November 2022

Murder and love are on the cards for the Garden City High School production of “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder”. The musical will premiere at 7 p.m. on Friday at the GCHS auditorium with the subsequent performances at 7 p.m. on Saturday and a 2:30 p.m. matinee on Sunday. Alice Hilt, director and GCHS drama teacher, said the musical is about a young man named Monty Navarro who discovers he is the ninth in line to become the next Earl of Highhurst. The information was newly learned after his mother’s funeral, as she was estranged from her family after marrying Monty’s father for love, Hilt said. Monty reaches out to his extended family, and they don’t receive him with kindness. “So, he makes the decision that he’s going to systematically bump them off one at a time so eventually Monty may become the Earl,” she said. While the removal of relatives is a major factor in the play, it’s also about finding love, which Navarro also has a hard time finding, Hilt said. The show is a farce, Hilt said. There’s dark comedy but there’s also a lot of lighthearted moments. “I like that it is a really, really fun, humorous, entertaining romp,” she said. “It’s campy, it’s farce, it’s fastpaced, you don’t get bored. Once the curtain (opens), the show just kind of goes, it doesn’t really stop.”