Book and Lyrics: Robert L. Freedman; Music and Lyrics: Steven Lutvak. At: Bank of America Theatre, 18 W. Monroe St. Tickets: 800-775-2000 or www.broadwayinchicago.com; $25-$123. Runs through Oct. 11
One could try to dismiss the Broadway musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder as a throwback to comic operettas of old. Written by composer Steven Lutvak and book writer Robert L. Freedman, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder features a witty score that revels in legit voices that perfectly matches its English Edwardian setting.
But then again, few operettas of that era are as tightly plotted or as delightfully anarchic as A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. The critically acclaimed show that bursts with theatricality also stands out because it defied the odds during the 2013-14 season to win four Tony Awards including Best Musical.
After a technical tryout in Schenectady, New York, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is making its official national touring launch at Chicago's Bank of America Theatre. And it's a zany delight from start to finish.
Based in part on the 1949 British film Kind Hearts and Coronets ( which starred pre-Star Wars Alec Guinness ), A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder follows the devious exploits of the antihero Monty Navarro ( a very likable Kevin Massey ) to rise above his station once he finds out that he is in the line of succession to a wealthy earldom. To lay claim to the title, Monty just has to knock off the seven other members of the D'Ysquith family ahead of him ( they're all played with comic chameleon precision by John Rapson in a parade of silly costumes by Tony Award-winner Linda Cho ).
As for the "Love" in the show's title, Monty also has dalliances with the super superficial Sibella Hallward ( Kristen Beth Williams, who visually brings to mind an Edwardian Kim Cattrall ) and the more respectable, if emotionally gullible, Phoebe D'Ysquith ( a cute and pixie-like Adrienne Eller ).
The rest of the talented ensemble is put through their paces in Darko Tresnjak's Tony Award-winning direction. Like Rapson, the cast is constantly changing costumes and characters so rapidly that it's only by the end of the curtain call that you realize how compact the ensemble truly is.
A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is really an intimate show, but it feels larger and grander thanks to Tresnjak's great collaboration with designers like Alexander Dodge on the proscenium-within-a-proscenium stage set and Aaron Rhyne's adroit projections.
Clearly, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder should have a strong future life in regional productions both in large professional theaters and by ambitions companies producing in tiny storefronts. But you should see A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder in its original touring incarnation while you can to celebrate all its freshly minted theatrical ingeniousness.