Since 2003, Greater Worcester Opera has performed operas as diverse as The Marriage of Figaro, The Pirates of Penzance, and Hansel & Gretel, yet, until last year’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s A Little Night Music, the company had never done a Broadway musical. Bolstered by the success of that show, the company decided to perform another selection from the Broadway canon, choosing the 2014 Tony Award winning A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.
This musical is based on the 1907 novel written by Roy Horniman which was also adapted into the 1947 movie Kind Hearts and Coronets, starring Alec Guinness. The story focuses on the impoverished and newly orphaned Monty Navarro who, after learning that he’s in-line for succession to become Earl of Highhurst, goes about eliminating the eight others who stand in-line to the crown ahead of him. The “royal” family to which he’s discovered he belongs is the D’Ysquith family (a play on the words “Die quick”). It seems that his mother was in-line for succession but was spurned by the family because she had married below her status - “A Castillian. And worse, a musician.” This is, no doubt, a nod to Gilbert and Sulliavan’s Mikado where Nanki-Poo (the Mikado’s son), in search of a very low profession in which to disguise himself, chooses to be a second trombonist. In any case, shortly after Monty learns of his mother’s rejection by the family he sets out to avenge his mother and take his rightful place in the family tree.
Additionally, Monty is stuck in a love triangle between Sibella, a woman he has loved his whole life, and Phoebe, a newly acquaintanced distant cousin. Though Monty and Sibella have a voracious carnal appetite for one another, Sibella will not consider marrying Monty because his social status sits well below the standard to which she aspires. This rejection hurts Monty deeply and motivates him further to climb the social ladder. Phoebe, a D’Ysquith herself, is charming, beautiful, pure and innocent, and represents a respectable choice for a wife of someone who wishes to be an Earl someday.
The generally comedic spirit of the dialog and music help keep our spirits lifted above what might otherwise be a rather dark storyline - a storyline in which we find ourselves rooting for Monty in his advancement toward achieving his goal. The question is, why? After all, in the case of many such antiheroes, cheering for them often challenges our own sense of morality. I mean, how can we feel good about hoping a serial killer is successful in his murderous endeavours?
Perhaps we need look no further than many of the lyrics sung by Monty’s targeted victims. For example, in “I Don’t Understand the Poor”, we hear Lord Adalbert saying:
I don’t understand the poor
The lives they lead of want and need - I should think it would be a bore
It seems to be nothing but stubbornness - what’s all the suffering for?
To be so debased is in terrible taste; I don’t understand the poor!
In “Lady Hyacinth Abroad” from Lady Hyacinth, who’s looking for a cause to which she can attach her name and thus gain praise from the press and envy among her peers, we hear:
We’ll civilize a village in the jungle!
It can’t take long to learn their mother tongue!
Of words they have but six, and five of them are clicks
And all of them are different words for dung!
These characters have despicable attitudes and behaviours which make us cringe; they make us uncomfortable. But that very discomfiture is fundamental to establishing our lack of sympathy for the characters who sing them and, thus, they allow us to root for Monty as he continues to facilitate their deaths.
Yet, when Monty finally realizes his dream to become the Earl of Highhurst, the methods by which he’s attained that crown have made him every bit as despicable as those he has dispatched on his journey. Or have they? You decide.
-Aldo Fabrizi, Stage and Music Director
