The uproarious musical “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder” comes to Ventura College’s Performing Arts Department beginning October 19, jump-starting the Halloween season with a burst of merry mayhem.
Winner of four Tony Awards (including Best Musical), “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder” is a British black comedy recounting the macabre life of Monty Navarro, a poor relation of one of England’s finest families (the D’Ysquiths), who are as snobbish as they are wealthy. When Monty learns he is eighth in line to the family fortune, his desperation to improve his circumstances – and impress a woman — sets him on a murderous path to eliminate those who stand between him and his inheritance.
The musical is based on a novel by Roy Horniman, and features music by Steven Lutvak, a book by Robert L. Freedman, and lyrics by Lutvak and Freedman. Despite its murderous nature, the show is surprisingly family friendly. The show’s high body count is matched by memorable tunes and hilariously witty lyrics. In its New York run the New York Times gushed “bloodlust hasn’t sung so sweetly, or provided so much theatrical fun, since Sweeney Todd first wielded his razor with gusto many a long year ago!”
One of Gentleman’s Guide’s conceits is that a single actor must play all eight doomed members of the D’Ysquith clan, singing, dancing, and bicycling through personas at a dizzying pace. At Ventura College, Jared Lantiegne (who dazzled audiences last year as Gomez Addams in The Addams Family Musical) will take on this chameleonic tour-de-force.
Isaiah Maldonado will play Montague “Monty” Navarro. Taylor Bernstein, who starred as the Governess in Ventura College Opera’s production of Benjamin Britten’s “The Turn of the Screw” will play Sibella Hallward, Lily Calhoun is Phoebe D’Ysquith, Isabella Catalano is Miss Shingle and Ivy Calhoun is Evangeline Barley. Costumes are by Anais Libunao and Sets/Lighting by Jamie Birkett.
The talented student cast will be accompanied by a live professional orchestra under conductor
Brent Wilson, who also staged the production. Wilson is the Performing Arts Department’s CoChair at Ventura College, resident guest director at Viterbo University, and director of choral studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He served as Assistant Conductor and Chorus Master of Opera Santa Barbara for over twenty productions and conducted productions of The Consul and Don Pasquale. His production of Leonard Bernstein’s Trouble in Tahiti for Viterbo University was awarded third prize (collegiate division) by The National Opera Association.
“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder” runs October 19-22, with evening performances at 7:30 PM in the Yunker Auditorium at Ventura College’s Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $15 for adults. VCPA is offering $5 tickets for seniors & students. The Ventura College Performing Arts Center is located at 4700 Loma Vista Road, Ventura. Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased online at https://ventura.vbotickets.com.
