Singin’, dancin’ ‘Scoundrels’
In the beginning, it was a 1964 con-man comedy called “Bedtime Story,” with David Niven and Marlon Brando.
Then, in 1988, it became “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” the classic Michael Caine-Steve Martin version which forever enshrined the name “Ruprecht the Monkey Boy” in comedy lore (Ruprecht being a doltish Martin creation, badly in need of house-training).
Next week, semitrucks will pull into Spokane and unload an entirely new kind of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” – the singin’, dancin’, Broadway smash hit version.
The national tour of this 2005 musical-comedy arrives at the INB Performing Arts Center for eight performances beginning Tuesday.
A full score by composer-lyricist David Yazbek, of “The Full Monty” fame, embellishes the ingenious story about two competing con men, one suave and the other crass, who try to swindle a young heiress.
“It does take the basic structure and plot of the movie,” said Jamie Jackson, who plays the suave Lawrence Jameson (the Michael Caine role). “That’s what’s so great about it. It’s such a beautifully structured movie, with so many twists and turns.”
The musical also adopts plenty of the first-rate comic business delivered so memorably by Martin and Caine.
“The producers gave us some good advice when we were first starting,” said Jackson. “They told us that it’s an extremely funny script and the best thing we could do is just deliver the lines and get out of the way.
“And that’s how it turned out. It’s such a thrill to be in a vehicle where you don’t need to push too hard or otherwise compensate for the material.”
The story doesn’t exactly follow the movie. You should be prepared for some surprises.
Meanwhile, the music adds an entirely new layer. New York Times critic Ben Brantley wasn’t quite won over by the score – he turned up his nose at its “ribald puns” and “scatological and sex jokes.”
But Clive Barnes of the New York Post raved about the “divinely offbeat songs” and said, “in every way, this is a superior musical.”
Jackson said the score includes elements of jazz, pop, hip-hop, 12-bar blues and even French accordion music.
The Broadway version went on to run 626 performances, closing just a little over a year ago. Part of its popularity was due to its lead actors, Norbert Leo Butz as Freddy and John Lithgow as Lawrence (later replaced by Keith Carradine and Jonathan Pryce).
Lithgow, Carradine and Pryce are tough acts to follow, but not as tough as Caine.
“It is daunting, somewhat,” said Jackson, an Australian native with extensive experience in Sydney and New York. “But it’s a different character, because it’s a musical character.
“I never feel like I have to be Michael Caine. And I don’t look anything like him anyway. I have a shaved head.”
The aim of this non-Equity (nonunion) tour was to re-create the look of the Broadway show, yet it dispenses with the large turntable that was such an integral part of the Broadway staging.
“All of the set pieces are moved by the ensemble, and they sing the interlude music while they move the set,” said Jackson. “They don’t just move the furniture; they tell the story.”