Financially-strapped Francis Henshall has taken on the job of servant to Roscoe Crabbe, a small time East End London hood, who is trying collect £6,000 from his fiancée’s father. However, it turns out that "Roscoe" is really his twin sister Rachel … who has been posing as her own dead brother … who has been killed by her own boyfriend, Stanley Stubbers … for whom Francis also works.
Still with us? The hilarity never stops in this award-winning slapstick farce in its knockabout quest to answer the age-old question: how can any man (especially Francis) serve two masters, without either of them finding out about the other; pursue and win the girl he fancies; and somehow get a decent meal in the process?
It's winter, 1934, and the Orient Express, Europe's most magnificent train, is halted by a blizzard midway through its luxurious journey from Paris to Istanbul. As the travelers wait for help to arrive, it becomes clear that one of them is quite beyond help — he’s been murdered! Fortunately, Hercule Poirot, Agatha Chistie's famous Belgian detective, is also on the train, and on the case.
He concludes in no time at all that the murderer must be among the remaining stranded passengers … but which of them can it be? The course of Poirot's investigation, the secrets that are revealed, and an unforgettable conclusion all combine to make this "locked compartment" mystery the classic that it is.
Desiree Armfeldt is a once famous and still beautiful actress in turn-of-the-20th-century Sweden. She has enjoyed an impressive career of both theatrical and romantic adventures, which has now begun to fade in both respects. In the audience at a performance in an obscure country town, she sees an old flame, Fredrik Egerman, seated with his teenaged wife, Anne.
Out of the many complications (some inevitable, some unpredictable) that ensue from this encounter, Stephen Sondheim has created one of his most beloved musicals — a shimmering reflection of youthful naiveté, midlife remembrance and regret, and a celebration of the love that makes fools of us at every age.
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