A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder

"A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder" was certainly the most interesting musical to be nominated for Best Musical in 2014 but certainly that was by default. "Gentleman" was up against a jazz revue ("After Midnight"), a "Jersey Boys"-like bio ("Beautiful: The Carole King Musical") and another Disney stage show ("Aladdin.")

Similarly, the national tour of "Gentleman," which opened its Dallas run Tuesday night, is certainly the most entertaining show to play the Winspear Opera House this season. It's light, gay and frivolous and a great diversion from the Texas heat. And as the title implies, it's about murder.

Now, we've had murderers on the Winspear stage before. Roxie and Velma from "Chicago" and Mr. Hyde from "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" come to mind. But theirs were crimes of passion. The crimes of Monty D'Ysquith Navarro are ambitious, thoughtfully crafted, decidedly premeditated, and utterly hilarious. The story is like an upended Agatha Christie novel. It's not so much an English whodunit but a how's he going to do it.

We find our anti-protagonist living in a run down flat in London in 1907 when a mysterious spinster visits Monty. The elderly lady explains to the unwitting Monty that he is a descendent of the aristocratic D'Ysquith family. Further, he is ninth in line to inherit the Earldom of Highhurst.

After failing to prevent the death of one of his ancestors, Monty makes a homicidal decision. He becomes a murderous rogue and sets off to dispatch the remaining seven D'Ysquiths that stand between him and the title. And thus our "Guide" to murder begins.

Kevin Massey as Monty is our giddy "Guide" through the many ways in which he knocks off his relatives, which, are too fun to spoil. Massey wisely underplays the role for while he's the leading man of the show, he's not the show's star attraction.

That would be John Rapson who plays every one of Monty's familial victims. Rapson gives an uproarious tour de force performance inhabiting a series of characters including a babbling old minister, a gay bee-loving cousin, a dithering do-gooder spinster, a bulky body builder and a shockingly bad actress.

The "Love" in the title refers to Monty's romantic dalliances played to perfection by Kristen Beth Williams and Adrienne Eller. Williams plays Sibella, the woman who loves Monty but won't marry him because he is beneath her position. Eller plays Phoebe, the woman who marries Monty as his social position rises.

Alexander Dodge's set design is ingenious. The set within the set is framed within the large Winspear stage to look like a turn of the 20th-century music hall. It matches the silly tone of "Guide's" merry mayhem.

But while Robert L. Freeman's Tony award-winning book is quite fun and silly, the music doesn't strike the same chord. The music and lyrics (Steven Lutvak and Freedman') are entirely forgettable. In fact, "Guide" is the only Best Musical this decade that did not also win a Tony for Best Original Score. "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" would work just as well as a straight play.

So just how does Monty bump off his relatives? Does he succeed in his quest to become the Earl of Highhurst? Or does the London police foil his scheme? Does Monty end up with Sibella or with Phoebe? The clues can be found at the Winspear, but only through August 28th.

"A Gentleman's Guide To Love & Murder" runs through August 28 at the Winspear Opera House, 2403 Flora Street in Dallas. For information or tickets call 214-880-0202 or visit www.attpac.org