“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”

Posted by Gail M. Burns - August 2009

“It was a blast, it was a ball
It was a gas, I loved it all…

It was a trip, it was a blast
It was a shame it couldn’t last
‘Cause it was almost
Too prodigious to discuss.”

- David Yazbek

When I heard these lyrics in the finale I thought, “Yes, this show is THAT good!” Michael Marotta, the Artistic Director of the Theater Barn and the director of this production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels* has assembled a very strong and versatile cast, consisting of some of the very best recent Barn vets and some talented newcomers, and Abe Phelps’ set, Allen C. Phelps’ lighting, and Jacci Fredenberg and Kate R. Mincer’s costumes come mighty close to replicating the look of the successful 2005 Broadway production on the tiny Theater Barn stage.

The result is non-stop silliness and great music with absolutely NO redeeming social values. These people are, after all, dirty rotten scoundrels, out to get everything they can for themselves and no one else. Bring such open and shameless greed out of the closet and into the light of day is rather refreshing.

Do we even HAVE “scoundrels” any more? I mean we have them, but do we ever call them that? It’s a good word. I nominate Bernie Madoff and Dick Cheney.

Here scoundrel number one, Lawrence Jameson (Matthew Daly), whose well-honed con depends on a very suave, debonair and pseudo-British panache, meets scoundrel number two, Freddy Benson (Trey Compton), a young American who, as Lawrence says, makes up in vulgarity what he lacks in taste, at Beaumont sur Mere on the French Riviera. Lawrence has just bilked a hefty sum from insecure and naïve Muriel Eubanks (Jerielle Morwitz) who continues to hang around in the conviction that someone will find a use for her in Act II. That someone turns out to be Andre Thibault (Daniel Moser), the chief of police and Lawrence’s lacky. After Freddy helps Lawrence ditch a psychotic and determined Oklahoma oil heiress, Jolene Oakes (Lexie Dorsett), the two enter into a friendly competition to see who can be the first to con $50,000 from Christine Colgate (Megan Rozak), the American Soap Queen.

But all of that is really just an excuse for Daly, Compton, Dorsett, and Rozak to cut loose with the most hilarious, down-and-dirty slapstick, comedy I have seen in a long while. Nothing is out of bounds in Jeffrey Lane’s exquisitely tasteless book, and this is the kind of comedy Daly does to perfection. If he isn’t being facetious with a British accent he’s being snarky with a Viennese accent and he’s doing it all at break-neck speed with side-splittingly infuriating efficiency. And he looks pretty damned good doing it. My British father would have approved of his cravat (or is it an ascot?)

Freddy is designed to be Lawrence’s complete opposite – he is tasteless, crass, vulgar, slovenly, and not all that bright. Marotta and Compton have created him as an over-the-top lout, open in his avarice and poor personal hygiene. He would be disgusting if he weren’t so gosh-darned funny.

Rozak is always a delight, and never more so than here where she gets to show both her perky and sultry sides. I wish she got to belt a little more – most of her numbers are either melodic or zippy – but when she finally lets loose at the end it is worth the wait.

Daly, Compton, and Rozak have all appeared on the Theater Barn stage before – as has Morwitz, who gets to play it relatively straight here, and looks and sounds lovely doing it – so their charms and talents don’t come as a surprise. Dorsett is the knock-out newcomer in the cast, a slender leggy comedienne who plays Jolene as loopy as they come. While she does lots of great physical comedy and sings with gusto, I especially enjoyed the manic look she had in her eyes. The whole ensemble joins her to rock the house on her big number Oklahoma (NOT the Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote!)

Moser made his Barn debut earlier this month in Romance, Romance but he had very little to do. Here he proves that he can run with the big dogs and his Act I solo Chimp in a Suit and Act II duet Like Zis, Like Zat, with Morwitz, are both delightful. I hope he too becomes a Barn regular and gets to display the full range of his talents in coming seasons.

The ensemble – Geoff Lutz, Kyle Metzger, Mary Grace Sheppard, Heather Striker-Dispensa, Edward Tolve, Chelsea Witiak – many of whom have appeared in larger roles already this season, swap speedily in and out of characters and costumes and sing and dance a storm as they add to the illusion that a dozen people constitute a great big cast, which, for the Barn, they do.

Victoria Casella, who has been the Barn’s musical director all season, once again plays keyboard and conducts Steve Engel on bass and percussionist Mary E. Rodriguez in David Yazbek’s (composer of the score for The Full Monty) playful and thoroughly entertaining score. I know the band is waaaaaay up there stage left because I occasionally catch a glimpse of a page being turned. I wish they got to come out from hiding and take a bow!

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is definitely rated PG, but not quite PG-13 by today’s standards. Depending on your personal tolerance for bare buttocks and testicle jokes, I would imagine everyone over the age of 10 would get a kick out of this one. I certainly laughed more in one sitting than I have all season.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels runs through Sunday, September 6 at the fully air conditioned Theater Barn on Route 20 in New Lebanon, NY, with performances on Thursdays and Fridays at 8 PM, Saturdays at 5 PM & 8:30 PM and Sunday matinees at 2 PM. The show runs two and a half hours with one intermission and is suitable for everyone over 10 who loves to laugh. Tickets are affordably priced at $22.00 for all evening performances, and $20.00 for the Sunday matinee. For information and reservations, which are highly recommended, please call (518) 794-8989.

* If the title is familiar, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which starred John Lithgow and won a Tony for newcomer Norbert Leo Butz (yes, that IS his real name) on Brodway, is based on the 1988 film of the same title starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine, which in turn was based on a 1964 film Bedtime Story starring David Niven, Marlon Brando, and Shirley Jones.

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