Preview 2004-2005: Bedtime Story
Mentioned as fall replacements in the Broadway Mamma Mia!: Carolee Carmello who understudied Dee Hoty, the current Donna, in the original Broadway cast of City of Angels as Donna, Liz McCartney as Rosie, and Judy McLane as Tanya.
Anthony Crivello played Cesar in the recent New York workshop of the new musical The Mambo Kings.
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In the picturesque town of Beaumont-Sur-Mer on the French Riviera, Lawrence is an elegant, English conman who preys on wealthy, gullible matrons. He pretends to be an exiled prince who will use the money extracted from the ladies to help the freedom fighters back home. But suddenly Lawrence discovers that there's another scam artist in town, this one crude, oafish, American, and named Freddy. Freddy usually pretends to his female prey that his grandmother needs an operation.
Lawrence and Freddy were first seen in the 1964 film Bedtime Story, written by Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning, directed by Ralph Levy, and starring David Niven as the classy, big-time con artist and Marlon Brando as the small-time swindler from America. Shirley Jones was Janet, the chief prey of the two men.
In 1988, Bedtime Story was remade as Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, directed by Frank Oz In and Out, Little Shop of Horrors and written by Dale Launer, Shapiro, and Henning. Michael Caine was Lawrence, and Steve Martin had a field day as Freddy. Glenne Headly played Janet, and such colorful performers as Barbara Harris, Dana Ivey, and Frances Conroy were other female victims. Anton Rodgers, a star of such London musicals as Windy City and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, played Andre, the local police inspector who helps Lawrence with his schemes and takes a share of the profits.
The last time director Jack O'Brien, choreographer Jerry Mitchell, and composer-lyricist David Yazbek collaborated on a musical version of a successful film comedy, the result was The Full Monty, a well-executed show that some of us still believe was robbed of a Tony or two by The Producers. This time around, O'Brien, Mitchell, and Yazbek are musicalizing Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and, once again, they're launching the production at San Diego's Old Globe, where Dirty Rotten Scoundrels will play from September 15 through October 24. The show will open at Broadway's Imperial Theatre on March 3.
In the film, Freddy blackmails Lawrence into teaching him how to become a classier con man. For a time, the two collaborate, with Freddy pretending to be Lawrence's brother from the homeland, Prince Ruprecht. But this soon wears thin, and it becomes evident that Beaumont-Sur-Mer just isn't big enough to support both men. When Janet, a soap heiress from Cleveland, arrives at the resort, Lawrence proproses a bet to Freddy: The first man who's able to swindle $50,000 from Janet will be the winner. The loser will have to depart, leaving the fertile turf to become the exclusive hunting ground of the winner.
For the stage version, television writer Jeffrey Lane is handling the book. Lawrence, Freddy, and Andre are all present, but Janet seems to have become Christine, and it appears that at least one of the other female characters has been built up for Joanna Gleason, the Into the Woods Tony winner who will be making her first appearance in a Broadway musical since Nick and Nora in 1991.
Over the course of the workshops of 2003 and 2004 and casting for the Old Globe and presumably Broadway version, the star parts have changed hands. Lawrence has gone from Douglas Sills to Brian Stokes Mitchell to John Lithgow, who seems the best suited of the three to Caine's role. Freddy was Brian d'Arcy James in the '03 version, but Norbert Leo Butz came back for the next workshop, and Butz will play Freddy at the Old Globe.
The actress playing the leading female role of Christine has never changed; it's always been the wonderful Sherie Rene Scott, who was robbed of a Tony nomination for Aida and will here be reunited with her Last Five Years co-star, Butz. Watching the film recently, I couldn't help noticing that Headly's delivery sounds uncannily like that of Scott in other roles.
Gleason is playing Muriel, and Sara Gettelfinger is Jolene. Christine Ebersole seems to have played both Muriel and Jolene in the first workshop; in the second, Gleason was Muriel and Nancy Opel was Jolene. Andre, who was played by Denis O'Hare in the two workshops, will be played at the Globe by Gregory Jbara.
O'Brien and Mitchell followed up The Full Monty with another, even more successful, film adaptation, Hairspray. Viewing the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels film recently, it seemed to me to lack the warmth and the underdog characters you root for that made Monty and Hairspray such good choices for musicalization. But Scoundrels certainly offers an amusing set-up, along with the opportunity for a terrific male double act, like that other French Riviera musical that's returning this season, La Cage aux Folles.
There are, of course, any number of potential risks. It was not merely beginner's luck that allowed Yazbek to come through so well with the Monty songs; a good deal of skill was also involved. Still, Yazbek has a strong debut to live up to. Song titles from the 2004 Scoundrels workshop included "All About Ruprecht," "Chimp in a Suit," "Great Big Stuff," "Above the Waist," "Ruff Housin' Mit Shuffhausen," and "Love Is My Legs," the last two referring to the acts put on by Lawrence and Freddy in the contest for Janet.
Similarly, O'Brien and Mitchell have to live up to two previous hit musical versions of film comedies. Imaginary Friends demonstrated that O'Brien and Mitchell aren't an invincible team, but then that was only a semi-musical. Given the talent involved here, I have to admit that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is the new musical I'm most looking forward to this season.
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