Gleason and Scott Sign Up for Scoundrels
Gleason, currently appearing off-Broadway in The Normal Heart, won a Theatre World Award for her Broadway debut in I Love My Wife. She also appeared on the Great White Way in The Real Thing, Joe Egg for which she garnered a Tony nomination for her featured work, Social Security, Into the Woods which earned her the 1988 Best Actress in a Musical Tony Award and Nick & Nora. Her off-Broadway credits include A Hell of a Town, It's Only a Play, Love Letters and Eleemosynary.
We previously reported Scott, who appeared with Butz and Gleason in a recent Dirty Rotten Scoundrels workshop, was expected to star in the Old Globe Theatre fall premiere of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on May 3. She is best known for her work in the original cast of Broadway's Aida, in which she played the spoiled princess Amneris. Other Broadway roles include Maureen in Rent, Marty in Grease! and Sally Simpson in The Who's Tommy. Scott was also seen off-Broadway in Debbie Does Dallas and The Last Five Years and regionally in Over and Over at the Signature Theatre. On May 1 she gave birth to her first child, a son named Elijah Mack Deutsch.
Based on the 1998 film of the same name, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels centers on two swindlers, crass American Freddy Benson Butz and suave Brit Laurence Jameson a role Ken Mandelbaum mentioned John Lithgow for on May 4. After meeting on a train, the pair bet to see who can bilk $50,000 out of an heiress first. Both Scott and Gleason play potential victims of the men. The musical features music and lyrics by The Full Monty's David Yazbek and a book by TV scribe Jeffrey Lane.
Directed by Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels will have its world premiere run at the Old Globe Theater from September 15 through October 24 with an out-of-town opening set for September 22.
The musical is scheduled to open on Broadway in the spring of 2005. The Imperial Theatre has been mentioned as a likely venue if The Boy From Oz ends its Broadway run before then.