A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder

Multiple homicides get the musical comedy treatment in Robert Freedman’s A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder. The titular “gentleman” Monty Navarro makes use of his killer charm — meant literally in this case — in a plot to claim the inheritance of the family that disenfranchised him. Winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2014, the farce lays out Navarro’s dastardly deeds, which are so awful the show features a disclamatory prologue song, “A Warning to the Audience.” Monty is murdering for love — or rather the means to marry Sibella, who’s recently received a more lucrative proposal. As tales of bloodstained class struggle go, this one is far sillier than recent cinematic thrillers such as Parasite or even Knives Out. That might be because classic English pomposity makes for an easy target. In any case, audiences at The Public probably won’t feel too much sympathy for Monty’s victims.