Sydney’s home of small-scale musicals with big ambitions – the Hayes Theatre – is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, continuing to stage new work and neglected classics, cabaret and niche musicals Australia might never see otherwise.
Murder
for Two is a two-hander
musical that started life in Chicago in 2011 and then went off-Broadway in
2013, where it was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Book of a
Musical. It lost to A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder, which
similarly plays with the whodunit genre, but includes a much bigger cast – even
if it also showcases one actor playing a multitude of parts. (Also nominated
that year, Fun Home and The Bridges of Madison County – so it was
a strong field.)
Director
Richard Carroll (co-artistic director at the Hayes, with Victoria Falconer) has
created a chaotic laugh-filled production of a musical that skewers both
drawing-room mysteries and book musicals with equal relish. In two hours, the
pace hardly ever slows, as comedian Gabbi Bolt plays a policeman investigating
the murder of author Arthur Whitney, interrogating all the suspects, fully
embodied by co-star Maverick Newman.
Both
performers must sing and play the Steinway piano at various points of the show –
and they are beautifully accomplished at both. The songs are playful and
satirical, even if the plot is by-the-numbers. But that’s all you need when you
want to make fun of two genres at once.
Keerthi
Subranmanyam’s wood-panelled set, with a feature-window at the centre surrounded
by bookshelves places us perfectly inside a space where party-goers are
knocking back whiskeys and there’s a dead body splayed out on the floor.
Priyanka
Martin’s lighting design is as nimble and playful as Shannon Burns’ choreography
– dialling up the comedy and the melodrama of this murder-musical combo.
Bolt plays
the straight-man with aplomb, dealing with some suitably heavy (but in a funny
way) backstory about a lost love and trying to enhance his career. Bolt also
has to deal with an unseen police partner, who is there so she can relay her
thoughts out loud to them and to us.
Newman has to
navigate twelve roles – the widow, the dancer, the psychiatrist, three members
of a boys’ choir and more – and this obviously has a higher degree of difficulty.
Bolt’s policeman grounds the show and Newman is left to fly high and fly free.
He’s astonishing in the heights he hits, as singer, dancer and comic actor.
But they
are so reliant on each other, it becomes a match made in musical heaven.
Murder
for Two is
ridiculous, but also clever. It’s so entertaining and fast-paced, that when a
one-liner is a groaner, there’s already been three more jokes before you’ve had
a chance to sigh.
And kudos
to the surprise guest star plucked from the audience on opening night who was so
shamelessly over-the-top he threatened to upstage Bolt, Newman and the piano.
Hayes
Theatre has toured a few shows to Melbourne before now, but the more they send,
the better off we’ll be. Melbourne might regularly host some of the biggest
musicals in the world, but I’d love to see more of the small musical magic that
Carroll and Falconer are making in Sydney. The sooner, the better.
- Keith Gow, Theatre First
Murder for Two is on at Arts Centre Melbourne until August 25
Photos: Mark Gambino
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