By Tina Hawley
If you’re a fan of that old classic black and white movie Arsenic and Old Lace—or even if you’re just in the mood for a laugh—you will love A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo, Utah. The title instantly gives away what sort of story this is, and director Jarom Christopher Brown’s 1990s twist on this madcap 1930s farcical murder-fest takes hilarious advantage of its potential. Staged with a six-member cast in the Covey’s Brinton Black Box Theater, A Little Murder showcases a microcosm of New Year’s resolutions pushed to the point of absurdity.
Wealthy old Matthew Perry (Brett Davis) is tired of all the work required to maintain his piles of money and would love nothing better than to have the freedom to jet around the world on an endless vacation like his recently widowed friend. Unfortunately, Matthew is still married to his wife Julia (Annette Miner), a circumstance which apparently prevents him from fulfilling his dream. When Matthew and Julia get together just before midnight on New Year’s to form and share their new resolutions, he informs her that (with no hard feelings) his resolution is to kill her before January 1st of next year so that he can get on with living his best bachelor life. Julia reacts to this with cackling laughter and the equivalent of “I’d love to see you try,” until the couple find out that their daughter Bunny (Livia Offen) has just gotten engaged to her lover Donald Baxter (David van Frankenhuijsen) and that they plan to wed on January 1st of next year—an event that Julia refuses to miss, despite her husband’s pleading.
This ridiculous premise kicks off a year of murder attempts, wedding planning, accidental deaths, and background shenanigans perpetrated by Buttram, the Perry family butler (Robert Bahr), and Detective Plotnik (Cody Eckman), the hardboiled investigator intent on discovering why so many visitors to the Perry family estate have not survived the experience. There are enough plot twists, faked deaths, false starts, and absurd hilarity to satisfy anyone.
Davis is delightful as the bumbling, good-natured Matthew Perry, fidgeting and dithering with a demeanor reminiscent of Santa Claus that only adds to the hilarity of his constant ineffectual assassination attempts. Murder is terrible, of course, but Davis makes Matthew just so darn lovable that it’s hard to hold it against him. Miner as Julia Perry seems part straight man, part cleverly sarcastic matron, and I loved watching her knowingly avoid the poisoned drinks Matthew pushes on her. The pair have great chemistry, especially towards the end of the show.
Bunny Perry is an adorable, bouncy airhead, and Offen plays up this aspect of the character to the fullest. Whether it’s doe-eyed glances at her fiancé, wide-eyed confusion at the detective’s questions, or crying fits when the wedding guests keep dying off and won’t be there to see her in her dress, Offen is a constant source of childlike entertainment. Van Frankenhuijsen’s protectiveness towards her as Donald is charming, and his own innocent awkwardness and tendency to jump to conclusions provide both comedy and rising tension as the situation spirals out of control. His stunned demeanor when Matthew asks him to help hide a body is particularly fantastic.
Just as the butler is the rock of any household, Bahr as Buttram the butler is the rock of this production that flavors everything else. Much more subdued than the other characters, Bahr’s snarky under-his-breath commentary and deadpan expressions are killingly funny in their own right, and he ends up a much more complex character than expected. The incompetent Detective Plotnik never gets even remotely close to discovering who the murderer is, yet Eckman delivers his anachronistic, cliché-ridden monologues with a staggering confidence that got a grin out of me every time.
Thanks to light and set designer Pam Cluff and construction team Spencer Powell, Michael Larson,and Rem White, the set is full of lovely small touches that provide a realistic background to ground the absurd events of the story, including appropriate decoration changes to show the passage of time. These small touches also sometimes land firmly in the genius tongue-in-cheek realm, such as a stack of boardgames on a bottom shelf that includes Clue, In Pursuit, and Family Feud. Robert Seely’s sound design provides appropriate sound effects and background noises as well as an entertaining pre-show mix of songs like “Another One Bites the Dust.” The costume design by Rachel Bennett is similarly grounded, with a few absurd touches of its own. (Just wait for the Halloween costume party scene! I refuse to spoil the delightful costuming choices there.)
A modernized relic from the 1930s, in some ways A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody is full of stereotypes: the oblivious husband, the eye-rolling wife, the airheaded daughter, the stone-faced butler, the hardboiled detective, etc. Yet the Covey’s production is also a demonstration of why those stereotypes are still around—because when done right, they’re funny. They’re mind-blowingly hilarious. To quote from the program note by production dramaturg Hannah Gunson-McComb, “if tragedy is cutting your finger—but comedy is driving off a cliff—then killing your wife must be peak hilarity.” The Covey Center for the Arts does farcical murder right. If you’d love to laugh and disengage from reality for just a couple of hours, come see this show. You won’t regret it.
Note: Does contain adult humor, including sexual elements. Use discretion with younger children. Due to the small size of the venue, the theater requests that audience members please be seated by 7:20 PM.
The Covey Center for the Arts Presents A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody, by Ron Bernas.
Covey Center for the Arts, 425 W Center St, Provo, UT 84601
September 19 – October 12, 2019, 7:30 PM
Get Tickets: $14-$16, ages 8 and up, no babies or babes in arms
Covey Center for the Arts Website
Covey Center for the Arts Facebook Page
A Little Murder Never Hurt Anybody Facebook Event
0 Comments