Deadly
Reviewed by Deborah Klugman
Sacred Fools Theater Company
Through November 2
Numerous books have been written about H. H. Holmes, a 19th century serial killer and con man who was ultimately executed for the murder of his accomplice, Benjamin Pitezel, in 1896. Interrogated by police, Holmes claimed to have killed 27 people, including three of Pitezel’s five children, whom he did away with so he could claim their insurance money. While not all 27 homicides were confirmed, police did uncover nine corpses, and Holmes’s status as a serial murderer was established beyond doubt. Besides the bodies, law enforcement discovered that a three-story building he owned had been modified to include proofed rooms and chutes leading to the basement, which contained acid vats, quicklime and a crematorium for swift disposal of his victims’ remains.
Many of these victims were women he had affairs with. In Deadly, a premiere musical directed by Jaime Robledo at Sacred Fools Theater Company in Hollywood, playwright/librettist Vanessa Claire Stewart strives to resurrect the personhood of these women, who (too often in the literature about Holmes), are given scant shrift compared to the intoxicated fascination garnered by their killer.
Her effort is only partly successful. Stocked with 21 songs (music by Ryan Thomas Johnson), many of which have a similar beat and cadence, the production’s most riveting feature is Keith Allan’s superlative nonmusical performance as the oily and unctuous killer, a man who delights as much in the seduction of his victims as he does in remorselessly observing the life drain from their bodies. (Long-time L.A. theater–goers will recall Allan for his brilliant rendering of a similarly homicidal character, Dr. Death, in Adam Szymkowicz’s Hearts Like Fists, also directed by Robledo at Theatre of NOTE in 2012.).
The show also features a nuanced turn by David LM McIntyre (alternating with French Stewart) as Holmes’s mentally addled assistant, Pitezel. Troubled and withdrawn, Pitezel’s cultish worship of Holmes overcomes the unspoken reservations his character has about the evil he’s consigned to do.
In the end, the male characters upstage the female ones — precisely those whose stories the play seeks to spotlight.
Stewart’s narrative shifts from scenes between Holmes and his chief interrogator, Frank Geyer (Eric Curtis Johnson) to flashbacks of his crimes. The latter begin with our introduction to Evelyn Stewart (Kristyn Evelyn), a confident “new woman” who’s come to Chicago on her own to check out the World’s Fair and is hired by Holmes after she adeptly repairs his furnace. (In the 1890s, horizons for American women, while still circumscribed, were expanding.) Unfortunately for Evelyn, her display of independence annoys Holmes, and he dispatches her with a toxic gas pumped into her room. She joins Lizzie Sommers (Brittney S. Wheeler), murdered prior, whose indignant spirit has been haunting the premises, and who is angry and appalled by what had been done to herself, and is now being perpetrated on another innocent person.
As events progress, Lizzie and Evelyn’s spirits are joined by those of other victims: Emeline (Cj Merriman), a nurse whom Pitezel had fallen in love with; Julia (Erica Hanrahan-Ball), a married woman with whom Holmes has a steamy affair; her young daughter Pearl (Ashley Diane); and two sisters from Texas: Minnie (Samantha Barrios, funny and endearing), a sweet but foolish lady with a mad crush on Holmes, and her sister Anna (Rebecca Larsen), a cooler head whose suspicions about him are not enough to spare her a dire fate.
Robledo directs with his customarily assured hand. Under his guidance, the ensemble, maneuvering up and around Stephen Gifford’s abstract platformed set, does mostly good work. The nonmusical sequences are aptly paced. Linda Muggeridge’s costumes — the women wear proper period attire when they are alive but awake to their undead state in a variety of erotic rags — adds dramatic otherworld context to their plight. Andrew Schmedake’s lighting creates the shaded ambience appropriate for this dark but motley tale of ghoulish murder.
But Johnson’s discordant score does the production few favors. Although several songs by sisters Minnie and Anna — in particular “The Southern Way” — are lively and entertaining, others performed by the ensemble of women have a dirge-like sameness. Songs of plaint and protest, they match the play’s grim subject matter, granted, but their heaviness and frequency weigh the story down.
Perhaps Stewart’s purpose would be enhanced with more focus on some of the women characters as individuals — to have us hear their stories directly, separate from their interaction with the slithery Holmes. This type of dramatic enrichment is there in the scenes between the sisters, whom we get to know through their interaction with each other; these sequences are among the show’s most entertaining. And it’s great that Cj Merriman’s strong likable Emeline declares her intent to join the suffrage movement — but her speech is brief and I wanted more, from her and the other women as well. It would have embellished the play, making the loss of these ladies’ lives so much more poignant.
The Broadwater Mainstage, 1076 Lillian Way, Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Mon., Oct. 21, 8 p.m.; through Nov. 2. sfreservations@sacredfools.org or Publicity@sacredfools.org. Running time: two hours and 30 minutes with an intermission.
