Theatre
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Musical
King's Theatre, Glasgow
Marianne Gunn
Four stars
In its Scottish Premiere, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a very humorous homage to the 1988 film, which starredMichael Caine and Steve Martin, while also enhancing the experience with tongue-in-cheek nods to the musical theatre genre. Writer Jeffrey Lane has explained that the movie was perfect for a "reboot" as, although remembered fondly, it is not revered as a classic too precious to amend and adapt. (The fact that I had forgotten the clever gender-based plot twist helped too.)
Having received critical acclaim during its West End run at the Savoy Theatre, London, the touring cast is impressively strong: debonair Michael Praed is perfect as the smooth-talking conman Lawrence Jameson (while also bringing back nostalgic childhood shivers from his role as Robin of Sherwood) while former Hear'Say star Noel Sullivan goes from strength to strength in his musical theatre career as cheeky chap Freddy Benson (dressed as garishly as he featured on Saturday night TV).
From the supporting cast, the coupling of Mark Benton and Geraldine Fitzgerald as a most unlikely romance on the Riviera was both touching and comedic, while Phoebe Coupe whipped the cowboys to a frenzy as Jolene Oakes in Oklahoma! Highlights from David Yazbek's catchy musical numbers include All About Ruprecht, Love Is My Legs and the big finale Dirty Rotten Number. Carley Stenson, as Soap Queen Christine Colgate, has the last laugh over the feckless crooks and the Hollyoaks regular turned up the heat from her opener Here I Am.
Super production values and genuinely bubbling enthusiasm from the talented young ensemble are only outdone by the corking band under the slick musical direction of Ben Van Tienen. Bravo!
Run ends Saturday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article