Catching up with screenwriter Robert L. Freedman, whose ‘Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder’ comes to the Hippodrome.
Monty Navarro is the distant heir to a family fortune who is trying to knock off eight irksome relatives who stand in his way of collecting the dough. Meanwhile, he’s also juggling a nefarious, money-grubbing mistress and a fiancée who just happens to be his cousin as well.
That’s the quirky and outrageous storyline behind the musical comedy “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder,” which opens for a short run at the Hippodrome Theatre from Dec. 27 to Jan. 1.
Winner of the 2014 Tony Award for Best Musical, “Gentleman’s Guide,” according to The New York Times, “will lift the hearts of all those who’ve been pining for what seems like a lost art form.”
Robert L. Freedman wrote the book and lyrics for the show with musical collaborator Steven Lutvak. “Gentleman’s Guide” is based on the 1907 novel “Israel Rank: The Autobiography of a Criminal,” by Roy Horniman.
A native of Southern California, Freedman, 59, attends Adat Ari El Synagogue in Valley Village in the San Fernando Valley. Jmore recently talked to Freedman about the play, winning the Tony, and his first theatrical forays as a young leader in United Synagogue Youth (USY).
What drew you to this story?
It was the sense of humor, the style and the wit of it. This young man is such an underdog and has been denied something, and he has to fight to get what he wants. His mother was disinherited by his wealthy, entitled family, and he grew up in poverty, and it was all because she chose to marry for love. Meanwhile, the woman that he loves won’t marry him because he doesn’t have a future. So he is pushed to a breaking point.
And yet it’s a comedy?
What’s really entertaining is that he is always the perfect Edwardian gentleman, and at the same time he is murdering people. The juxtaposition of that is just so much fun. This story is basically a satire of the class system in Edwardian England and the hypocrisy of that era, which is sadly not that dissimilar from our own. It resonates with audiences.
For example?
One of the main characters, a wealthy earl, sings a song called, “I Don’t Understand the Poor.” It speaks to modern audiences because we live in an era with such a great disparity in the distribution of wealth. We are always talking about the 1 percent, and here is a character who is a part of that 1 percent.
Is it true that a Jewish youth group helped you get started in showbiz?
I was very active in USY as a teenager and I became a regional president. Then I became a youth adviser and youth director, and I started writing shows that were performed by the kids. I wrote the book and lyrics, with music by Gershwin and Cole Porter and Richard Rodgers. This was while I was in college, and it was sort of how I got my start. USY provided me with confidence and friendship and leadership skills. I’ll always be grateful for that experience.
You’ve written extensively for TV. How’s that different from theater work?
Most of the television I have done is movies and miniseries. In that process, once you have written the script, you hand it over to the director and the producer, and then they basically do anything they want with it. In the theater, the writer receives more respect. In my case, I wrote this with a composer named Steven Lutvak and we walked away with the great satisfaction of knowing that what we wrote is what is up there onstage.
What makes for a successful musical theater collaboration?
In this case, we both inherently understood what the tone should be, we both understood the story, and we were both amused by the same things. So we had a lot of fun cracking each other up when we were writing this.
Also, we were very hard on each other, in a good way. We didn’t settle for everything we wrote. We would push each other to go further if we thought something could be better. If I thought we could find a better word or a better line, or if Steven thought so, then we would keep going. We took the time to really refine and rework things. We started writing it in 2004 and it didn’t premiere on Broadway until 2013.
Does the Tony change things?
Professionally it has opened doors for me to work with new collaborators. I am more known than I was before. Now I am working on two theater projects, and I’m writing a movie for HBO that will be produced and directed by Robert Redford. So there are a lot of new opportunities for me.
For information about tickets, visit hippodrome.theatrebaltimore.com
Adam Stone is an Annapolis-based freelance writer.
Left to right, Kristen Beth Williams, Matt Leisy, and Kristen Hahn in a scene from “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder.” Photo by Joan Marcus.
The cast with John Rapson as Lord Adalbert D’Ysquith (red)in a scene from “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder.” Photo by Joan Marcus.
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