Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the Savoy Theatre

4^th April 2014

Sarah Milton

Sarah Milton

4 April 2014

Traditional, suave, playful and charming – Dirty Rotten Scoundrels follows Lawrence Jameson (Robert Lindsay) and his aide Andre Thibault (John Marquez) in their season at the Beaumont-sur-Mer Grand Hotel, tempting mature, rich and lonely women from their jewels and money. This is a smooth ongoing plan, until interrupted by loveable rogue Freddy Benson (Rufus Hound) who plays his own version of the game, but insists on learning Jameson’s mastery. Of course, he agrees.

Lindsay is sincerely the most charming actor. He glides around the stage with such presence and panache, perfectly balances his ad libs with conductor and audience, and plays delightfully with Hound. The fun the pair are clearly having with one another means you almost cannot tell what is direction and what is spontaneous.

The number All About Ruprecht is side-splittingly funny, as is a later Love Is My Legs, sung with the prize of a bet by Christine Colgate (Katherine Kingsley). Kingsley’s vocal is impressive and her energy pumped into clumsy Colgate is pitch perfect. Samantha Bond’s Muriel Eubanks has some fantastic innuendo-pumped one liners and a gorgeous relationship with the French aide Thibault. Lizzy Connolly’s Jolene Oakes is a scream. The attack the entire cast has on the show is fabulous.

The musical has taken ten years to get from Broadway to the West End, but the book (Jeffrey Lane) and music (David Yazbek) seem timeless. This is The Producers mixed with an essence of The Wolf of Wall Street, with some slick choreography by Jerry Mitchell in the glorious height of the Savoy Theatre. An evening with the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is just old-school musical comedy at its best – it isn’t revolutionary, and doesn’t test its audience. It is what it is, with a great cast, and really rather joyful in its simplicity – it doesn’t need anything more.

                                                                                   Sarah Milton

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is at the Savoy Theatre until 29^th November 2014. For further information or to book visit the show’s website here.

Watch the video for Give Them What They Want here: