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. (A very fake-looking head tumbled across the stage almost into the shocked audience, convulsing with laughter.) Monty “mistakenly” adds weights to the barbell, resulting in Bartholomew’s, well, decapitation. An advocate of yogurt enemas, Bartholomew is lifting weights with Monty, his spotter. 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!). 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. Monty’s finally forced to just drown her in the Thames. 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. My favorites among these portrayals include Rev. He dies of natural causes so that all of the folks whom Monty snuffs out seem to deserve it. 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 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. There’s a priceless duet as the ladies fight over their Monty.īut 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). 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). 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. 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). ![]() 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. ![]() But we soon flash back to when our charmer was still quite ignorant of his patrician blood. 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. 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. 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. ![]() Freedman and music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak. ![]() It is a silly, but scintillating, outing with book and lyrics by Robert L. 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.
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