A Gentleman’s Guide To Love & Murder By Cindy Nemser If you are a fan of the classic comedy, “Kind Hearts and Coronets, the film that starred Alec Guinness and Dennis Price, Joan Greenwood and Valerie Hobson, you will find this hilarious show a double delight. However you don’t have to know the extraordinary movie in which Guinness plays eight different roles, including one as a woman, to get a major kick out of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder” as Robert L. Freedman, who wrote the exceedingly witty book and lyrics, along with Steven Litvak have completely caught the spirit of the English classic and succeeded in putting their own spin on it. The same basic structure idea is still the same. Louis Mazzini (Bryce Pinkham) is determined to become the next Lord D’Ysquith and has decided that his only way of achieving his goal is to systematically murder all eight of the DQ’Ysquiths who are blocking his access to title. (In the Guinness film the family name was D’Ascoyne.) He feels no compunction about carrying out his horrendous mission because he believes that his diseased widowed mother, a D’Ysquith, who was disowned by her family when she married an Italian. When he died, she had to take in washing to keep Louis and herself from the work house. He sought help from the family, at least a position in their business, but he was totally ignored. His complex murderous plan is further complicated by Sibella Hallwood (Lisa O’Hare) who is the daughter of the people in whose house he rents a room. She loves him, but is determined to marry a rich man. Louis who loves her too, is forced to witness his marriage to a rich business. Sibella, however, has no intention of giving Louis up and soon becomes his mistress. Things get even trickier when Louis falls for Phoebe D’Ysquith, who is not in the line of succession, and returns his feelings. Being caught between the two possessive women yields a delicious Feydeau like sequence, but the real hilarity is embodied by the amazing Jefferson Mays, who like Guinness, plays all eight parts including Lady Hyacinth D’Ysquith. His means of doing in the D’Ysquith are all different from the movie, but they are equally comical with unexpected visual and sound effects, over the top costumes and most important marvelously funny lyrics and commentary and a terrific actor to put them over. In this version, Lady Hyacinth gives Louis a hard time even though he keeps sending her to the most dangerous places in the world. Finally, playing on her vanity he convinces her to do the lead role in Hedda Gabbler. I won’t tell you how that famous part finally eliminates her. Though ostensibly a musical, the show is mainly filled with delightful patter songs á la Gilbert and Sullivan or recitative sung by the main characters and a Greek style chorus. Unfortunately the music is not up to its forbearers, and when Louis sings a love song it sounds like all the other tuneless numbers so ubiquitous in recent Broadway. But that is just an isolated moment of disappointment in a cacophony if hysterically funny clever words, sight gags and highly amusing choreography all combined into a show that truly entertains by the talented director Darko Tresnjak. Go. You will have a great time. Walter Kerr Theater,219 West 48th Street.