Murder as Musical Punch Line

It’s a surprisingly fertile season on New York stages for witty variations on the nail biter, what with Beth Henley’s Southern Gothic “The Jacksonian,” the musical “Murder for Two” and John Pollono’s comic thriller “Small Engine Repair.”  Now comes another show to remind us, as Alfred Hitchcock was so fond of doing, that dark and deadly intrigue need not be deadly serious.

“A Gentleman’s Guide to Love & Murder,” which opens on Broadway on Nov. 17 at the Walter Kerr Theater, finds the comedy (and the song) in serial homicide, with Jefferson Mays playing all eight victims of an enterprising would-be heir to a fortune in Edwardian England. Mr. Mays, who demonstrated a command of multiple personalities in his Tony-winning performance in “I Am My Own Wife,” fills the large (and many) shoes of Alec Guinness, who played those roles in “Kind Hearts and Coronets,” the 1949 movie adapted from the same novel by Roy Horniman. Featuring music by Steven Lutvak and a book by Robert L. Freedman, with a cast that includes Bryce Pinkham as the well-mannered assassin. (219 West 48th Street, Manhattan, 212-239-6200, telecharge.com.)