By Carol Davis
OCEANSIDE, California—-You will recognize Tom Andrew. He has been George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life, the holiday radio play at the Cygnet Theatre, for the past five years. But Tom is a song and dance man of the highest quality and lucky for us, he gets to strut his stuff in the Jeffrey Lane (book), David Yazbek (music and lyrics) musical Dirty Rotten Scoundrels now in a tiptop production at Mira Costa College in Oceanside.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels the musical, based on the 1988 film of the same name, premiered in San Diego. In 2004, under the direction of then artistic director Jack O’Brien, of the Old Globe, it starred John Lithgow as the cool, suave, polished and experienced con man Lawrence Jameson, and Norbert Leo Butz as the small time American wheeler-dealer Freddy Benson.
Butz went on to win the Tony for Outstanding Actor in a Musical. The San Diego Theatre Critics Circle gave him the award for Lead Performance in a Musical, Male in 2004. The show itself garnered at least five other awards from the Critic’s Circle including Best New Musical.
The North American National Equity tour lasted about a year followed by a 25-city non-Equity tour, but neither ever came back to San Diego. Here’s a great chance to catch this excellent production under the deft direction of Eric Bishop with our very own Tom Andrew as swindling Freddy and Patrick McBride as the suave and debonaire bilker, Lawrence Jameson. Both are terrific.
They meet up on the French Riviera in a hotel lobby where the British Lawrence, who has established a name for himself as a womanizer and philanthropist, finds Freddy zoning in on his territory but as a small-time operator.
Seeing that Freddy is a fast study after watching him bilking a woman out of a few bucks in the lobby of the hotel, Lawrence brings Freddy into the operation. All hell breaks loose between the two rivals as they vie to see who can outwit the other.
Helping matters out is the man of many accents, André Thibault (Bernard X. Kapsho is terrific) who is the crooked cop, and go-between Lawrence and the bevy of women he plans to seduce…er, swindle. He also gets a cut of everything Lawrence manages to con from the women.
Composer/lyricist David Yazbeck’s lyrics are so off the wall they are actually funny. The opening number “Give Them What They Want” is just what the doctor ordered. Other musical numbers might not be as memorable but it doesn’t matter, they fit!
His “Great Big Stuff” is one of many big production numbers. This one tells all that Freddy wants when he gets rich. And so it goes. The show is fun filled, up beat and moves along without a hitch although the plot does take some convoluted twists and turns before it reaches the surprise ending. All the theatre graduates along with the musical theatre majors are more than up to the task of bring a high level of quality to the overall production.
McBride and Andrew make perfect foils for each other. Debra Dardo and Kapsho are a hoot as they put the ultimate and hysterical touches on their romantic tryst and Virginia Gregg almost steals the show as Christine Colgate the ‘All American Soap Queen’ who could teach both Freddy and Lawrence a lesson or two.
Bishop and his hard working technical crew; Andrew Layton’s multipurpose set design, Paul Canaletti’s lighting design, Amber Hamzeh’s lovely costumes and Jamie Leodones makeup and hair design make this one professional looking production. Lyle Stone’s musical direction (the music is on a track) is perfectly synchronized and Dave Massey’s choreography (along with his dance chorus) is lively and energetic
Just as a side note, the role of Freddy is double cast because of obligations Andrew has. His last performance is Saturday, Nov19 th matinee. Willard Reed will play Freddy the remainder of the run.
As one senior put it at the end of the show, “It didn’t have one dead spot in it”. YUP! It’s a thumb’s up production with no dead spots.
See you at the theatre.
Dates: Nov. 17, 18, 19, 7:30P.M. 19-20 2 P.M.
Organization: Mira Costa College
Phone: 760-795-6815
Production Type: Musical
Where: Oceanside Campus, One Barnard Drive, Oceanside, CA 92056
Ticket Prices: $12.00
Web: miracostatheatre.com
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Davis is a San Diego-based theatre critic. She may be contacted at carol.davis@sdjewishworld.com