In 2014, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder won four Tony Awards including the award for Best Musical, seven Drama Desk Awards including Outstanding Musical, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theatre Album.
5 Things to Know About A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder
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In our production, the characters playing Monty and Sibella are an adorably talented married couple in real life! Not only are they fantastic actors, they are incredible photographers as well. Marco Alberto Robinson and Adriane Leigh Robinson also appeared together at the Arvada Center in our 2021 production of I Do! I Do!
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It’s based on the 1907 fictional novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal by Roy Horniman. In this novel, readers follow the journey of Israel Rank, an ambitious Jewish man whose desire to climb the social ladder comedically turns him into a serial killer. Horniman used the novel’s plot to parody the anti-Semitism going on in England at the time.
This cult classic novel inspired the 1949 British film Kind Hearts and Coronets, where legendary actor Alec Guinness plays eight different characters with comical glee. Originally, Gentleman’s Guide writers Steven Lutvak and Robert Freedman got the rights and created a musical version of Kind Hearts and Coronets, but when the film company brought a lawsuit on them, they decided to just create a musical inspired by the novel Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal, which was now in the public domain and free to use.
Like the film Kind Hearts and Coronets, our production has one scene-stealing actor (Shabazz Green) acting as all eight D’Ysquith heirs. In the lawsuit the film company brought against the writers, the company said the writers could not have one actor playing the eight roles, like in their movie. The judge said that kind of thing has been happening since theatre began, and dismissed them.
Pay close attention to when Shabazz does one of the fastest quick-changes we have ever seen!
There are some creative projections being used onstage. Projection Designer Topher Blair has employed lots of cool projection images that turn the stage into Edwardian England, and transport audiences from the D’Ysquith family estate to various locations of murders.
Blair's inspirations come from iconic illustrators like Edward Gorey as well as modern TV and pop culture moments!
