A Killer Good Time: A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder at Olney Theatre Center
Olney Theatre Center closes out its season with a devilishly funny production of "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder," running on the Roberts Mainstage through August 23, 2026. The 2014 Tony Award winner for Best Musical, with a book by Robert L. Freedman and music by Steven Lutvak, arrives in Olney under the direction of Eleanor Holdridge, and the result is a fast-paced, stylish romp that keeps audiences laughing from start to finish.
The story follows Monty Navarro, a penniless young man in Edwardian England who discovers, shortly after his mother's death, that she was cast out of the fabulously wealthy D'Ysquith family for marrying beneath her station. That revelation places Monty in the line of succession to an earldom, with a string of insufferable relatives standing between him and the title. When one of them perishes in a freak accident, Monty hatches a scheme to hasten the rest along, dispatching D'Ysquiths one by one in increasingly outlandish fashion while juggling two very different love interests. Based on Roy Horniman's 1907 novel "Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal," the same source material that inspired the classic film "Kind Hearts and Coronets," the musical wraps its dark premise in operetta-flavored patter songs, music hall exuberance, and a steady stream of physical comedy.
The show's signature conceit is that a single actor plays every doomed member of the D'Ysquith clan, and at Olney that assignment falls to Tom Story, who makes each relative a distinct and hilarious creation, from a self-important society dame to a doddering clergyman to a blustering old soldier who can't stop reliving the Boer War. His lightning-quick costume changes and inventive demises are worth the price of admission on their own, and each death lands as its own comic set piece. Jacob Tischler anchors the evening as Monty, narrating his misdeeds directly to the audience with such charm and earnest conviction that it's impossible not to root for him. He's caught between Sumié Yotsukura's flirtatious, self-absorbed Sibella and Sadie Koopman's pious, endearingly earnest Phoebe, with both actresses delivering knockout vocals, and Donna Migliaccio makes a memorable impression as Miss Shingle, the mysterious visitor who sets the whole plot in motion. A versatile ensemble rounds out the company, popping to life out of the family portrait gallery that surrounds the stage and mining every ounce of comedy from gloomy mourners and gossiping ancestors alike.
The production values match the performances. John Coyne's multilayered set conjures the ancestral Highhurst Castle complete with suits of armor and stuffy portraits, while winking theatrical touches suggest the whole affair might be unfolding in an old-fashioned British music hall. Projections by Zavier Augustus Lee Taylor add visual flourish, Minjoo Kim's lighting heightens the drama, and Sarah Cubbage's lavish period costumes give every character an extra layer of personality. A passerelle curving around the orchestra pit brings the cast right to the edge of the audience and puts music director Christopher Youstra's excellent seven-piece orchestra on full display. A wintry ice-skating sequence set to "Poison in My Pocket" is a particular highlight, transforming the stage into a snowy resort with wickedly funny results, and the multi-character showstopper "I've Decided to Marry You" delivers the score at its cleverest.
Running about two and a half hours with one intermission, "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" plays through August 23, 2026 at the Roberts Mainstage at Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD.