These days, it seems that looking at the Broadway theater listings is like browsing the CD and DVD ailes at Tower Records. The musicals are all either compliations of songs from a famous artist or group that are linked together by the thinnest plot or musical makeovers of old movies.
The new musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels falls into the latter category and while it's an odd choice to make a musical of, the finished product works very well in most aspects. (And as an aside, I'd like to point out it's actually a musical based on a movie that was a remake of another movie called Bedtime Story)
If you don't know the film, the story revolves around two con men. Lawrence Jameson (here played by John lithgow...it was Michael Caine in the film, David Niven in the original film) is an older kinder con man who is living off the money he takes from women passing through his current home town of Beaumont Sur Mer on the French Riviera. Into town rolls Freddie Benson (Norbert Leo Butz here, Steve Martin in the film, Marlon Brando in the original film), a younger and more crass con man who winds up asking to be taught the big game by a master. After a few adventures together, the two men wind up making a bet over who can take a young woman (here its Sherie Renee Scott, in the 1988 film it was Glenn Headley and in the 1964 film it was Shirley Jones) for $50,000 first; loser leaves town. It's an odd plot for a musical, especially one that seems to be very aware of itself being a theatrical piece. But it all seems to work rather well.
The show starts off with Jameson and his partner in crime Police Chief Andre (Gregory Jbara) singing about how a con artist should always "Give Them What They Want". It's a great mood setter. Next, we hear from one of Jameson's marks as Muriel Eubanks (played by the wonderfully underused Joanna Gleason...and it was Fanny in the movie...changed for some odd reason...as I think Fanny's funnier) sings about "What Was A Woman To Do?". She is eventually joined by more of Jameson's marks (including one of the usherettes in the audience...in the first of many broken fourth wall bits) as the number progresses.
When Freddy rolls into Jameson's house and admires the "Great Big Stuff" we get a cool, slick, hip-hop-ish showstopper that should surely get a Tony Nomination (if not win) for Butz. Andre sings about Freddy just being a "Chimp In A Suit" as Jameson starts to educate Freddy in the finer art of class. Freddy's first lesson involves watching Jameson woo a young Oklahoman oil heiress named Jolene Oakes (Sara Gettelfinger...in the film she's just a lady from Okalahoma). Things go wrong when she mistakes Jameson's advances for a marriage proposal (and inspiring a great joke from Freddy as he sits in the audience watching and asks if he missed a scene). When Jolene gives us the second showstopper "Oklahoma?" (about how Jameson's gonna love it there), Jameson must figure out a way to get her to fall out of love with him. Freddy helps and becomes his idiot brother for a third showstopper called "All About Ruprecht".
After a brief reprise of "What Was A Woman To Do" from Muriel when she runs into Andre, we finally get the set up of the bet between Freddy and Lawrence as Christine Colgate, the American Soap Queen (in the movie it was Janet in another example of why did they change that name) arrives in town with "Here I Am".
Freddy pretends he's a wounded war veteran in a wheelchair to gain her symapthies in order to woo her. She falls for his advances and chicanery noting that "Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True", a number that starts off a bit jarringly as it seems out of place with the rest of the show's over-the-top comedy. Luckily, once Freddy starts singing the number quickly falls in line with the rest of what's come before it.
Act One ends with Jameson showing up, much to Freddie's surprise, as the German psychiatrist who is the only person who can cure him (which Freddie concocted as part of his story).
Act Two picks up just before the end of Act One (in another of those odd, yet funny moments of breaking the fourth wall). Posing as Dr. Emil Shuffhausen II, Jameson "exmaines" Sgt. Buzz Benson's legs in an attempt to foil Freddie's plan and reveal him for who he is ("Ruffhousin With Shuffhausen"). Meanwhile, in an attempt to fluff out the plot of a 90 minute movie into a 2 and one half hour musical (as well as beef up Ms. Gleason's role...something the character even mentions in Act One), Andre and Muriel start to fall in love ("Like Zis/Like Zat").
Dr. Shuffhausen convinces Chrstine that the only way to cure Buzz's problem is to tackle his psychosis, so "The More We Dance" the more he'll want to get out of his wheelchair. Freddie doesn't fall for it and does his best to keep up with Jameson's tricks. He eventually comes back to Christine's hotel room to exclaim that "Love Is In My Legs" (one of the funniest romantic ballad spoofs ever to hit Broadway), but Jameson intervenes again.
He sends Christine away before Freddie can win the bet (which changes from extracting money to getting her in bed at some point in Act Two when Jameson discovers she isn't rich). At the train station, Jameson realizes he's falling for her ("Love Sneaks In" -- the only bland song in the bunch as it's a real ballad that isn't funny and brings everything to a halt). The subplot of Andre and Muriel gets a brief reprise of "Like Zis/Like Zat" before Christine returns to Freddie in order to inadvertantly give him the win on the bet with "Son Of Great Big Stuff". But being a story about con artists, there's one last twist that I won't reveal before our con men sing of "The Reckoning" and finally make friends again in "Dirty Rotten Number".
The most important part of a musical is the songs and I've still got almost all of them rattling around my head 24 hours later. The acting is all top notch with potential Tony nominees in both Butz and Jbara. The one weak spot is, as I've already stated, the under use of Joanna Gleason. The lighting and sets are really kind of funky and cool. The entire show has what I'd refer to as "grand minimalist" as a turntable off center within a second turntable, some art deco palm trees, a staircase, a balcony, a set of doors and a few other minor set pieces keep getting reconfigured to make each setting.
The show's biggest obstacle is unfortunately the window it's opening it. It's living in the long shadow of that other con man musical based on a movie, The Producers (now starring Richard Kind and Alan Ruck, which may make it worth seeing again). The comparisons are both inevitable and unfortunate as I found this show funnier (don't get me wrong, I still loved The Producers). It has also opened two weeks ahead of Monty Python's Spamalot (which we'll be seeing a few days after it opens...so look for a review soon) and that show's coming in like the juggernaut The Producers was when it opened. Unfortunately, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels may get lost in the shuffle. Hopefully it won't as I want...no need...a cast album...if only to learn the lyrics to "Great Big Stuff".
That's all for today.
Be seeing you.
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