Reviewed by James Karas
The second musical of the 2025 season of the Stratford Festival is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Avon Theatre. Dirty Rotten was first produced on Broadway in 2005 to mixed reviews but it did better on tour in the United States and abroad. The musical is based on a 1988 movie with Steve Martin and Michael Caine. That in turn was based on Bedtime Story, a 1964 movie with Marlon Brando, David Niven, and Shirley Jones, that is not credited.
Jeffrey Lane wrote the book and David Yazbek the music and lyrics to make a musical from the 1988 movie which was a straight play. The Stratford production features a large cast, extravagant costumes, lavish sets and generous energetic dance routines.
The plot involves two (three?) talented con artists who try to bilk rich women on the Riviera. Lawrence Jamieson (Jonathan Goad) boasts a high-toned English accent and a talent to imitate other notables. Freddy Benson (Liam Tobin) is an American crook whose specialty is getting the sympathy of rich women by pretending that he needs money for his grandmother’s operation.
Andre (Derek Kwan) is the Police Chief and Jamieson’s friend. The two conmen are competitors, but they decide to cooperate out of necessity fearful that the Jackal, a master crook smarter than them, may be trying to invade their lucrative enterprises.
There is no shortage of targets. Take Jolene Oakes (Michele Shuster), the daughter of an oil magnate in Oklahoma who falls in love with Lawrence and is prepared to marry him. There may be a small impediment because she is not sure that her last two husband are dead. It takes some comic doing with our two protagonists to avoid the nuptials.
Photography by David Hou
The main target is Christine Colgate (Shakura Dickson), a soap company heiress. Fred in the guise of a paraplegic naval officer pleads poverty and needs fifty thousand dollars for his cure. Yes, he is a paraplegic and only a famous Swiss psychiatrist can cure him. The fastest route to Christine’s purse is through her heart and both crooks waste no time falling in love with her. She agrees to help.
The deal between our heroes is that whoever gets the money (or is it her in bed?), the other one must leave the Riviera. Dr Schophausen the famous psychiatrist arrives, and it is none other than Lawrenc armed with a thick Swiss accent. One way of testing the lack of feeling in Fred’s lower body is by tickling his feet with a feather. Fred has the fortitude to withstand it. Another way of curing Fred of his paraplegia is by flogging his legs to “restore” feeling in them. Dr Schophausen goes at it mercilessly and the perfectly healthy Fred must endure the pain without flinching.
Fred tries to get rid of Lawrence by having two sailors abduct him and put him on a cargo ship. He escapes by pointing out that he is an officer in the Royal Navy. Lawrence arranges for Fred’s clothes to be stolen, leaving him in a flimsy nightie. Both claim to love Christine, both try to get their hands on the money and the plot gets complicated.
There are a couple of plot twists that I will not disclose because it may ruin the play for you.
The Riviera is afloat with wealth, fancy hotels and beautiful women. The hotels have troops of bellboys, plenty of gorgeously dressed women and all are ready to dance to the choreography of Stephanie Graham. Costume Designer Sue LePage provides an array of costumes that spell high class and money for the dancers and everyone else. Gorgeous scenes. The dances do not advance the plot and are inserted for the sake of having dances but one cannot deny the beauty of the costumes or the energy of the performers.
The humour and the singing are something else. I can say that the singing by the principals was at least adequate but rarely much above that. Volume was provided generously and at times I felt I could have done with less. There are some good punch lines in the play, but the humour overall was again adequate when it did not slip into gauche. For no good reason it struck me as a TV variety show level with the Carol Burnet Show coming to mind – some decent sketches and some merely serviceable.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels by Jeffrey Lane (book) and David Yazbek (music and lyrics) opened on May 29 and will run in repertory until October 26, 2025, at the Avon Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca
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