Charlene Baldridge | Uptown News
“I went along with Richard,” Nathan Leopold says in the first scene. “It was a child we killed.”
It’s merely a 2005 Off-Broadway musical titled “Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story” with book, music and lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff. Nonetheless, onlookers at Diversionary Theatre are instantaneously seduced, swept back to 1924 Chicago through the musical’s construction, the performances of Scott Nickley as Loeb and Michael Parrott as Leopold, and the astute direction of Bret Young. The piece could easily veer towards melodrama and self-consciousness; instead, it is played with riveting sincerity.
When the musical begins it is 1958, and Leopold addresses a parole hearing at the prison in Joliet, Illinois. He’s been incarcerated 35 years, ever since his and Loeb’s conviction. Thanks to their tender years (Loeb was 18 and Leopold, 19) and the pleas of attorney Clarence Darrow, the two privileged law students were spared execution.
Subscribing to the beliefs of Friedrich Nietzsche, Loeb believes that he and Leopold are superior and invincible super humans. Loeb is sexually aroused by the commission of escalating crimes and elicits Leopold as his signed-in-blood accomplice. Eventually he plots the perfect crime, the murder of a 12-year-old boy, that will afford the biggest thrill so far. Leopold goes along because of his need for Loeb’s approval and the sexual favors that come along with his complicity. Loeb lusts for crime; Leopold longs for Loeb. In reality, the two might have gotten away with “the crime of the century” were it not for the discovery of the corpse and Leopold’s unusual eyewear, dropped at the scene.
What a story for a musical! The genre goes right along with Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s “Parade” and John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “The Scottsboro Boys.” All are history lessons with music. Sadly, despite his considerable credits and some clever lyrics, Dolginoff’s 16-song musical score pales in comparison with the aforementioned, largely due to the fact that only two voices restrict the options, and Dolginoff’s musical inventiveness and songs lack variety.
Of the two performers, Parrott possesses the more assured singing technique. Both are fine actors and their sexual frisson is convincing. The 80-minute production is enhanced by Tony Houck’s musical direction and Michael Mizerany’s choreography. The action is played upon director Young’s set, an empty stage with a ladder and some moveable wooden boxes that create scenarios lighted by Conor Mulligan. Kevin Anthenill provides sound design, David Medina the props, and Chris Powell the costumes.
Since its off-Broadway run “Thrill Me” has been performed widely in regional theatres and also (in translation) in Japan and Germany, and (in English) in other countries across the pond. This is due, perhaps, to humankind’s fascination and curiosity with crime, homosexual thrill killers, and perhaps with the extremes to which some go for love.
