{"id":247290,"date":"2014-05-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-05-09T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/crime-thriller-explores-the-thrill-of-crime\/"},"modified":"2014-05-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2014-05-09T07:00:00","slug":"crime-thriller-explores-the-thrill-of-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/crime-thriller-explores-the-thrill-of-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Crime thriller explores the thrill of crime"},"content":{"rendered":"

Charlene Baldridge | Uptown News<\/p>\n

\u201cI went along with Richard,\u201d Nathan Leopold says in the first scene. \u201cIt was a child we killed.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"Scott<\/a>
Scott Nickley (Loeb) and Michael Parrot (Leopold) (Photo by Daren Scott)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It\u2019s merely a 2005 Off-Broadway musical titled \u201cThrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story\u201d with book, music and lyrics by Stephen Dolginoff. Nonetheless, onlookers at Diversionary Theatre are instantaneously seduced, swept back to 1924 Chicago through the musical\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

When the musical begins it is 1958, and Leopold addresses a parole hearing at the prison in Joliet, Illinois. He\u2019s been incarcerated 35 years, ever since his and Loeb\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s 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 \u201cthe crime of the century\u201d were it not for the discovery of the corpse and Leopold\u2019s unusual eyewear, dropped at the scene.<\/p>\n

\"TheaterInfo\"<\/a>What a story for a musical!\u00a0 The genre goes right along with Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown\u2019s \u201cParade\u201d and John Kander and Fred Ebb\u2019s \u201cThe Scottsboro Boys.\u201d All are history lessons with music. Sadly, despite his considerable credits and some clever lyrics, Dolginoff\u2019s 16-song musical score pales in comparison with the aforementioned, largely due to the fact that only two voices restrict the options, and Dolginoff\u2019s musical inventiveness and songs lack variety.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s musical direction and Michael Mizerany\u2019s choreography. The action is played upon director Young\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

Since its off-Broadway run \u201cThrill Me\u201d 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\u2019s fascination and curiosity with crime, homosexual thrill killers, and perhaps with the extremes to which some go for love.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Charlene Baldridge | Uptown News \u201cI went along with Richard,\u201d Nathan Leopold says in the first scene. \u201cIt was a child we killed.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"author":731,"featured_media":247291,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Crime thriller explores the thrill of crime","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11549,11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-entertainment","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/731"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}