Playhouse, Arts Centre Melbourne
October 27, 2018

On the face of it, a young man bumping off the eight relatives that stand between him and the Earldom from which he has been disinherited may sound like a dark affair but A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder is a delicious comedy that has you rooting for its serial killer to get away with it.

With music and lyrics by Steven Lutvak and book and lyrics by Robert L. Freedman – both newcomers to Broadway when the musical premiered there in 2013 – A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder was nominated for ten Tony Awards and won four including Best Musical. Now The Production Company is presenting the Australian premiere – and with Mitchell Butel and Chris Ryan in the leading roles it is in very safe hands.

Mitchell Butel and Chris Ryan. Photograph © Jeff Busby

Adapted from the same 1907 novel by Roy Horniman on which the Ealing comedy Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring Alec Guinness, was based, A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder begins in 1909. Lord Montague “Monty” D’Ysquith Navarro is in...