Ready for a bit of over-the-top murder?
Live Theatre Workshop has got it for you.
The companyβs current offering is the musical version of βNo Way to Treat A Lady.β
This is not a very good play. But it sure is a fun one.
Thatβs thanks to the comedic chops of the four-person cast, directed with a eye toward the histrionic and the ridiculous by Annette Hillman.
It is based on the William Goldman novel, which was made into a dark (but still kind of over-the-top) film starring Rod Steiger. Kit Gill (Steve Wood) is an actor with no work and a recently deceased mother he is still trying to please. And kill. All his victims β he gains entry into their homes by jumping into different characters, such as a priest or a pizza delivery guy β remind him of his mother in some way, it seems.
Detective Morris Brummel (Kit Runge) has his own mother issues. He lives with his, and she is an overbearing Jewish mom who canβt help but compare Morris to his more-accomplished brother.
The cast completely embraced the outlandish and black humor, and they had grand fun doing it. That made watching this musical grand fun.
That in spite of the fact that the characters were caricatures rather than real flesh and blood and the music was nothing special.
Wood and Runge held their own in this, and Janet Roby did a nice job playing the detectiveβs love interest.
But it was Amanda Gremel who had the biggest challenge, and she rocked it. Gremel played all the murder victims, Morrisβ mother, and the ghost of Kitβs mother. She gave them each enough distinction not to confuse, and infused them all with an outrageousness that suited the play.
