BWW Reviews: THRILL ME - THE LEOPOLD AND LOEB STORY, Greenwich Theatre, April 9 2015

The trouble with high intelligence is that it does not always come with a side order of shrewd judgement nor decent humility. Stir in Richard Loeb's infatuation with Friedrich Nietzsche's concept of Übermensch (Superman), in the 1920s unstained by its Fascist connotations, and Nathan Leopold's infatuation with Loeb, and you have a heady brew indeed. Fortified by it, bored with mere arson and burglary and seeking thrills, the two teenagers plan the ultimate expression of their separation from the petty world of those condemned not to enjoy their considerable advantages: the perfect murder.

Thrill Me, The Leopold and Loeb Story (continuing at Greenwich Theatre until 18 April) tells their tale, one familiar from stage and film adaptations and Stephen Dolginoff's 2005 Off-Broadway hit musical, now revived for the first time. It still shocks though, moments of dark comedy bringing forth only the most reluctant of laughs from the audience, one's mind struggling to process the sheer absence of empathy in men driven solely by their egos, not by the brainwashing of religious or political fanaticism, nor poverty's urgent requirements.

Much is demanded of the two actors, on stage for more or less the whole running time of 90 minutes without interval. Jo Parsons' Leopold is our narrator, telling all to the Parole Board (or is he just telling them what they want - need - to hear?) as he is joined, 34 years earlier in flashback, by Ben Woods's Loeb. Dolginoff's music piles on the emotional turmoil, both men commiting completely to the vocals (assisted by body mics) as the horror unfolds. Woods's luring of their victim to his flashy car (Roadster) is a skin-crawlingly seductive entrapment of a child, a perversion of Parsons' earlier song of love and lust, "Everyone Wants Richard". They are the two highlights of a consistently strong set of songs.

It is perhaps a blessing that some of the musical's intensity is diluted by the size of the stage and the auditorium, which does no favours to two lone actors, but at least allows us a chink or two of light in which to seek salvation from the spiralling evil before us. That said, Tom Turner's piano is beautifully balanced with the actors' voices, something that smaller venues sometimes struggle to get right.

Director Guy Retallack extracts the full force of the narrative in his production, which makes for anything but a comfortable evening. Nevertheless, these men's cruelties were not so unusual then nor now - albeit the intimacy of their bloody hands-on murder was as shockingly transgressive then as ISIS beheadings videos are today. Thrill Me made me think that Nietzsche's Ubermensch lives on somewhere deep inside all of us - how else would we be able to deal with war's collateral damage, famines just an afternoon's flight distance from the London's sprawling plenty and children dying for the want of £5 worth of medicine, if it were otherwise?

Photo Nick Rutter

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