The prodigiously talented Jeff Blumenkrantz returns this
week to the off-Broadway musical Murder for Two. Which is great news for
anyone looking for an evening of great fun. I somehow never got around to writing about
this hilarious show when my theatergoing buddy Bill and I saw it at Second Stage Uptown last summer. But I should have—and I'm jumping on this chance to give it a shout-out now.
As the title hints this is a two-man show: Brett Ryback plays an
ambitious young cop who is investigating the murder of a famous but not-much-loved
mystery writer who is offed during a weekend house party; Blumenkrantz plays all of the murder suspects. Joe Kinosian, who filled in for Blumenkrantz while the actor was off on other assignments, wrote the show's perky music and Kellan Blair the clever book and lyrics. The actors take turns accompanying themselves on piano.
There’s no time for costume changes as
there is in Broadway's similarly-themed and also-funny A Gentleman’s Guide to Murder so Blumenkrantz contorts
his rubbery face and adjusts his lanky body to switch from one suspect to
another, ranging from a southern belle to a trio of Dead End Kids-style newsboys. The resulting mayhem is now playing at New World Stages. It'll slay you.
