Dazzling duo’s many talents lift ‘Murder for Two’

By Rich Fahey

STONEHAM — It may appear to be frivolous fun, but it is the theatrical and musical equivalent of running the Boston Marathon.

It is Greater Boston Stage Company’s “Murder for Two,” a musical comedy that requires two actors to balance portraying a large number of characters with equally heavy musical demands, performing the score while sometimes sharing the same piano. And while it may be frivolous fun, it is serious about making you laugh. It is murder most foul and funny.

It may take only two, but the pool of actors available who fit the bill is not very deep. Thankfully, GBSC has engaged two of the very best. Will McGarrahan worked as an actor, singer, and pianist for many years in Seattle before moving to Boston’s South End. Jared Troilo has been down this road before. He performed the role of Marcus Moskowitz, the would-be, not-quite-yet detective determined to solve the murder in a rural New England mansion  before the real-life detective arrives, for the Lyric Stage Company’s 2016 production.

Troilo and McGarrahan also take turns playing the score on the onstage piano, at times switching places in mid-song without missing a beat or a note.

McGarrahan is charged with portraying a whole boatload of suspects – 12 to be exact — including, hilariously, the surviving members of a boys’ choir. He uses a minimal number of props  — a baseball cap, a feather boa – and a change in tone or facial expression to portray such diverse characters.

Novelist Arthur Whitney has taken one right between the eyes just as he enters a surprise party, and the roomful of party-goers are all suspects.

Marcus, with his partner Lou’s permission, takes charge at the murder scene, fudging the fact that he isn’t actually a detective, even though he keeps a badge handy for the time he will actually be one.

McGarrahan, meanwhile, meets himself coming and going as he changes characters with a swipe of a hand, using accents and changing the timbre of his voice to portray vastly divergent characters.

There are moments when some of McGarrahan’s more manic comic moments are threatening Troilo’s composure, and he is about to break out in laughter

The book is by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, while Kinosian contributed music and Blair the lyrics.

A stiff wind could pick up the book and take it away, but the songs are fun, the best of which are “Procotol Says,” an ode to the process Marcus hopes to use in finding the killer, and “He Needs a Partner,” performed by Marcus and Steph Whitney, Arthur Whitney’s criminologist niece who is not only a suspect but Marcus’ assistant in trying to solve the crime. As a relationship develops, she also could be something more. Both the music and book serve as showcases for the talents of the two principals.

Bookwriters Kinosian and Blair will have some fun by dropping in clues from time to time, as when we find that all of the suspects have been featured at one time or another in one of Arthur Whitney’s books.

McGarrahan careens from character to character like a theatrical pinball, from the Southern belle Dahlia, Arthur’s wife, to the German psychotherapist Dr. Griff, to the French ballerina Barrette Lewis, and a feuding couple from Brooklyn named Murray and Barbara. Oh, yes, there are three young boys who survived a catastrophe that killed off nine members of their choir, and they are involved in a caper of a different sort. It’s physical comedy time when McGarrahan attaches shoes to his knees to portray one of the boys.

Director Tyler Rosati no doubt spent much of his time helping McGarrahan hone in on his characters and preventing the two actors from bumping into each other on the way to or leaving the piano.

Katy Monthei’s detailed and very busy set of a tired old mansion reminds us at every turn that we are watching a murder mystery, albeit a much different one.

In the end, it doesn’t really matter whodunit. It’s pure fun watching Troilo and McGarrahan show off, especially when it looks as if they’re having just as much fun as the audience.

The Greater Boston Stage Company production of “Murder for Two.” Book and music by Joe Kinosian. Book and lyrics by Kellen Blair. Directed by Tyler Rosati. Music direction by Bethany Aiken. Scenic design by Katy Monthei. Lighting design by Matt Cost. Costume design by Chelsea Kerl. Sound design by Adam Smith. Sound operation by Denzil Kakol. At the Greater Boston Stage Company through Nov. 9. Greaterbostonstage.org.