Review: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

Ticket Type: Orchestra

Viewing Angle: Front Row, far stage right.

Price: $35 Rush tickets

Location: Walter Kerr Theatre

A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder is the 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Original Musical and it is totally deserving of this honour. Gentleman’s Guide is the story about Monty Navarro (Bryce Pinkham) who finds out he is a descendant of the D’Ysquith family and the 7th in line to become Duke and then attempts to murder family members in his way. It has all the critical comments on class and witty dialogue of Oscar Wilde and staccato story telling tunes of Gilbert & Sullivan.

There performances are solid with a character actor’s dream role being performed by Jefferson Mays who plays all the members of the D’Ysquith family; from an elderly female philanthropist to a muscular old-timer. Bryce Pinkham is also an incredibly likeable leading man, even for a character who deviously eliminates half the cast.

The majority of scenes are presented in a smaller pantomime proscenium which creates quite an intimate space within such a large theatre and makes it difficult to have a bad seat.

There isn’t a singular moment in the show that sticks with you by the end, but that’s only because each scene and song only works as an entire production. They just don’t write show like this anymore and it’s brilliant to see a show like this to win Best Musical even though it doesn’t have songs already famous or isn’t based on a film.