Before the advent of DNA ancestry services streamlined the hunt for distant relatives, the British relied on Burke’s Peerage for researching genealogy, the more aristocratic the better. In the musical comedy “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” a man, who has led a life of privation, suddenly learns he has noble blood coursing through his veins and hatches a plan to get the upper hand on the upper crust. This North Coast Repertory Theatre production delivers on all counts in this clever satire on class, snobbery and ruthless ambition.
Set in Edwardian England, the story follows the charming and calculating Monty Navarro (an exuberant Andrew Polec) who, once he realizes he is eighth in line to inherit the D’Ysquith family fortune – a legacy denied to his late mother for marrying against society norms – decides to cut to the chase and systematically eliminate the competition in order to become the next Earl of Highhurst.
All the ill-fated relatives in the story are portrayed superbly by dynamo Nicholas Mongiardo-Cooper who gives life (before it is taken away) to the array of eccentric gentry and downright unpleasant individuals. At the top of the pecking order is Lord Asquith D’Ysquith who tells us everything we need to know about tone-deaf privilege in the song “I Don’t Understand the Poor.”
Some murders are easier to carry out than others as Monty uses ingenuity and the victim’s habits and hobbies to set up what appear to be fatal “accidents.” Hats off to sound designer Chris Luessman for memorably punctuating a clergyman’s long fall from a church bell tower, a squire’s plunge through sabotaged ice on a frozen stream, an allergic beekeeper’s losing battle with a lethal swarm of bees and other calamities.
A few murders give Monty’s conscience slight pause, but he is egged on in his enterprise by his married mistress Sibella (the wonderfully engaging Lauren Weinberg), who is fixated on wealth and status. Also vying for Monty’s affection is Phoebe D’Ysquith (Katy Tang), a cousin not on the hit list because females cannot inherit an Earldom. Lucky her.
Weinberg and Tang are exquisite sopranos who deliver breathtaking solos and duets. A police inspector (Michael Cavinder), a magistrate (Andrew Hey), Sibella’s maid (Shinah Hey) and a governess (Jean Kauffman) round out the cast. Under the compelling direction of Noelle Marion, the two-and-a-half-hour show never flags or falters.
Pitch-perfect musical accompaniment by Daniel Lincoln, Jennifer Williams, Amy Kalal, Katrina Earl. Choreographer by Luke Harvey Jacobs, set design by Marty Burnett, props design by Audrey Casteris, light design by Matthew Novotny, costume design by Elisa Benzoni and hair and wig design by Peter Herman.
Enjoying this compelling production along with the audience on opening night was the show’s Tony Award-winning author Robert L. Freedman.
by Lynne Friedmann
