Like the hit musical Chicago, Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story is based on a real-life crime that occurred in 1920s Chicago. However, Thrill Me's guilty characters are even less sympathetic than Kander and Ebb's murderous, Windy City beauties. The musical drama is an examination of the psychosexual dynamic between two young, upper-class college students, Nathan Leopold, Jr. and Richard A. Loeb. The duo assumed that their high intellects gave them the ability to commit a perfect crime without being apprehended. But the clues they left behind after kidnapping and murdering 14-year-old Bobby Franks were enough to lead to their conviction of a murder that was ultimately driven by "the thrill." Gypsy Productions stages Thrill Me beginning this weekend; Martin Kiefer directs. July 7-30, 8 p.m. Fri.-Sat., 1:30 p.m. Sun., Suncoast Theatre, 3000 34th St. S., St. Petersburg, $18, 727-456-0500, www.gypsyproductions.org.
This article appears in Jul 5-11, 2006.