If you're looking for a musical with the laurels of Downton Abbey and the morals of a mongoose, look no further! A Gentleman's Guide To Love & Murder-the new comedy of manners (well, bad manners) that has won unanimous raves
Monty Navarro has just received some really great news! He's a long-lost member of a noble family and could become the next Earl of Highhurst. There are only eight minor issues, namely the other relatives who precede him in line for the title. So Monty does what any ambitious, highborn gentleman would do: he sets out to eliminate them one by one, all while juggling his mistress (she's after more than just love), his fiancee (she's his cousin, but who's keeping track?), plus the constant threat of landing behind bars! But it will all be worth it if he can slay his way into Highhurst Castle... and be done in time for tea.
Tony winner Jefferson Mays (I Am My Own Wife, Gore Vidal's The Best Man) gives one of the most gasp-inducing performances ever attempted on the American stage, playing all eight doomed heirs who meet their ends in the most creative and hilarious ways. Mays leads a knockout cast alongside the delightfully debonair Bryce Pinkham (Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson) as Monty, the scoundrel whose greatest weapon is his charm. Don't miss this unabashedly raucous new show that Charles Isherwood of The New York Times calls "among the most inspired and entertaining new musicals I've seen in years!"
During previews, Broadway chatrooms have drawn facile comparison to The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the Tony-winning 1986 Rupert Holmes musical that was given a sparkling revival last season. While there's some overlap in the pastiche score and vintage British music hall-style staging, Gentleman's Guide is far superior, propelled by a rollicking story, humor of the most delectable amorality and the cleverest lyrics assembled in quite some time. Just hearing Mays as the ridiculously posh Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith scoff his way through 'I Don't Understand the Poor' (a wicked anthem for the one percent) is enough to restore an audience's faith in musical comedy while getting them in the mood to off some toffs.
The best part: the two leads. Bryce Pinkham sings like a dream and brings great appeal to the murderous Monty. 'I Am My Own Wife' Tony winner Jefferson Mays musters big laughs as Monty's victims. Casualty number one, a bucktoothed priest, croaks with just the right mix of hilarity and the macabre...Finally, there's the score, and, alas, it's a bit of bore. Composer Steven Lutvak wrote lyrics with Freedman. Their songs are consistently cute - and that's it. There's not one number that really stands out and at times the music actually slows down the action.
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