Love, loss & song: Seymour lights up

Emerging theatre company Squabbalogic is earning high praise for its production of Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story, which is currently playing in Sydney at the Seymour Centre.

Relationships can be murder. It’s 1924, and two wealthy University of Chicago students believe themselves to be Nietzschean ‘supermen’, superior to the rest of society. But when they forge their dark plans to commit the ‘perfect crime’, things don’t unfold exactly as they’d planned. Infatuation and love meets psychotic compulsion, in the award-winning Off-Broadway musical written by Stephen Dolginoff.

The show opened at the Seymour Centre on Wednesday night, and closes on March 6.

The musical is directed by Jay James Moody, produced by Jessica Burns and features a strong musical score directed by Mark Chamberlain.

Audience members will also find brilliant and convincing performances from Blake Erickson and Benjamin Giraud.

Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story is a cautionary tale of obsession, co-dependency and addiction to another. The musical tells the tale of two infamous students of the University of Chicago, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who brutally murdered fourteen-year-old Bobby Franks in the mid-1920s, and were sentenced to life in prison.

Wealthy and intellectually prodigious, the two boys are consumed by their desire to commit the ultimate crime undetected. Fastened in a master-slave relationship and completely absorbed in each other, their intimate connection twists beyond the realm of normal and leads them to make a horrible life-changing decision.

Written by award-winning New York playwright-composer Stephen Dolginoff, Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story has achieved international recognition and is a must see for all lovers of musical masterpieces and those who have ever felt consumed by their love for someone.

Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story is just one of the superb musical acts, and so much more, included in the Seymour Centre’s partnership with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras.

A smoldering line-up of music, theatre and conversation celebrating all things queer is showing at the Seymour Centre beginning in February and continuing throughout the month of March.

AussieTheatre.com reviewer Caitlin Wright said of Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story, in part: “The real highlight of this show is the music. The contemporary musical theatre tunes are catchy and the performances are of high quality. Musical Director Mark Chamberlain plays the piano almost continuously throughout the show providing a wonderful accompaniment.Both singers perform their many snappy numbers with aplomb, the duets in particular highlighting their musical talents.”

Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story plays until March 6. Bookings: (02) 9351 7940.