A guide to zany play at LTVB
Jessi DiPette, left, as Sibella Hallward; Kobie Smith as Montague “Monty” Navarro; and Heather Eddy as Phoebe D’Ysquith in Little Theatre of Virginia Beach’s production of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder” through Sunday, Dec. 10.
“Stop! Wait! What?” Don’t be confused. That’s just the justly confusing title of a song in the score of the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach’s latest musical mission of mayhem, “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” showing through Sunday. It is a silly, but scintillating, outing with book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman and music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak. Despite its similarity to a zillion comic murder shows, this musical won the 2014 Tony for Best Musical and lingered on Broadway for over two years before touring and becoming available to local theaters.
What are the odds that eight heirs to a British earldom would all decide to die off within the space of a year, leaving a formerly, unjustly disinherited young upstart as the reigning Earl of Highhurst? But it could happen, right? It helps the odds, of course, if the wannabe Earl is willing to drown, decapitate and maybe poison the obnoxious rich snobby relatives standing in his way.
We begin the evening with Monty D’Ysquith Navarro (delightfully “executed” by fresh and wry Kobie Smith) already in jail, writing a tell-all, partly voiced-over, journal. But we soon flashback to when our charmer was still quite ignorant of his patrician blood. His poor mother, a genuine D’Ysquith, was cruelly shunned for marrying his father, an — ugh! — foreigner, a Castilian, aka Spaniard who at least had the good grace to die young. It’s only after his mother’s funeral that Monty learns he’s a D’Ysquith (try saying or even listening to that name a hundred times in one evening). And, of course, the young man must fall deeply in love — with not one but two girls — along his blood-spattered road to the top. They are the “deceitful and delectable” Sibella Hallward (Jessi DiPette, stalwart of the local Z Theater) and his cousin Phoebe D’Ysquith (Heather Eddy, standout soprano of the evening). There’s a priceless duet as the ladies fight over their Monty.
But the superstar of the show is former public school theater educator Robert Shirley playing “the D’Ysquith Family.” That’s right, the whole family (minus Monty). He does all eight plus a ninth new plebian D’Ysquith ( janitor) who suddenly materializes at the end, perhaps to give Monty a bit of his own right back. Only one of the D’Ysquiths whom Shirley plays, Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith Sr., “an elderly banker” who hires and mentors Monty, is a decent human being. He dies of natural causes so that all of the folks whom Monty snuffs out seem to deserve it. My favorites among these portrayals include Rev. Lord Ezekiel D’Ysquith, a most unchristian clergyman Monty pushes off his church tower; Henry D’Ysquith, “a country squire” who is gruesomely stung to death by his beloved bees after Monty sprays a bee aphrodisiac into Henry’s beekeeper’s helmet; and, finally, Lady Hyacinth D’Ysquith, “a benefactress” who’s particularly hard to kill, despite Monty’s steering her to do charity work in deadly conflict zones in Egypt, India and Africa. Monty’s finally forced to just drown her in the Thames. Lady Hyacinth is the sort of do-gooder who parades about town with signs and sashes touting “Schools for the Ragged” and “Unite for Imbeciles and Idiots.” She’s said to have “a virtual monopoly on the feebleminded.” No great loss there.
Other favorite D’Ysquith portrayals (all by quick costume change) include Major Lord Bartholomew D’Ysquith, “a bodybuilder” who’s vegetarian (yay!) but a eugenicist (boo!). An advocate of yogurt enemas, Bartholomew is lifting weights with Monty, his spotter. Monty “mistakenly” adds weights to the barbell, resulting in Bartholomew’s, well, decapitation. (A very fake-looking head tumbled across the stage almost into the shocked audience, convulsing with laughter.) One earlier musical number, involving Henry, deserves special mention. It’s the song “Better With a Man,” a leering, double-entendre-filled tribute to love — good-naturedly cheered by the audience at the
Pride Night performance I happened to attend.
Karen Buchheim directed, choreographed and designed the costumes, some of them exquisite period pieces; the play is set in 1909. Lavine Brewster and Peggy McClanahan also receive costume construction credit.
The only possible point of complaint about this terrific LTVB production remains the use of a rented, recorded soundtrack, which gives, at times, a karaoke-bar feeling to the proceedings. True the theater and stage are painfully small, but live music remains the standard, even if part of the stage or house space must be sacrificed.
Buchheim also makes use of a rented set of scenery projections, thrown onto the back wall behind traditionally constructed set framing and furniture. The projections — especially in the church tower “push” scene and the bee-sting murder — are particularly funny and apt. It’s a package developed and offered especially for this show. In an ideal theatrical world, however, the more sights and sounds that are homemade, the better.
Finally, as with all murder comedies, the genre must give us pause. Here, there’s a clever interplay of moral and immoral, highly dependent on the charms of Smith as Monty, the leading man. He’s thoughtful and sexy enough to pull off the role and the murderous premise. But let me quote another line or two from the show’s lyrics: “Murder’s not a hobby for the cautious/thoughts of violence can make the timid nauseous.”
You know if you fall in that category; otherwise, laugh it up!
When: 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday and 2:30 p.m. Sunday
Where: Little Theatre of Virginia Beach, 550 Barberton Drive
Tickets: Check availability Details: 757-428-9233, ltvb. com