Review by Benjamin Lamb
The whodunit. It’s been a thing for decades, many authors trying to alter the formula to come up with something original. Kellian Blair and Joe Kinosian manage to give us a new take on it all with Murder For Two, which just premiered at the Arts Centre in Melbourne.
Tonight’s story deals with author Arthur Whitney. It’s his surprise birthday party — but with a twist, family and friends attend and witness his untimely death. Each party guest portrayed by one actor, Maverick Newman (Friends The Musical). Officer Moscowicz is brought in to investigate, portrayed by Gabbi Bolt (Comedy Festivals).
Musical numbers are perfectly spread throughout the 100 minutes, with supervision by Damon Wade, there’s a mix of duets, solos, and instrumental pieces all with a single grand piano, duties shared by Bolt and Newman.
A highlight came with a big, somewhat romance-laden number around the halfway mark, lasting for quite a while, Bolt and Newman performing on a number of different levels, showing us the increasing relationship between two certain characters in the show.
Keerthi Subramanyam’s set design suits Arts Centre Melbourne’s Fairfax Studio stage, you’re brought into a family home from the second you leave the foyer. While the stage sits smaller than fellow Arts Centre stages in Hamer, State and The Playhouse, Bolt and Newman’s use of the stage deserves to be commended, Richard Carroll’s direction really shining through.
This reviewer has been lucky enough to criticise shows across Melbourne’s biggest stages, often experiencing Australian / American accents, but Murder For Two provides us with two absolutely faultless American accents, Newman’s array of American accents and Bolt’s strong Northern accent really highlights of the show, dialect coach Linda Nicholls-Gidley showing us why she’s one of the best.
As the musical continued, frequent fourth wall breaks stopped any 3rd act lulls, both scripted and ad-libbed, you could feel the energy being brought back up when these occurred. On top of that, the audience are kept on the edge about the murderer until the last moment, which made us feel like the third actor in the show, and kept us all engaged and interested until the curtain closed.
This musical played to sold-out crowds in Sydney, and once you see Bolt and Newman’s chemistry, you can understand why. These two were born to share a stage. And I know it’s not really a thing, but I would pay good money to see a filmed version of this show with these two in the future.
Two standing ovations greeted the performers — the applause felt different to usual, we all knew we saw something special. Make sure you check it out before it leaves, we don’t get shows like this too often.
It’s exciting to see two young performers get on stage and bring something that would bring legacy performers to shame. Here’s to hoping we see Gabbi Bolt and Maverick Newman become a staple of our stages for decades to come.
Murder for Two is at the Arts Centre Melbourne until August 25.
Image Supplied