NEW YORK (AP) There are different ways to make it to the top. You could start at the bottom and work hard, or breeze into the family business or you could try murdering your way to success, as in the dazzlingly funny new musical comedy "A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder."
The hilarious satire on Edwardian melodrama, featuring the incomparable and seemingly tireless Jefferson Mays in eight roles, opened Sunday night on Broadway at the Walter Kerr Theatre. A gentle, penniless young man, Monty Navarro (given disarming appeal in a star turn by Bryce Pinkham) learns of his late, downtrodden mother's secret aristocratic past as a disinherited member of the wealthy D'Ysquith clan.
With zestful comedic brilliance, Mays portrays all eight of the hapless relatives who stand between Monty and his new goal to revenge the heartless treatment of his mother and become the ninth Earl of Highhurst Castle. Pinkham narrates and relives Monty's confessional memoirs with dashing aplomb. Having begun his dark, opportunistic ascent with a fortuitous "accident," our anti-hero works to creatively eliminate all the D'Ysquiths in his way.
The farcical vaudevillian tour de force features a book by Robert L. Freedman, rousing music by Steven Lutvak, and wry, wonderful lyrics by Freedman and Lutvak that call to mind the light-hearted puns and wit of Noel Coward. Darko Tresnjak directs with a flair for slapstick surprises and exuberantly cheesy sight gags and special effects, while Peggy Hickey provides clever choreography for the versatile ensemble.
Events zip along with a winking, good-humored air, interspersed with wonderful singing by the whole cast, whether it's a bouncy melody or a thoughtful ballad. Ever energetic, Mays, who won a Tony Award for portraying multiple characters in "I Am My Own Wife," superbly creates a different eccentric British personality for each unfortunate D'Ysquith.