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This notebook contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of \u201cOnly Murders in the Building.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Everyone loves a Broadway hit. It\u2019s possible that we enjoy a Broadway catastrophe \u2014 \u201cCarrie,\u201d \u201cDiana, the Musical,\u201d \u201cSpider-Man: Turn Off the Dark\u201d \u2014 a little more. Few productions have been as cataclysmic as Oliver Putnam\u2019s \u201cDeath Rattle Dazzle,\u201d a misbegotten gothic about murderous infants, re-conceived as a glittery musical. Think \u201cRuthless\u201d but skewed younger and set at a Nova Scotian lighthouse.<\/p>\n This musical was the centerpiece of Season 3 of the Hulu comedy \u201cOnly Murders in the Building,\u201d which brought the amateur detectives played by Selena Gomez, Steve Martin and Martin Short out of their luxury apartment complex and into a sumptuous Broadway theater. (The theater is actually the opulent United Palace in Washington Heights, subbing for a space more than 100 blocks south.) \u201cDeath Rattle Dazzle\u201d bore only the vaguest sequined resemblance to a real Broadway show, while demonstrating deep love of the form. Think of the season as a love letter to Broadway, written in lipstick and blood.<\/p>\n On the original opening night, the leading man, Paul Rudd\u2019s Ben Glenroy, was killed. Twice. Once with rat poison and again down an elevator shaft. Theater has its own violence. A good show \u201ckills,\u201d it \u201cslays,\u201d it \u201cknocks them dead.\u201d But this was s a bit much.<\/p>\n Amid rehearsals for the original play\u2019s transformation into a musical, several members of the cast and crew were accused of his murder. In the meantime, there were in-jokes about superstitions, spike tape, stage fright, Schmackary\u2019s Cookies and the cavalier use of accents. The accent jokes were made at the expense of Meryl Streep. Matthew Broderick also showed up for some method skewering.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n During the season finale, which arrived on Tuesday (spoilers follow, so many), the murderers were finally revealed. The uberproducer Donna DeMeo (Linda Emond) had poisoned Ben to protect her son Cliff\u2019s investment in the show. Then her son (Wesley Taylor), defending his mother and his ego, pushed a revived Ben down an elevator shaft.<\/p>\n Was the motive love? Or money? Or artistic integrity? Yes? I think? Motive is never big with the \u201cOnly Murders Gang.\u201d (Personally, I plumped for the documentarian Tobert (Jesse Williams), mainly because it\u2019s hard to trust a man named Tobert.)<\/p>\n