Those people are members of the D’Ysquith family, central to the story line. But wait, we don’t know that yet.

After a disembodied, seemingly crazed narrator, tells us to make sure all recorders are turned off, the curtain opens with a group of people dressed in mourning clothes and recommends that anyone with a weaker constitution leave the theater as the show might prove disturbing. No one stood to leave.

The year is 1909, and Lord Montague “Monty” D’Ysquith Navarro, ninth earl of Highhurst (played by Jack Levy), is sitting in jail. He tells the audience he is writing his memoirs expecting to soon be executed. Then he begins telling his story.

Two years earlier, Monte was not an earl, but was unemployed, destitute, and living in a run down apartment.

As he mourns the recent death of his washerwoman mother, a well-to-do woman, Miss Shingle (played by Tregoney Shepherd), enters the apartment to inform Monty that his mother was actually a member of the aristocratic D’Ysquith family, but was disowned by the family for marrying a commoner. Miss Shingle encourages him to take his rightful place in the family.

So Monte writes to Lord Asqith D’Ysquith, scion of the family’s banking house, asking for a job since he was a family member. Monty hears back from Lord Asquith’s son, Asquith Jr, who denies Monte’s connection to the family and forbids him from ever contacting the family again.

Monte seeks solace from his love, Miss Sibella Hallward (played by Mary Kate Moore), who will not marry him because he is destitute, and besides, she is seeing a high status suitor, Lionel Holland. Monte tells her of his tenuous connection to the D’Ysquith family, but she points out that even if he is related to the D’Ysquiths, eight people would have to die before he could become the rich earl.

Not to be deterred, Monty goes on a tour of Highhurst Castle, ancestral home of the D’Ysquiths, on Visitor’s Day. Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith (played by Dan DeLuca), the current earl, chases Monte away, thinking he is nothing but a distasteful commoner.

Monte tries an end around and calls on Reverend Lord Ezekial D’Ysquith (also played by Dan DeLuca), a feeble old man, who remembers Monte’s mother, but refuses to advocate for him. He agrees to show Monte around the church though, and they end up in the bell tower. The Reverend stumbles and reaches out to Monte as he falls over the edge, but Monte decides not to help save him.

Remember those nine photos stacked on both sides of the stage? Well, they represent nine senior members of the D’Ysquith clan, and the photo representing the Reverend Ezekial suddenly sports a large red “X.” Monte is now on his way to eliminating his rivals and becoming earl.

He subsequently sees Asquith Jr. (played again by Dan DeLuca) and his mistress sneak out of town to go frolic at a winter resort. Monte follows them and as they are ice skating on a frozen lake, he is inspired to take a comically large saw and cuts a hole in the ice. The couple falls through the hole and drowns.

Another red “X” appears on Asquith Jr.’s stage-side portrait. That’s two murders all in good fun (for the audience) and leaves seven more to be eliminated for Monte to become Earl of Highhurst.

Monte returns to London to find a letter from Lord Asquith D’Ysquith Sr. inviting him to the family bank to discuss a job opportunity. Lord Asquith Sr. (played, of course, by Dan DeLuca) is mourning the death of his son in a skating accident and offers Monte a stockbroker position with a comfortable salary, which Monte accepts.

Monte rushes to tell his love, Sibella, of his good fortune. She begins to reconsider her choices, but informs him she is now engaged to the rich gentleman, Lionel Holland, and plans to go ahead and marry him.

So, Monte now sets his sights on a cousin, Henry D’Ysquith (played again by Dan DeLuca), a gentleman farmer and beekeeper. He meets Henry in a local pub and rescues him from being assaulted by an unhappy tenant. This sets up one of the most hilarious scenes as Henry invites Monte to his home and introduces his sister, Phoebe (played by Lauren Maria Medina). As the couple gets to know each other, Henry is in the background working with his bees until they swarm and attack him. While Monte and Phoebe focus on their developing relationship, Henry is running back and forth across the stage surrounded by a cloud of bees stinging him until he dies.

Another large, red “X” appears in one of the stage side portraits.

By now, the audience can guess where this farce is headed. Yes, the plot gives a hats off to Agatha Christie, but with a wink, where every character plays straight man-woman to Dan Deluca’s one-man HBO-style comedy show. I was exhausted just watching him!

Monte goes from innocent, hapless loser trying to impress his girlfriend, to improbable killer, hoping to get rich as he murders his way up the social ladder. He never loses his innocent charm, at least in the eyes of his two now competing girlfriends.

The 2013 musical is based on a 1907 book, The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman, an Edwardian-era author and playwright. The book also served as the basis for a 1949 British film, Kind Hearts and Coronets, where a young Alec Guinness played all the male and female family members. I remember seeing the movie when I was a mere lad and my first impression of Alec Guinness lasted with me through Lawrence of Arabia and the first Star Wars film.

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder ran on Broadway for three years, winning four Tony Awards in 2014 including Best Musical. The music by Robert L. Freedman and Steven Lutvak is ever-present throughout the show, especially the lyrics, that add a great deal of continuity to the story.

I am certain you will love this show – the actors, the music, the stage work, everything! But DO NOT wait to see A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder, because it only runs through February 1. Tickets start as low as $50 and may be purchased by calling the Box Office at 772-231-6990 or visiting riversidetheatre.com.