DEATH OF A SHOWMAN

Backing a theatrical extravaganza has serious consequences for a New York socialite and her maid in 1914.

The news that songwriter Leo Hirschfeld, her former not-quite-boyfriend, is rehearsing a Broadway-bound play gives lady’s maid Jane Prescott a pleasant tingle, followed by a heart-wrenching thud at the news that Two Loves Have I features the lovely Violet Tempest, who's now Leo’s wife. After lady of the house Louise Tyler warns the rest of the staff to be mindful of Jane’s tender feelings, the young matron is intrigued when Leo turns up to see not Jane, but Louise herself. Hoping to interest her in making a modest investment, the enterprising young man invites her to a rehearsal. Since propriety demands that Louise can’t be backstage alone at a place as disreputable as a theater, Jane accompanies her. As her employer falls head over heels for the magic of the stage and invests in the show, Jane develops a grudging affection for the theater folk, befriending over-the-hill comedian Roland Harney and his dog, Peanut. She especially appreciates the faces behind the scenes, from Harriet Biederman, who keeps the show’s complicated finances straight, to Adele St. John, whose costumes make Violet and leading lady Blanche Arden into the magical creatures they appear onstage. The person Jane bonds with least is producer Sidney Warburton. So she feels no great loss when the tyrannical moneyman is shot dead in the men’s room at Rector’s, where the cast is having a late supper. It’s only when Detective Harrison J. Fullerton begins to ask pointed questions about Leo’s relationship with Warburton that Jane realizes the full impact of the murder on both her newfound theater friends and her faithful employer.

There’s no upstairs or downstairs backstage. The show must go on.