Theater review: 'No Way to Treat A Lady'
This boutique musical is a cute, clever and captivating tale

By Stuart Duncan
Princeton Packet Theater Critic
Sunday, May 21, 2000

   Boutique musicals are very much in vogue; they have small casts, simple sets and are usually high on creativity and short on choreography. They also are usually great fun. The latest example of the genre is No Way To Treat A Lady at Hopewell's Off-Broadstreet Theater. It is cute, clever and captivating. Douglas Cohen's script (he also wrote the music and the lyrics) is based on William Goldman 1960s novel. In turn, that was filmed by Hollywood in 1968 — starring Rod Steiger, George Segal and Lee Remick. It was a full generation before the stage version showed up in 1987.
   The plot is laid in New York City, specifically in the summer of 1970. A serial killer is on the loose, strangling women who are just as loose. The NYPD has assigned one of its more bumbling detectives to the case — Morris Brummell. He comes with a rather extraordinary parcel of baggage. He is Jewish and has a complaining mother and a lack of success with the ladies to prove it. His quarry, Christopher "Kit" Gill, is an unsuccessful actor who is still trying to please his dead mother. He will only be a success in mom's eyes when he has a headline in the New York Times. Since acting won't accomplish it, killing must be his way to the top.
   At Off-Broadstreet, a company of four romps its way through the tale, scattering laughs and smiles as they go. A pair of Off-Broadstreet veterans, Tom Orr (as Brummell) and Harris Goodman (as the killer, "Kit") have a delicious time racing and chasing each other. Meanwhile Lois Carr dashes in and out of five roles, including Morris' mother, Kit's mother and assorted dead street denizens. Michelle Loor as Morris' newly found girlfriend has little to do except look pretty, look scared and once or twice look pretty scared.
   One of the joys of boutique musicals is that you don't have to worry much about everything making complete sense: Kit talks to his dead mother more than Morris talks to his live one. Moreover, Kit's mom talks (or rather sings back to him). Kit even sings to his victims before he strangles them. And darned if they don't sing too. No big hit-parade songs, you understand, but good fun.
   Director Bob Thick has his company climb stairs, weave their way in and around a three-level series of rooms and alleys, all the time lurking and skulking. Naturally enough, Morris' girlfriend gets herself trapped by the villain, mostly so Morris can be a hero. In the end, justice more or less triumphs. There may not be an overture, but there is redemption.

   No Way To Treat A Lady plays at Off-Broadstreet Theater, 5 S. Greenwood Ave., Hopewell through June 24. Fri. and Sat. at 8 p.m.; Sun. at 2:30 p.m. The doors are always open one hour earlier for dessert and beverages. For tickets and information, call (609) 466-2766.