Jonathan Pryce Brings Critics Back to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Since Dirty Rotten Scoundrels opened at the Imperial Theatre, Norbert Leo Butz won a Tony Award for his performance in the tuner, Jonathan Pryce has replaced John Lithgow and Rachel York has stepped in to sub for Sherie Rene Scott through mid-June. Recently, just a little over a year after the show first opened to Gotham critics, the New York press was invited back to check out how the show is doing. Did the musical give reviewers what they want?

Here is a sampling of what they had to say:

William Stevenson in his Broadway.com Review: "The show is fresher and funnier than ever… While Pryce's voice is fine, it's his comic timing that is most impressive… Butz's energy level throughout the show is remarkable, all the more so since he's been doing it for more than a year… Pryce's suave Jameson offers a nice contrast to Butz's antics. The Welsh-born actor is hardly a straight man, though, getting laughs simply by arching an eyebrow. And Pryce shows he can do broad comedy when he camps it up as the sadistic Dr. Shüffhausen. Taking over for Sherie René Scott, York Victor/Victoria, Sly Fox is winning whenever she flashes her smile—not to mention her long legs. While her voice isn't as big as Scott's, she sings sweetly and gets into the comic spirit."

Ben Brantley of The New York Times: "The arrival of Mr. Pryce and his peerlessly eloquent eyebrows to this singing adaptation of the 1988 movie of the same title automatically makes Dirty Rotten Scoundrels the season's most improved musical… Not since Reba McEntire stepped into the tawdry revival of Annie Get Your Gun five years ago has a star so deftly raised a show's tone… Mr. Pryce provides something his predecessor could never quite muster: a seductive belief that the audience, if not the world, is his oyster… Ms. York, best known as the shrill nightclub doxy in the Broadway version of Victor/Victoria, here shifts effectively to soft sell. If she doesn't match Ms. Scott's sendup of American Idol vocalizing, she brings a fresh, easygoing allure that fits nicely into this rejuvenated show."

Clive Barnes of The New York Post: "This David Yazbek/Jeffrey Lane musical about con artists conning their conniving hearts out on the French Riviera is as wackily wonderful as ever, and Pryce—back on Broadway after a 14-year absence—fits in like a hustler's fifth ace in a bent poker game… Pryce proves the pinnacle of gracious chic, the embodiment of suave, as smooth as a martini hardly stirred and never shaken. In a word, he's sensational."

Linda Winer of Newsday: "Pryce, the serious British actor best known here for his Tony-winning hump on the Cadillac as the Engineer in Miss Saigon, seemed surprisingly wan, even dour, at the start of Wednesday's matinee. But he did find his dark twinkle and the diabolical fun before the second act. Inexplicably, his costumes fit him better by then, too. Rachel York is more of a golden girl than was the sparkier Sheri Rene Scott as in the role of the con men's prey. This is fine. York still pulls off that fabulously grandiose schlock-pop duet with Butz, 'Love Is My Legs,' a Lordy-I-can-walk screamer with such lyrics as 'You are the feetbones of love,' complete with background chorus with candles."