The film, 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels', is a 1988 comedy masterpiece which starred Steve Martin and Michael Caine (both at the top of their respective games), and the lesser known but no-less-talented Glenne Headly as the American heiress these two conmen try to swindle. With Frank Oz's direction, these three (along with a very bent French copper played by Anton Rodgers, were given much room to flex their comedic muscles and bring forth superbly drawn characters, making this a film one can watch over and over again. And yes, the film does have a certain comedy musical feel to it and so when Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek started to set this story to music, it was probably manna from heaven for them. I have seen the musical only a couple of times though since it first came to our shores in 2013, and have yet to see a professional production of it.
Here, the graduating students of Arden Theatre School's Musical Theatre course put their own indelible stamp on this production. One of the main problems with this show in general is that although there is a lot of music, much of it is used as dialogue underscoring, and it is very dialogue and set-piece heavy, meaning that characterisations (or in this case shall we be more precise and say caricatures) need to be spot on. And hereby lies the rub. There are 30 students in this graduating class, all of whom need stage time, but only three of these are male. The casting decision to cast all the main leads from the females and have them play males is therefore understandable, but it does make for a couple of complications. First of all these students are not old enough to portray these characters in the first place, and so they are constantly having to act-up which is not an easy ask; but on top of that they have to competently and realistically carry off being the opposite sex - and a womanizer to boot! Two females do not react and interreact with each other in the same way as two males do or a male and female do, and having them wear high heels in their male costumes did not help. It was also bad form for them to be wearing any jewellery - I could see ear-rings, nose studs and nail varnish on the male leads!
That being said however, Thea Docker tried really hard to find her character of smooth-talking, suave and debonair Lawrence (never actually quite getting there, always a little flat, but since she is coping with all of the above, it was a very brave try, and I enjoyed her as Dr. Schaffhausen.) Arianne Kendall fared better as the seemingly hapless and more direct Freddy, and her physical antics won me over. Sadie Samways was the most believable as a male character as the crooked chief of police Andre who is Lawrence's friend and sometime accomplice. There was only a little onstage chemistry between Docker and Kendall which also made it harder for us to fully invest in their performances, whilst the onstage chemistry between Samways and her love interest Muriel, played with a touch of US glamour and sophistication by Gemma Cushion was quite palpable. Evie Glyn relished her role as the hard-up heiress Christine Colgate being swindle only to turn the tables on them in the denouement, playing her role with panache and skill. Whilst the all-American hillbilly hick-girl who thinks she has had a marriage proposal, Jolene, was played with high-kicking cheerleader style fun and a brilliantly placed high-pitched accent by Erin Bannister.
The stage set was quite impressive, it consisted of a band stand on a raised dais centre stage with two curved staircases, one either side leading to the forestage. It looked very Mediterranean and nouveau-riche, but sadly was not optimal for every scene within the musical. It was sometimes rather difficult to know exactly the location of some of the scenes unless you either knew the musical already or listened very attentively. The live band - led by Robert Purvis, sounded excellent and gave us the correct feel to each song with ease, but sometimes - and this is a sound issue - they overpowered the onstage dialogue and the speaking became inaudible. I also detected a couple of mic issues this afternoon, as well as a couple of hiatuses where the onstage action seemed to stop momentarily before someone decided to speak or move. The lighting design was quite poor at times for this show sadly; we are in the Mediterranean and never once did I feel that was so, since majority of the lighting settings used majority steel lamps giving quite a cold feel to the stage. Where were the lovely warm glow from the straw lamps and the lovely sunsets that the Med is famous for? And finally, whilst writing about the stage management, I did not understand why a) al the suitcases used were 1960s or earlier, some looking like WW1 leather cases, and b) why were there so few?
Directed by Nick Bond, there was a good pace set and the characters showed a good understanding of their roles and the arcs of their characters. It was a little unclear at times why characters entranced (or exited) from the space above the staircases, and then made their exits (or entrances) from the stage level. Sadly some of the humour of the piece was lost - with jokes not landing properly. Perhaps this also has something to do with male / female role changes and so the humour does not work (?)
All-in-all an enjoyable if slightly flawed comedic romp, with the students giving their alls to their final show as Arden students.
Reviewer - Alastair Zyggu
on - 29.5.25
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