mytravelbugbite

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a musical based on the 1988 film. Set on the South Coast of France it follows a couple of con artists as they attempt to leach money from various wealthy women. The show was written by Jeffrey Lane with songs by David Yazbek.

The show is marketed as a comedy and there are some very funny moments throughout. The humour is generally slapstick but it has over 6 laugh out loud moments which is what I generally look for (a tip I picked up from the Radio 5 film review show)!

The scenery is simple yet really brings you into the piece and the costumes are bright and exciting. The music wasn’t the best I’ve ever heard in a musical, there weren’t any songs I came out humming, but they were acceptable and sung well.

The cast were generally on point. For the week in Leeds the role of Lawrence Jameson was played by the understudy, Kevin Stephen-Jones, whose mastery of several accents was impressive. Noel Sullivan, of Hear’Say fame (remember them?), played American Freddy Benson. I had seen him before in the We Will Rock You tour so knew he has a fantastic voice, but his comic acting stole the show. Carley Stenson as Christine Colgate was good although her voice wavered slightly on a couple of notes. Mark Benton played Andre Thibault. I had very mixed feelings about this character. He had a couple of funny lines, but seemed to be there to fill the stage at times, some of the bits could have been cut to keep the flow moving a little quicker.

This show isn’t earth shattering, it’s not the best I’ve ever seen, however it is funny and so is a nice way to spend an evening. For tour dates and venues and to buy tickets visit the website here.