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Orchestrations by Jonathan Tunick

Vocal Arrangements by Dianne Adams McDowell & Steven Lutvak


Original Broadway Production Produced by Joey Parnes, Sue Wagner, John Johnson, 50 Church Street Productions, Joan Raffe & Jhett Tolentino, Jay Alix & Una Jackman, Catherine & Fred Adler, Rhoda Herrick, Kathleen K. Johnson, Megan Savage, ShadowCatcher Entertainment, Ron Simons, True Love Productions, Jamie deRoy, Four Ladies & One Gent, John Arthur Pinckard, Greg Nobile, Stewart Lane & Bonnie Comley


Exeter Capital/Ted Snowdon, Ryan Hugh Mackey, Cricket-CTM Media/Mano-Horn Productions, 

Dennis Grimaldi/Margot Astrachan, Hello Entertainment/Jamie Bendell Michael T. Cohen/Joe Sirola, Joseph & Carson Gleberman/William Megevick 

and 

Green State Productions

In association with The Hartford Stage and The Old Globe


 A GENTLEMAN’S GUIDE TO LOVE & MURDER was developed, in part, at the 2006 Sundance Institute Theatre Lab at the Sundance Resort with continuing Post-Lab Support through its initiative with the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. 

IMPORTANT NOTICE

Due to restrictions in our performance contracts and for the safety of our performers, 

ANY photography or filming during a production is 

STRICTLY FORBIDDEN. 

Anyone in violation of this rule will be asked to leave the theatre.

We appreciate your understanding and compliance. 

Cast

 Montague "Monty" Navarro - Elliot Raff


Miss Shingle - Kris Sorensen


Sibella Hallward - Brynn Scozzari-Odson


Phoebe D'Ysquith - Megan Dolinger


The D'Ysquith Family - Joel Gruver and Evan Odson


Miss Evangeline Barley, Mourner, Sibella's Maid,  

Tour Guide, Ancestor, Phoebe’s Maid, Bridesmaid, 

Miss Hayes, Mrs. Pebworth, Phoebe's Maid, 

Newsboy, Hilda - Kelly Anglim

 

Lady Eugenia D’Ysquith, Mourner, Tourist, 

Ancestor, Skater, Bridesmaid, Pub Wife, 

Mrs. Heatherington - Salena Sullivan

 

Inspector Pinckney, Mourner, Tourist, Ancestor, 

Clerk, Skater, Tailor, Groomsman, Tom Copley, 

Dr. Brownlee, Mr. Cross, Newsboy, Weight Lifter, 

Actor, Dr. Pettibone - Cory Hollingsworth


Magistrate, Mourner, Tourist, Ancestor, Clerk, Skater, 

Tailor, Groomsman, Pub Owner, Mr. Goodsall, Newsboy, 

Actor, Lord Asquith’s Physician, Alfred Gorby,

Lord High Steward - Zachary Conklin

ACT I

 

Prologue - Ensemble, Sibella, Phoebe

You’re a D’Ysquith - Shingle & Monty

I Don’t Know What I’d Do - Sibella

Foolish to Think - Monty

A Warning to Monty - Ensemble

I Don’t Understand the Poor - Lord Adalbert & Ensemble

Foolish to Think (Reprise) - Monty

Poison in My Pocket - Monty, Asquith Junior, & Miss Barley

Poor Monty - Sibella & Ensemble

Better With a Man - Henry & Monty

Inside Out - Phoebe & Monty

Lady Hyacinth Abroad - Lady Hyacinth & Ensemble

The Last One You’d Expect - Company

15 minute intermission

ACT II

Why Are All the D’Ysquiths Dying? - Ensemble, Sibella, & Phoebe

Why Are All the D’Ysquiths Dying? (Encore) - Lord Asquith & Ensemble

Sibella - Monty

Final Warning - Monty, Eugenia, & Ensemble

Poison in My Pocket (Reprise) - Monty

Barrel of a Gun - Lord Adalbert & Ensemble

Stop! Wait! What?! - Monty

That Horrible Woman - Sibella & Phoebe

Look at Phoebe - Monty

Finale - Ensemble

Meet The Cast

 Kelly Anglim (Ensemble) received a B.A. in Theatre from James Madison University and has worked with numerous theaters throughout Virginia. Her favorite roles include Judy Burnly (9 to 5), Bea Bottom (Something Rotten), Marie Leroux (Is He Dead?) and Martha Jefferson (1776). All her love to her family for their constant support.  


 Zachary Conklin (Ensemble) is an actor, singer and writer based in Roanoke. Some of his previous experience includes Matilda at Roanoke Children's Theater, Gypsy at Showtimers, and A Midsummer's Night Dream at Mill Mountain Theater. Zachary enjoys spending time with friends and his amazing wife. He thanks her for all of the support she’s given him. He hopes you enjoy the show. 

 Megan Dolinger (Phoebe) is delighted to grace the stage once again! She has been waiting on bated breathe to play this wonderful role of Phoebe! She would like to thank her husband for all those long nights of rehearsals, and for always supporting her. She hopes you enjoy the show full of love and just a little bit of murder—it’s bound to be a thrilling ride! 

    Joel Gruver (The D’Ysquith Family) is a graduate of Elon University with a BFA in Music Theater. Local audiences may remember Joel as Shakespeare in Something Rotten and Emmett Forrest in Legally Blonde. He also directed the Showtimers productions of A Midsummer Night's Dream and Baby, as well as serving as lighting/sound designer for many others. 

  Cory Hollingsworth (Ensemble) is excited to return to the Showtimers stage! Recent credits include Baby (Alan), Lost In Yonkers (Louie) & The Woman in Black (Sound Design). A million thanks to my wife, Jess, whose support and love makes this all possible.  

 Evan Odson (The D’Ysquith Family) is thrilled to make his Showtimers debut in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder! His most recent role was Uncle Fester (The Addams Family) with Virginia Children’s Theatre. He thanks you for coming and hopes you don’t get too scared - no actors were murdered in the making of this musical! 

  Elliot Raff (Monty) is positively chuffed to be back on the Showtimers stage! You may have seen him in Radium Girls, Something Rotten!, Godspell, and She Loves Me. It is an absolute privilege to work with this cast and crew. He dedicates this show to his love, whom he will not be murdering. He will be directing Circle Mirror Transformation later this season. 

 Brynn Scozzari-Obson (Sibella) is thrilled to be back for her second production at Showtimers! Previous credits include: Lily Craven (The Secret Garden), Amalia Balish (She Loves Me), Glinda (Oz: A Staged Concert), Marian Paroo (The Music Man). Brynn teaches drama and choir at James Madison Middle School, and teaches private voice lessons in her private studio! brynnscozzaristudios@gmail.com 

 Kris Sorensen (Miss Shingle) is so excited to finally portray a character that is so close to her natural personality - a mysterious old woman. To be able to share the stage with such talented people makes it even better! Thanks to Christa and the whole production crew who are the real talents behind this amazing show. And a huge thank you to all of you for supporting theatre in our community!  

 Salena Sullivan (Ensemble) is so excited to be back on the boards at Showtimers. She was last seen onstage here in Something Rotten, Legally Blonde, Heathers, Rent, and Cabaret. When not at rehearsal, you can usually find her reading, knitting, or napping. Thank you so much for supporting live, community theater in the Roanoke Valley.  

Meet the PRODUCTION TEAM

Christa Woomer (Director) previously directed Something Rotten and The Addams Family here at Showtimers. She is also a competitive ballroom dancer with Arthur Murray. She would like to thank her family for their endless support as well as her amazing cast and crew for making the theatre her happy place.  

  Ashleigh Benois (Stage Manager) is very excited to be back at Showtimers! Some favorite credits include Dracula Rides Again and Something Rotten. Thank you to her family and friends for their constant love and support and to the cast and crew for all their hard work. Enjoy the murder! MUSICAL! Enjoy the musical.  

 Heather Brand (Music Director) is thankful to be asked to return for another show. Her favorite part of theatre is that you, our audience, are the only people in the history of the world that will ever see this play, with these people, done just this way, on this night. Once our bows are taken, it exists only in our memories. Thank you for coming & holding those memories close! 



Jessie Allen (Choreographer) is excited to be choreographing once again for Showtimers. You may have seen some of his previous work in the shows Oliver!, Cabaret, Addams Family, and Legally Blonde. It's been truly an honor sharing his passion with the cast and crew of this show.  

PRODUCTION TEAM

 

Director - Christa Woomer

Stage Manager - Ashleigh Benois

Music Director - Heather Brand

Choreographer - Jessie Allen

Producer - Kris Sorensen

Scenic Design/ Master Carpenter - Cole Schraitle

Accent Painter - Melanie Woomer

Costume Design - Raynelle Lankford & Jane Neighbors

Properties Manager - Denise Pappas

Lighting Designer/ Technician - Miriam Cole

Sound Design/Technician - Bob Scott

Photographer - Sarah Anglim & Callie Lawfer

Poster Design - Jessie McKeon

Website Design - Jamie Stewart

Building Crew - Spencer Meredith, Christa Woomer,

Ashleigh Benois, Joel Gruver, Evan Odson, 

Brynn Scozzari-Odson, Salena Sullivan, Kelly Anglim,

Kris Sorensen, & Jessie Allen

Meet the Creators

Steven Lutvak made his Broadway debut with his score to A Gentleman's Guide to Love And Murder, for which he supplied the music, and co-wrote the lyrics with Robert L. Freedman. A Gentleman's Guide won the Drama League, the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama Desk and the Tony Awards for Best Musical of 2014. Since its successful run of over 

Steven Lutvak made his Broadway debut with his score to A Gentleman's Guide to Love And Murder, for which he supplied the music, and co-wrote the lyrics with Robert L. Freedman. A Gentleman's Guide won the Drama League, the Outer Critics Circle, the Drama Desk and the Tony Awards for Best Musical of 2014. Since its successful run of over two years on Broadway, there have been two National Tours (the second of which is currently on the road), and productions have already been seen in Sweden, Japan, and the first Chinese language production opens this December.

Previously, Lutvak and Freedman won the Kleban and Fred Ebb Songwriting Awards for their songs to A Gentleman's Guide, which was originally developed at the Sundance Theater Lab, and which premiered as a co-production at the Hartford Stage, and the Old Globe in San Diego. Lutvak and Freedman previously wrote the musical Campaign of the Century, which won the California Musical Theater Competition from the Beverly Hills Theater Guild. Campaign was originally commissioned by The American Musical Theater of San Jose, and was later presented in a concert version at Chicago's Humanities Festival, and featured in the New York Music Theater Festival.

Other musicals include Almost September, which premiered on the mainstage of the Repertory Theater of St. Louis, and was subsequently produced at Missouri Repertory Theater, and won eight Bay Area Critics' Circle Awards for its run at Theater Works in Palo Alto, California. The Wayside Motor Inn, his adaptation of a play by A. R. Gurney, began as a commission by the Harmony Project of the National Alliance for Musical Theater, for which Lutvak was named Artist-in-Residence at the Eugene O'Neill Opera Music/Theater Conference. His Esmeralda premiered at the Studio Theater of the St. Louis Rep, and was awarded a New American Work grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Lutvak scored Off-Broadway's Hannah Senesh, which was nominated for a Drama Desk Award, and was later produced at the Zephyr Theatre in Los Angeles, the Philadelphia Theatre Company, the Baltimore Center Stage, the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis, and more recently at Penguin Repertory Theatre. The production also toured throughout Canada and Israel. During the 1994 Toronto Summer Arts Festival, a revue of Steven's songs was presented as part of Garth Drabinsky and Live Entertainment of Canada's New Voices Series. Other works of his have been performed at the Berkshire Theatre Festival, La Mama ETC, Weill Recital Hall and the New York Shakespeare Festival.

Lutvak wrote the title track to Paramount's hit film, "Mad Hot Ballroom", and, the score to "Anything But Love", which starred Eartha Kitt and Andrew McCarthy, and was released by the Samuel Goldwyn Company.

As a singer/songwriter, Lutvak has performed his songs around the country, including such prestigious New York venues as Carnegie Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, The Oak Room at the Algonquin Hotel, Rainbow and Stars and the Russian Tea Room. His two CD's are called THE TIME IT TAKES and AHEAD OF MY HEART. He is also the winner of the Johnny Mercer Emerging American Songwriting Award, the ASCAP Foundation Richard Rodgers New Horizons Award, and is the only two-time recipient of the Jonathan Larson Performing Arts Foundation Grant. Steven is proud to now be an Adjunct Professor at his alma mater, the NYU Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program.  

And now that several of his songs are discussed in David Jenness and Don Velsey's "Classic American Popular Song", the follow-up to Alec Wilder's classic book, "American Popular Song", Steven Lutvak's place in the American Popular Songbook is even more firmly planted.

Steven lives in New York City with his husband, choreographer Michael McGowan, and their daughter, Eliot Rose Lutvak-McGowan.

  Robert L. Freedman won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Book of a Musical for the Tony-winning Best Musical of 2014, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. He was also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Score, with composer and co-lyricist Steven Lutvak, with whom he shared the 2014 Drama Desk Aw

  Robert L. Freedman won a Tony Award, Drama Desk Award, and Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Book of a Musical for the Tony-winning Best Musical of 2014, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder. He was also nominated for a Tony Award for Best Score, with composer and co-lyricist Steven Lutvak, with whom he shared the 2014 Drama Desk Award for Best Lyrics. Among his television career highlights, Robert won the Writers Guild Award for HBO's A Deadly Secret, and was nominated for an Emmy Award and a Writers Guild award for the miniseries Life With Judy Garland: Me and My Shadows. Other teleplays include Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella, for which he received a third Writers Guild nomination; What Makes A Family, which received a GLAAD Award and for which Robert was a Humanitas finalist; What Love Sees, winner of the Silver Plaque at the Chicago International Television Festival; as well as the highly-rated true crime dramas Murder In The Hamptons, The Pastor's Wife, Honor Thy Mother, and Bitter Blood. In 2006, Freedman and Lutvak received both the Fred Ebb Award for songwriting and the Kleban Award for lyric writing for their work on the musicals A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and Campaign of the Century. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Robert has B.A. in Theatre from UCLA and an M.F.A. in Dramatic Writing and Musical Theatre from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts. Robert is currently at work on a film for HBO and Sundance Films. He is married to actress Jean Kauffman, and they are the proud parents of Max Freedman, a writer and community activist living in Brooklyn. 

 Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world's leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theatres from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theatr

 Music Theatre International (MTI) is one of the world's leading theatrical licensing agencies, granting theatres from around the world the rights to perform the greatest selection of musicals from Broadway and beyond. Founded in 1952 by composer Frank Loesser and orchestrator Don Walker, MTI is a driving force in advancing musical theatre as a vibrant and engaging art form. MTI works directly with the composers, lyricists and book writers of these musicals to provide official scripts, musical materials and dynamic theatrical resources to over 100,000 professional, community and school theatres in the US and in over 150 countries worldwide. MTI is particularly dedicated to educational theatre, and has created special collections to meet the needs of various types of performers and audiences. MTI’s Broadway Junior® shows are 30- and 60-minute musicals for performance by elementary and middle school-aged performers, while MTI’s School Editions are musicals annotated for performance by high school students. 



A Letter from the President

 Thank you for joining us today for this performance. A Gentleman’s Guide To Love And Murder marks the second production of Showtimers’ 75th season. If you haven’t already, this is your last chance to lock in your flex season tickets to secure the best seats for our remaining shows! 

At today’s performance, you will see the result of months of preparation. Countless hours of rehearsing songs, choreography, lines and character study; blocking, designing sound and light cues; planning out costumes and makeup and hair, and so much more! All of this comes after all of the normal responsibilities of life. Today’s performance is reflective of our community’s passion for the performing arts and a love of theatre. 

Our theatre is only as strong as the community that surrounds us. We invite you to get involved in our upcoming productions! Whether you are ready to get on stage or lend your talents in set construction, fundraising efforts, or other aspects, we would love to have you join us. 

Additionally, if you feel inspired by today’s performance, we invite you to consider supporting our theatre through a donation. Your contribution—no matter the size—helps ensure we can keep offering exciting performances, educational programs,workshops, and opportunities for all.


Cory Hollingsworth

Board of Directors President  2025

Showtimers Theatre

Thank you!

By utilizing our virtual playbill, you are helping the theatre (and the environment) in so many ways. The money we save on printing allows us to improve the quality of our shows, implement more educational workshops, and support our mission of creating theatre for and by the Roanoke community!

Meet our Board and Chairs!

A Letter from the Director

 Welcome to Showtimers! As a director, actor, and as a person, I’ve always loved a good comedy. And in theatre, rarely does it get any better than a musical farce. I directed “Something Rotten” in 2023, and I loved every minute of it. I was so excited when I was asked to direct this show. I love to make people laugh. Because when people laugh, they’re happy. And we can all use a little more laughter and happiness these days. 

Comedy is hard, though. And a comedy like this takes a special kind of talent and a whole lot of practice. But this cast makes the tricky timing, zany characters, and crazy pace of this show look fun and effortless – all while singing and dancing. I have been so blessed to have this incredible cast to work with. They are funny and smart and charming and unbelievably talented. They have given an immense amount of time, heart, and hard work to bring this show together. And they are amazing! 

Extra special thanks have to go out to my wonderful team, including my stage manager, Ashleigh, my musical director, Heather, and my choreographer, Jessie; my most humble thanks for taking this journey with me. It’s been an honor to work with you. 

Thank you to my family, as always, for loving me and putting up with my constant talk of sets, props, costumes, characters, and other weird theater stuff. 

And mostly, thanks to you, the audience, for coming out and supporting live theatre. You are the reason we do this. We are so excited to share our play with you. Live, laugh, love, and enjoy the show!

Christa Woomer, Director

Special Thanks:

 Nathan Bradley

Julie Wheeler

Mark Perdue

Jordan Rodgers

Kaiya Stafford

Planet Fitness

Melanie Woomer

Zhuzh Collaborative Costuming 

Special Thanks

Community Supporters

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Dessert Bar
Virginia is for Theatre Lovers
Taylored Images Photography
The Fresh Market
Donate Today

Copyright © 2025 Showtimers Community Theatre - All Rights Reserved.

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