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A CurtainUp Review
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
By Elyse Sommer
| A New Chief Scoundrel Adds Fresh Pizzazz to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
The scoundrelly partnership has a new Professor Higgins-ish elder statesman, Lawrence Jameson. Also new are the seemingly naive American damsel Christine Colgate who beats the scoundrels at their own game and the Oklahoma heiress Jolene Oakes who is sent running for her life when she meets the grossly imbecilic Prince Ruprecht. Jonathan Pryce, the new Lawrence Jameson makes it impossible to resist the play on his name urge. He is priceless -- pricelessly debonair, hilariously insane as the sadistic Dr. Schuffhausen, and he's a fine and dandy singer and dancer. His wistful " Love Sneaks In" is a show stopping Wow! Best of all his chemistry with the irrepressible and still amazing Norbert Leo Butz is right on the money The charming Joanna Gleason and Gregory Jaba still provide a delectable sub-plot. Jaba has enough charisma to make Lucie Arnaz's scheduled takeover of Gleason's Muriel Eubank (after 5/29) go smoothly. It took me a bit longer to adjust to Sherrie Rene Scott's replacement, Rachel York, but not long. It's exactly a year since I first saw this show. To paraphrase the famous mantra of Émile Couê "Every day it's becoming better and better". --Elyse Sommer, March 29, 2006 |
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I'm tired of being a chump, I want to live like Trump. --- Freddy in "Great Big Stuff." |
Norbert Leo Butz, John Lithgow and Sherie Rene Scott
(Photo: Carol Rosegg) |
The fun begins as the de rigueur voiceover announcement sets the tone for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' tongue-in-cheek humor with "there will be no announcement at this performance." The overture doesn't make us wait for the dancing and singing to begin either.
No sooner does the band strike up the first note, than the French Riviera scrim rises and David Yazbek's catchy music and Jerry Mitchell's lively choreography have the Dirty Rotten Scoundrel ensemble singing and cavorting around the stage. When the first of the two scoundrelly leads, Lawrence Jameson (John Lithgow), and his accommodating crony police chief Andre Thibault (Gregory Jbara) join the ensemble and sing "Give Them What They Want " they're not kidding. If you've been looking for a new musical with an old-fashioned golden era mix of a frothy, not-to-be-taken seriously book, a tuneful score with clever (and often delectably lowbrow) lyrics that rhyme delightfully, look no further.
Fans of the 1988 film of the same name, can rest easy that this isn't another musicalizations of a non-musical film, that fails to live up to the original. First time Broadway book writer Jeffrey Lane has retained the fun of the film’s plot about two con men who have staked out the French Riviera to charm wealthy American women out of their money and jewels (or both). While Michael Caine and Steve Martin were an irresistible contrasting pair of scoundrels, so these song and dance con artists are ideally matched. Norbert Leo Butz's Freddy Benson is the Jeff to the six foot four inch tall Lithgow's Mutt, the boor to his debonair gentleman. And though Scoundrels may not have quite the heart of the Full Monty, Yatzbek and Mitchell have invested it with the same freshness and vitality; and director Jack O'Brien (who also directed Hairspray) once again displays his ability to deftly balance sophisticated and broad comedy, romantic and novelty numbers.
The scoundrels portrayed by Lithgow and Butz aren't quite the fully realized, easy to identify with characters as The Producers' Bialystock and Bloom who also rip off vulnerable women, team up with a sexy blonde bombshell, and inevitably become the duped rather than those doing the duping. But no matter. Lithgow and Butz are a treat to watch.
Lithgow is, of course, a seasoned actor; however, Butz, though he has appeared on and off Broadway before -- as a show stopping support player in the ill-fated Thou Shalt Not and in The Last Five Years, the Off-Broadway two-hander with Sherie Renee Scott, who is currently Scoundrel Freddy's "mark"-- he really comes into his own as the schlumpy Freddy.
I can't say enough about Butz's superstar making performance which showcases him as a droll comic actor and a knockout song and dance man. It's not con artistry but sheer talent that causes him to nearly steal the show -- a heist prevented only by the ensemble's excellence and Lithgow's Coward-esque suaveness and superb handling of low as well as high comedy. He's hilarious as the retarded Prince Ruprecht, a gross imbecile invented to scare off Jolene Oakes (Sara Gettelfinger), the Oklahoma heiress bent on marrying Lawrence. He's equally entertaining when he dons a soldier's uniform and pretends to be wheelchair bound to inveigle Christine Colgate (Sherie Rene Scott) into paying for the expensive cure by the sadistic Viennese Dr. Schuffhausen (Lithgow). Butz's ability to put across a show tune is epitomized by the sassy, brassy "Great Big Stuff" in which he sums up his yearnings for being a sleek big-time scoundrel rather than a smalltime grifter ("I'm tired of being a chump, I want to live like Trump").
As the show-stopping "Great Big Stuff" is Yabeck's tip of the hat to hip-hop, there are allusions to other shows and show styles as well: Gettlefinger's Jolene Oakes being from Oklahoma paves the way for a parody of the Rogers and Hammerstein musical as she sings "Not a tree / Or a Jew / To block the lovely view." Echoes of My Fair Lady's snobbish professor are not hard to spot when Lawrence accepts the challenge of transforming the eager to improve his caper skills Freddy because he's "so deliciously low."
We also get a taste of the sugary ballads that were once standard seasoning for the popular musicals Scoundrels aims to recreate for us -- in Freddy and Christine's "Nothing Is too Wonderful to Be True" and when O'Brien poses Lithgow against a lamp post to sing "Love Sneaks In" to evoke images of Frank Sintra and Gene Kelly. (Nice as that Lithgow ballad is, it is completely out of synch with where the story is going). Joanna Gleason's Muriel Eubanks, the first of the show's three ripe for the picking women, wouldn't be vital to the plot if she didn't supply another standard element for old-fashioned musical fare -- a subsidiary plot, in this case her romance with Andre (Jbara), delightfully done and sung (e.g.: "Like Zis/Like Zat").
To rev up the good-time feeling, the fourth wall is occasionally broken with asides to and from the audience. Towards the end of the first act, for example, Gleason insures her return in the second with "I can't imagine I won't be useful to someone in act two." In the same vein, Lithgow asks "didn't we do this before? " about a scene running from one act into the next.
David Rockwell recreates the glamorous Mediterranean setting with numerous set pieces that move the action from hotel lobbies and bedrooms, to a gambling casino, and a sunny beach front. Some of these sets are rolled on and of stage, some descend from the ceiling. Gregg Barnes' colorful costumes and Kenneth Posner's lighting add to the visual assets. When added up, those assets outweigh the plot's tendency to drift and the songs not always moving the story forward. Unlike the crass Good Vibrations, this is an enjoyable old fashioned book musical that's intentionally low-brow -- but with style.
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DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS Based on the 1988 film written by Dale Launer and Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning.that starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin. Book: Jeffrey Lane. Music & Lyrics: David Yazbek. Director: Jack O'Brien Choreographer: Jerry Mitchell Cast: John Lithgow (Lawrence Jameson), Norbert Leo Butz (Freddy), Joanna Gleason (Muriel Eubanks), Gregory Jbara (Andre), Sara Gettelfinger (Jolene Oakes) and Sherie Rene Scott (Christine Colgate). Set Design: David Rockwell Costume Design: Gregg Barnes Lighting Design: Kenneth Posner Sound Design: Acme Sound Partners Musical Direction, Incidental Music Arrangements: Ted Sperling Orchestrations: Harold Wheeler Vocal Music Arrangements: Ted Sperling and Mr. Yazbek Dance Music Arrangements: Zane Mark Music Coordinator, Howard Joines Orechestra:Conductor/ Fred Lassen;Associate Conductor/ Jan Rosenberg; Assistant Conductor/ Howard Joines;Concertmaster/ Antoine Silverman; Violins/ Michael Nicholas, Claire Chan; Cello/ Anja Wood; Woodwinds/ Andrew Sterman, Dan Willis, Mark Thrasher; Trumpets/ Hollis (Bud) Burridge, Jim Hynes; Trombone/ Mike Bosehen; Horn: Theresa MacDonnell; Keyboards/ Dan Lipton, Jan Rosenberg; Guitar/ Erik DellaPenna; Bass/ Mike DuClos; Drums/ Dean Sharenow; Percussion & music coordinator/ Howard Joines. Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes, including one 15 minute intermission Imperial Theatre, 249 West 45th Street, 212/239-6200. From 1/31/05; opening 3/03/05. Monday - Saturday @ 8pm, Wednesday & Saturday @ 2pm; beginning 3/07: Tuesday - Saturday @ 8pm, Wednesday & Saturday @ 2pm, Sunday @ 3pm Tickets: $101.25, $71.25, $41.25 Reviewed by Elyse Sommer based on March 9th performance Closing 9/03 after a total of 33 previews and 66 regular performances. |
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Musical Numbers
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Act One
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Act Two
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