In 1924, two wealthy, intelligent
college students kidnapped and
murdered a teenager in Chicago.
The crime and its trial (led by famous defense attorney, Clarence
Darrow) captivated the nation’s
attention. Nathan Freudenthal
Leopold, Jr. and Richard Albert
Loeb were the two behind the
murder, which was the O.J. Simpson trial of its time. Their ‘complicated’ relationship is explored
in the musical Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story, which has its
New Jersey premiere at Luna
Stage in December.
Thrill Me takes the audience
inside the minds’ of the two 19
year old boys. The play focuses
less on the crime and the trial
of the century and more on the
friendship (platonic and sexual)
of Leopold and Loeb. Portraying
the duo is Joseph Bigelow and
Dean Linnard, both making their
Luna Stage debuts. The production is directed by Luna Stage
NewJerseyStage.com
artistic director Cheryl Katz with
musical direction by Andy Peterson. And music is vitally important to the play. A piano player
performs live and with much of
the play sung, there is music almost throughout.
“Nobody ever understood the
purpose of the crime,” explained
Katz. “Nobody understood why
two boys that had everything
going for them would do such
a random act of violence for no
apparent reason. Thrill Me explores that question from a hypothetical standpoint. Nobody
knows what these two men said
to each other in private, so the
play puts forth a hypothesis of
why they did this crime.”
The two-character play was
nominated for a Drama Desk
award for Best Musical and has
since been translated into 10
languages with over 100 productions in 15 countries. Notable
stagings include Los Angeles,
2015 - ISSUE 11
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