Line #9 Theatre/ThrillMe


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e12dc7fa797e18093d125ea988cceaee.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:250:''Relationships can be murder...'']]
3
4	->'''Nathan Leopold:''' Nietzsche? When did you become interested in philosophy?\
5	'''Richard Loeb:''' When I discovered that I am a textbook Superman.
6
7	A two-man musical by Stephen Dolginoff, based on the real-life teenage "thrill killers" Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, who murdered a twelve-year-old boy in [[TheRoaringTwenties 1924]] UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} pretty much just to prove that they could. The story is told by Leopold at his parole hearing years later, as he attempts to show the parole board that he was only going along with Loeb, his lover and best friend. (The real Leopold was successful in his attempt to be released, as he is in the end of the show, and lived an uneventful life as a florist after marrying a woman on the outside.) Three cast recordings have been released.
8
9	The score is notable for its sparseness--two singers and a piano, though the piano arrangement was made more delicate and complex for the 2006 production. This remains the official version.
10	----
11	!!This work includes examples of:
12	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Richard pretends Nathan is this, but that's thoroughly subverted by the time they sing, [[VillainLoveSong "There's Nothing Like a Fire"]].
13	* AbusiveParents: Richard's father blatantly prefers his younger son. It's implied that this is at least in part due to homophobia.
14	* AffablyEvil: Nathan. Richard is this to Nathan only - everyone else gets FauxAffablyEvil.
15	* AmbiguouslyBi: Richard. We find out in "Everybody Wants Richard" that he sleeps with women as well as with Nathan, but we never get confirmation if this is genuine bisexuality or just Richard trying to conceal the fact that he's queer.
16	* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove:
17	-->'''Richard''' ''(reluctantly):'' ...I...I screw up without you.\
18	'''Nathan:''' What?\
19	'''Richard:''' I screw up without you, okay!\
20	'''Nathan:''' ...You never said you needed me before.
21	* ArcWords: "Superior".
22	* AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther: See AnguishedDeclarationOfLove.
23	* BewareTheSuperman: The motive for murder is, roughly, "We felt like it. Anyway, why should these rules apply to ''us''?"
24	* BittersweetEnding: Do you like Nathan? He got paroled, but who knows how well he's going to be able to start on the outside. Do you like Nathan [[BlackAndGrayMorality not so much]]? He got paroled.
25	* BloodOath: Nathan and Richard sign a contract in blood per Richard's instruction, and then Nathan clasps Richard's hand while they're still bleeding to seal the deal.
26	* BreakTheHaughty: Richard. Compare the SmugSnake of "Superior" and "The Plan" to the terrified, beaten man of "Afraid" and "Life Plus 99 Years."
27	* BrokenAce: Richard. He's so handsome that EvenTheGuysWantHim, charismatic, affluent, intelligent enough to graduate university before he's even in his twenties and implied to be the BigManOnCampus when he's there. But he's a mess of self-loathing, ParentalIssues and internalised homophobia and he channels these feelings into violence and sadism.
28	* BSODSong: "Afraid", when Richard's shrunken conscience finally kicks in and he has a severe FreakOut.
29	* CainAndAbel: Richard's original plan is to kill his brother John. He has a frightening number of possible methods already under consideration, including [[{{Squick}} "make it look like rape"]].
30	* ChekhovsGun: Nathan's glasses. They're the reason the boys get caught.
31	* ConvenientlyCellmates: Lampshaded and subverted.
32	* DidntSeeThatComing: In a case of unknown knowns, Richard doesn't plan for the fact that [[spoiler:Nathan could turn him in]].
33	* DissonantSerenity: Richard, a lot of the time.
34	* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: It is theoretically possible to sing "Roadster" solely as charm hiding menace, and not make it sound like a [[VillainLoveSong seduction]]. It's conceivable that some performer has even done so.
35	* DoggedNiceGuy: Nathan loves to present himself as this. He acts this way through the whole show, though the clearest example is in "Everybody Wants Richard", where he reminds Richard that even though Richard's fully capable of manipulating other people into going along with him, he's the only one who can keep up (see: PairTheSmartOnes).
36	* DoubleStandardRapeMaleOnMale: Subverted. Nathan pressurising a clearly unwilling Richard into sex in "Thrill Me" is extremely disturbing.
37	* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas: Hinted at. When Richard proposes that they kill his brother John, one of the reasons Nathan uses to convince him otherwise is: "You could never face your mother." We never actually ''meet'' her, so it's hard to say whether or not this trope is in effect.
38	* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Richard, according to Nathan.
39	* EvilGloating: About 75% of everything Richard says is gloating about being "superior." [[spoiler:It's part of what makes it so, ''so'' satisfying when we find out Nathan screwed him over.]]
40	* EvilIsPetty: Richard's reasons for wanting to kill his brother? Getting the bigger room, getting a bigger inheritance, and so his brother won't touch his stuff.
41	* FinalLoveDuet: "Life Plus 99 Years" is a fittingly twisted version.
42	* ForegoneConclusion: Richard and Nathan murder a kid, get caught, and go to jail. And if you know your history, then you also know [[spoiler:that Nathan gets paroled and Richard is murdered in prison]].
43	* ForTheEvulz[=/=]ItAmusedMe: Richard's motive for killing the kid is essentially, "I'm bored, I'm better than everyone, and I can get away with it, so why not?"
44	* FreakOut:
45	** Richard in "Afraid."
46	** Nathan gets one a bit earlier in "Superior." While Richard is gloating over their superiority and their crime, Nathan is basically saying, "What the hell did we just ''do''?!"
47	* TheGhost: Everyone who's not named Richard Loeb or Nathan Leopold.
48	* InferioritySuperiorityComplex: Richard's entire characterisation. His academic overachieving and delusions of Nietzschean superhumanity are how he deals with his internalised homophobia and the fact that his parents blatantly favour his younger brother. [[BreakTheHaughty The 'superiority' part diminishes]] over the course of the play.
49	* IronicEcho: "You're scaring me!" / "Am I scaring you?"
50	* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Nathan, depending on whether or not you think over thirty years in prison before being paroled and the man he's in love with being murdered was punishment enough. He ''is'' the less monstrous of the two boys, but that doesn't change the fact that he helped murder a kid.]]
51	* LaserGuidedKarma: Not only does Richard go to prison, [[spoiler:he's murdered while he's locked up. Not to mention, the man he's been manipulating the whole show has been manipulating ''him''.]]
52	* ALighterShadeOfBlack: Invoked [[spoiler:and ultimately subverted.]] Both boys are eminently screwed up, but Nathan is presented as merely hapless and troubled, and seems a lot like just a desperate, needy teenager who probably just could have benefited from a few generous heaps of therapy; while Richard is played as pure charismatic sociopath, except for being unnervingly childish and unable to show much emotion beyond fear and giddy joy when he's not being frighteningly calm. [[spoiler: This is because Nathan is the one telling the story, and he's an UnreliableNarrator with a vested interest in portraying himself as this to ensure that he gets parole. Ultimately, Nathan is just as bad as Richard... and even more cunning about it.]]
53	* LongerThanLifeSentence: "Life plus ninety-nine years", to be exact.
54	* LoveMakesYouCrazy: Both of them are rather worryingly obsessed with each other, a point emphasized by the two-person cast.
55	* LoveMakesYouEvil: Nathan's in love with Richard, Richard wants to commit crimes. Cue steady escalation of crimes...
56	* LoveMartyr: Nathan will do ''anything'' for Richard. [[spoiler:Including landing them both in jail so they can be together forever.]]
57	* ManipulativeBastard: Richard spends the whole show playing on Nathan's love for him to get him to be his accomplice. [[spoiler:And it turns out that Nathan was fully aware of this and had planned ahead, effectively manipulating ''him''. When Richard realizes he's been had, all he can say is this:]]
58	-->''"...You son of a bitch."''
59	* TheMasochismTango: The show is largely about Richard and Nathan getting themselves and each other into worse and worse situations, and neither of them wanting to end the relationship.
60	* MinimalistCast: We only ever see Richard and Nathan onstage.
61	* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Nathan has this mere ''minutes'' after the murder. Richard doesn't get it until he's in jail.
62	* OutGambitted: [[spoiler:Nathan]]'s been acting like he's been going along with the plan, but in fact had been setting it up according to his own goals all along.
63	* OurLoveIsDifferent: The entirety of "Everybody Wants Richard" is Nathan trying to convince Richard--and possibly himself--that this is the case.
64	* OutlawCouple: They're in a sexual relationship and they murdered a kid.
65	* PairTheSmartOnes: How did they end up together? They graduated college at 19; no one else could ''keep up''.
66	* PetTheDog: After treating Nathan as an AbhorrentAdmirer for the first few scenes, during "There's Nothing Like A Fire" Richard caves in and makes it clear to Nathan how attracted he is to him.
67	-->''"There's nothing like the glow of sizzling embers... to brighten your face."''
68	* PsychopathicManchild: Richard, when he's in crime-planning mode.
69	* QueerRomance: Nathan and Richard don't have the healthiest relationship, but it certainly ''is'' a relationship.
70	* RippedFromTheHeadlines: As mentioned, this is based on the thrill killers case.
71	* SexyDiscretionShot: Richard and Nathan get as far as stating explicitly that they're about to have sex, but the lights always shift before it happens.
72	* SlapSlapKiss: "Everybody Wants Richard" is frequently staged like this, and culminates in Nathan grabbing Richard and kissing him.
73	* SmartPeopleWearGlasses: Nathan
74	* SmugSnake: Richard
75	* StrawNihilist: The boys' crimes are inspired by their love of Nietzsche's works and consider themselves supermen.
76	* TeensAreMonsters
77	* ThereAreNoTherapists: Not that one would've done much good for Richard, but Nathan certainly could've benefited.
78	* TogetherInDeath: Referenced. [[spoiler:Nathan would've been fine with getting the death penalty, so long as he and Richard were together]].
79	* TragicVillain: Nathan paints himself at this, and does appear to honestly have gotten caught up in Richard.
80	* UnrelatedInTheAdaptation: The musical doesn't mention that Bobby Franks was Richard's second cousin in real life, or that they even knew each other prior to the murder. In fact, their families were fairly close and were neighbors. Knowing that does answer the question of why Bobby didn't think anything of accepting a ride from him... not to mention make Richard's actions even worse.
81	* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: You know they're not going to get away with killing the kid; they talk about it too much. (Not to mention the show starts with Nathan in prison, and, you know, they didn't get away with it in real life.) [[spoiler:Nathan's hidden plan goes fine, though.]]
82	* UnwittingPawn: [[spoiler:Richard]] thinks everything's going according to his plan, though with a few mishaps. [[spoiler:Nathan]] knows otherwise.
83	* VillainLoveSong: Nathan's interested in Richard who's turned on by crime, so Richard sings about crime and sex with Nathan in "There's Nothing Like a Fire", "A Written Contract", "Superior", and "Keep Your Deal with Me". Richard also tends to just sing this way--he isn't even vaguely interested in Bobby (who's twelve in this musical), but it's hard to hear "Roadster" as anything but a seduction.
84	* VillainSong: ''Everything in the score'' after "Everybody Wants Richard", and ''especially'' "Roadster."
85	* VillainousBreakdown: In "Afraid", Richard realizes his best option is life in prison as a child murderer, and becomes gradually more distraught.
86	* VillainousFriendship: Nathan is Richard's accomplice, and they're certainly ''something'', though how much of that is friendship/lovers and how much is manipulation is left up in the air for most of the show.
87	* VillainousLament: Again in "Afraid", Richard's alone in a cell actually thinking over what he's done, and realizes he can't actually justify it.
88	* WhamLine: In the finale, Nathan hits us with several in a row. Also InUniverse Wham Lines for Richard.
89	-->'''Nathan:''' After all, I did stay one step ahead of you.\
90	'''Richard:''' But... you dropped your glasses, if you hadn't dropped them, we wouldn't have--\
91	'''Nathan:''' [[spoiler:Don't you get it? I dropped them on purpose.]]\
92	'''Richard:''' [[spoiler:You wanted to get caught?]]\
93	'''Nathan:''' [[spoiler:Yes!]]\
94	''Later''\
95	'''Richard:''' [[spoiler:But I talked you out of your deal!]]\
96	'''Nathan:''' [[spoiler:Exactly like I knew you would!]]\
97	'''Richard:''' [[spoiler:What if we got the death penalty?]]\
98	'''Nathan:''' [[spoiler:As long as we were together?]]\
99	'''Richard:''' This is crazy!\
100	'''Nathan:''' Am I scaring you?\
101	'''Richard:''' [[spoiler:...You son of a bitch.]]
102	* WholeEpisodeFlashback: The story is narrated by Nathan years later.
103	* WretchedHive: Richard sees Chicago as one of these, and figures they won't get caught because there are loads of other criminals that can be blamed for the murder. He's wrong about the second part, but Chicago ''was'' monstrously corrupt and crime-ridden in the Prohibition era. (See ''Film/PublicEnemies'', ''Theatre/{{Chicago}}'', and ''Film/TheUntouchables1987''.)
104	* XanatosGambit: Richard keeps acting like he's pulling one of these. [[spoiler:In the last scene, Nathan reveals he pulled one to get them put in prison together--after all, they were either together for life in prison, or together in death.]]
105	* YouAreWorthHell: Richard convinces Nathan that he's worth prison or death in "Keep Your Deal with Me".

Context Theatre / ThrillMe