The New York Times - Highly Recommended
"...this delightful show will lift the hearts of all those who've been pining for what sometimes seems a lost art form: musicals that match streams of memorable melody with fizzily witty turns of phrase. 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... In a true tour de force that is hardly likely to be bettered on Broadway this season (apologies to the magnificent Mark Rylance, and those two knights, Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart, performing Beckett and Pinter in repertory), Mr. Mays sings, dances, ice-skates, bicycles and generally romps through some eight roles at a pace that sets your head spinning"
NY Daily News - Recommended
"...Directed by Darko Tresnjak, the production is a high-gloss beaut... The best part: the two leads. Bryce Pinkham sings like a dream and brings great appeal to the murderous Monty. I Am My Own Wife Tony winner Jefferson Mays musters big laughs as Monty's victims... Lisa O'Hare and Lauren Worsham display fine comic chops and voices as the women in Monty's life. Finally, there's the score, and, alas, it's a bit of a bore... Their songs are consistently cute and that's it... You begin to wonder why they didn't do Guide to Love & Murder as a play."
Associated Press - Highly Recommended
"...Darko Tresnjak directs with a flair for slapstick surprises and exuberantly cheesy sight gags and special effects, while Peggy Hickey provides clever choreography for the versatile ensemble. Events zip along with a winking, good-humored air, interspersed with wonderful singing by the whole cast, whether it's a bouncy melody or a thoughtful ballad."
Hollywood Reporter - Highly Recommended
"...The virtuosic comic turn here belongs to Jefferson Mays, taking on dizzyingly quick changes of costume and characterization with hilarious aplomb. But that's by no means the sole enticement of this toothsome new musical propelled by a rollicking story, humor of the most delectable amorality and the cleverest lyrics assembled in quite some time"
Vulture - Somewhat Recommended
"...The words (by Lutvak and Freedman) are often clever enough to raise a laugh not easy in the midst of rushing melody . But what this material needed from its songs, and does not get, is exactly what Mays brought to his task: a strong, clear, distinctive profile. Without it, for all its merits, the show never quite achieves musical liftoff. You want the score to raise the dead, not just bury them."
New York Theater - Somewhat Recommended
"...The orchestrations by frequent Sondheim collaborator Jonathan Tunick stand out. But, let's face it, The Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is primarily an opportunity to see Jefferson Mays in action, showing off his gifts for quick-change mimicry, aided by Linda Cho's colorful costumes. Those who were treated to Mays' work in such astonishing theater pieces as I Am My Own Wife will surely be eager to see him once again in something that isn't just clever."
Bloomberg - Somewhat Recommended
"...Mays (I Am My Own Wife ) brings too few surprises and not much variety to his roles, though he is droll enough... With forgettable songs in the operetta style by Steven Lutvak and an economically paced book by Robert L. Freedman, the harmless show unfolds on Alexander Dodge's toy-theater set like a machine designed to draw a few laughs and send the audience home relieved of care for a couple of hours. Mission accomplished."
Variety - Highly Recommended
"...Thesp's pleasing voice and comedic savvy are terrific assets when he's wooing two women, beautifully sung by lovely Lauren Worsham and sexy-as-hell Lisa O'Hare Although the naughty lyrics are the sweetest of the show's bitter treats, Steven Lutvak's music invites its own independent smiles. Buffed to a shine by Jonathan Tunick's orchestrations and played by a splendid pit orchestra, these lethal ditties are a pastiche of everything the English musical theater holds dear, from Noel Coward to Gilbert and Sullivan."
USA Today - Highly Recommended
"...Jefferson Mays' shape-shifting and comedic gifts are on glorious display in A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder, the delightful new musical romp... Under Darko Tresnjak's witty direction supported by the drolly imaginative scenic and projection design of Alexander Dodge and Aaron Rhyne, respectively a series of morbidly hilarious events unfolds... several catchy, clever songs by composer/lyricist Steven Lutvak and lyricist/librettist Robert L. Freedman"
New York Post - Somewhat Recommended
"...The big hook of the new musical A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder is Jefferson Mays. He doesn't just give a performance he gives eight of them... yet none of them really register. It's hard not to think about the real tour de force here the one pulled off by Mays' dressers, who sometimes have just 30 seconds to transform him into a loony clergyman in mutton chops, a cleanshaven young toff or a buxom Βbattle ax... this Guide has nothing on The Mystery of Edwin Drood the 1985 caper musical that was successfully revived last year."
Entertainment Weekly - Highly Recommended
"...Overkill has seldom been more enjoyable than in A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, a thoroughly delightful and uproarious new Broadway musical"
Bergen Record - Highly Recommended
"...Propelled by the irresistible performance of Jefferson Mays... "A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder" is one of the delights of the theater season... an extremely clever, exquisitely staged send-up of Edwardian England, with a heady pastiche score... It's staged by director Darko Tresnjak, in his Broadway debut, with a theatrical flair that he brings to scene after scene... one reason it works so well is the astute way the darkness is blended into the humor."
Newsday - Recommended
"...Once beyond the long, arch exposition, composer-lyricist Steven Lutvak and author-lyricist Robert L. Freedman deliver saucy impudence of bright operetta pastiche... Lisa O'Hare, a big talent, brings fascinating confidence and comic timing as Monty's married lover, while Lauren Worsham matches her aplomb as his aristocratic fiancee. The chorus has just the right macabre panache, if not quite the vocal range for the demands of the score"
amNY - Highly Recommended
"...I must confess that I gave one of the less enthusiastic reviews of 'Hamilton' back in February, finding the plot to be too dense (it is, after all, a biography) and the hip-hop sound to be monotonous. On second viewing, I was determined to accept the show on its own terms, and I ended up being absolutely entranced by Miranda's inventive writing, Thomas Kail's masterful direction and Andy Blankenbuehler's nonstop movement.
Wall Street Journal - Recommended
"...The score is a charming blend of Edwardian operetta and music-hall pastiche, orchestrated in impeccable period style by Jonathan Tunick . a full-tilt farce, and I'm overjoyed to report that Darko Tresnjak, the director, who was hitherto known to me as an accomplished specialist in well-made plays, turns out to be no less adept at broad physical comedy I don't know how much polishing it has since undergone, but the Broadway version glitters like box-office gold."
NBC New York - Recommended
"...The music and lyrics aren't the most memorable you've heard, but they're engaging. If it's escapism you're out for, and you also take pleasure from the suffering of others...A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder has the trappings of a fun, lightweight night out."
Time Out New York - Highly Recommended
"...Keeping the zaniness on a fast track and maintaining the right proportion of dead bodies to belly laughs, director Tresnjak indulges every visual goof possible highborn or low on Alexander Dodge's adorable Victorian toy-theater set The most fun you can have on Broadway right now, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder is, in a word, peerless."
The Wrap - Highly Recommended
"...Lufvak (this is his Broadway debut) borrows from English music hall, Gilbert & Sullivan and Lerner & Loewe but he ultimately makes the songs his own " just as Sondheim started with pastiche in Follies and went on to deliver one of Broadway's greatest scores ever. Sondheim and now Lutvak & Freedman. They can be mentioned in the same sentence. Gentleman's Guide is a seamlessly directed show, by Darko Tresnjak... It's a compact, immensely inventive show"
Village Voice - Recommended
"...Fueled by Robert L. Freedman's sharp and witty book and Steven Lutvak's serviceable score, this commercial vehicle motors its twisty plot with two terrific performances. Bryce Pinkham treads with levity and perfect poise through his machinations as Monty Navarro The star turn here, however, belongs to Jefferson Mays, who plays all of Monty's victims with comic, dexterous aplomb."
CurtainUp - Recommended
"...You can't blame the creative team for opting for a conventional, emotion-grabbing way into the narrative - even though the focus on the romances and familial strife the relocations generated tends to weaken the well deserved indictment of those who relegated more than a hundred thousand fellow Americans to enemy alien status...The lyrics aren't especially clever or memorable, but the vocally strong cast sings the heck out of them."
Talkin Broadway - Somewhat Recommended
"...Even some terrific supporting performances and otherwise outstanding production components... can't compensate for the vital element you so suddenly, completely lose. It's at this point that you appreciate even more everything that Mays does to distinguish the D'Ysquiths on both sides of the mortal coil. He makes A Gentleman's Guide to Love & Murder a legitimate must-see, when otherwise it would be at best a forgettable lark."
Cititour.com - Somewhat Recommended
"...And for all of Mays' brilliant acting talent, he's not much of a vocalist and has a bit too much to sing here. Still, if you want two-and-half-hours of mayhem and merriment, guide yourself over to the Walter Kerr Theatre. The only danger you'll be in for is having too good a time."
New York Observer - Recommended
"...By the time act two arrives, the show begins to sag. The problem is that all the memorable murders have been completed, and the colorful victims are gone, leaving Jefferson Mays with nothing much to do. The rest of the show, about how Monty gets trapped in his own dastardly plot, is frankly anticlimactic. Alas, Bryce Pinkham works hard to hold attention, but he lacks the charisma to match Mr. Mays's inspired lunacy. Not to worry: There's still a surprise ending on the way and more glorious singing the theatrical equivalent of exploding caviar, and Broadway has a new hit for the holidays."
TheaterMania - Highly Recommended
"...Linda Cho's gorgeous costumes aid and abet the madness and are so ornately detailed that you often have to suppress the need to scream at the stage, "HOW DID THAT QUICK-CHANGE HAPPEN!?!?!?" His lyrics (written with Freedman) are whip-smart and impressively sharp Freedman's book is similarly intelligent, but feels choppy in spots and meanders a bit too long here and there. Still, it's hard not to find enjoyment in the show. Death has not been this gleefully presented since the 1979 premiere of Sweeney Todd."
Scribicide - Somewhat Recommended
"...Unfortunately, this musical takes only its plot from Kind Hearts and none of the latter's wit or charm. Admittedly, Mr. Pinkham is quite good as Monty, and his take on the part is wholly different than Price's However, to say that Mr. Mays falls short of living up to Alec Guinness would be unnecessary and a little cruel, since the two are so far apart in talent that it would be like comparing William Shakespeare with John Grisham."
Broadway World - Highly Recommended
"...a rollicking good time and a smashing Broadway debut for composer/lyricist Steven Lutvak, bookwriter/lyricist Robert L. Freedman and director Darko Tresnjak Gentleman's Guide is a pocket-sized musical that dazzles with lyrical wit, dark comedic fun and bravura showmanship. Intelligent and merry, all the elements work splendidly from start to finish"
