The Smell of the Kill

Set largely in a designer kitchen, Michele Lowe’s phenomenally funny play Smell of the Kill debuted on Broadway in 2002, making it a precursor to TV’s “Desperate Housewives.” The overall feel of Kill is very similar to “Housewives,” but Lowe’s play has more depth and far funnier lines than the TV series. The story centers around the wives of three guys who went to school together. They’re all very wealthy and they’re all having marital problemsthe kind that aren’t painfully obvious, and the kind that get whispered about in rumor. The script opens in comically exaggerated gossip. Those dark little secrets slowly expand to become the central conflict of a play.