Paul's Broadway Watch - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Fri, 4 Mar 2005, 01:11 pmWalter Plinge1 post in thread
Paul's Broadway Watch - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Fri, 4 Mar 2005, 01:11 pmDirty Rotten Scoundrels
Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek
Book by Jeffrey Lane
Directed by Jack OÂ’Brien
Choreography by Jerry Mitchell
Featuring: John Lithgow; Norbert Leo butz; Sherie Rene Scott; Gregory Jbara & Joanna Gleason
Opened 3rd March 2005
Extracts from various reviewers:
“We all know the famous saying: You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Why, then, are so many musical theatre writers today insistent on trying? Different authors succeed to different degrees, but most attempts are usually better camouflaged than they are in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”
“The musical's writers, Jeffrey Lane (book) and David Yazbek (music and lyrics)… go to any lengths for laughs, even to the point of making the audience aware (every five minutes, it seems) that they're watching a Broadway Musical Comedy and not a story they should become involved in; now one character is singing in the audience about the theater, now another is commenting about the moving set.”
“One can't help but wonder how talents as sharp and in-demand as director Jack O'Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell allowed this show to remain so unkempt under their stewardship. They probably aren't fully to blame for the bargain-basement look of the piece - Kenneth Posner's lights are fine, but Gregg Barnes's generic-chic costumes and David Rockwell's two-dimensional sets could have been lifted from a low-budget cruise ship production of La Cage aux Folles - but their work overall, while professional, is undistinguished.”
“Despite these problems, the show manages to entertain, even frequently, and it's never a chore to sit through. But the final effect is one of gears grinding rather than of effortless musical comedy beguilement, which is what a show like this really needs. The Producers demonstrates how a show can steal your heart while its central figures steal other characters' dollars, but how can Dirty Rotten Scoundrels effectively steal our hearts when it doesn't have one of its own?”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“No need for tuner fans to pinch themselves; the unbelievable is actually occurring. This season, the word "comedy" is being emphatically and joyfully reinserted into the phrase "musical comedy." First, there was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, followed quickly by Altar Boyz. Now we have Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, spoof-positive that the formula refined in the 1940s and '50s for a certain brand of musical still works -- if the right people are working it.”
“Do you start with John Lithgow doing a suave, 180-degree shift from his Sweet Smell of Success role of J.J. Hunsecker? Or with Norbert Leo Butz more than living up to the star-in-ascendent publicity that he's been accumulating? Or with Sherie Rene Scott, who suggests that -- in musicals, at least -- blondes really do have more fun? Do you begin with a salute to tunesmith-wordsmith David Yazbek, who comes into his own as a theater writer with this melodic, laugh-out-loud collection of adorably dopey ditties? Do you bow first to librettist Jeffrey Lane, who has adapted the Michael Caine-Steve Martin film and its antecedents into a stage piece in which sophistication and vulgarity climb into bed with each other and then mess around? Do you initially nod toward Jerry Mitchell in acknowledgment of his devil-may-care choreography, or toward the design team -- David Rockwell for his witty sets, Kenneth Posner for his bright lights, Acme Sound Partners for their discreet amplifying and mixing, Gregg Barnes for his stunning costumes? Should you commence by singling out director Jack O'Brien for again demonstrating that any show with which he's involved is going to be scintillating?”
“There's so much story to tell in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and so many numbers in which to tell it, that the show is undeniably longer than it needs to be... But too much of a good thing is always preferable to too little. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is naughty, bawdy fun.”
Theatermania – David Finkle
“It's easy to forget when you're shelling out a lot for a ticket, but Broadway has always had a soft spot for the lowbrow. Whether it's Tallulah Bankhead oozing sex as the maid in Thornton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth or Gypsy Rose Lee's stripper pals belting "You've Gotta Have a Gimmick," slobs and sleazes have long kept a grimy fingerhold on the Great White Way. As one dame laments in Chicago, "Ain't there no decency left?" Not in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, there ain't. And thank God for that.”
Composer-lyricist David Yazbek and director Jack O'Brien delivered a down-and-dirty good time with The Full Monty in 2000, and this time they've taken their act to the French Riviera. Based on the solid 1988 Michael Caine-Steve Martin film, Scoundrels is a bouncy, slightly shameless musical packed with good songs and great performances. It's not perfect by any means, but it offers plenty of laughs and even a tiny bit of heart.”
“Lithgow, who rarely gets the chance to show off his comedic skills on stage, makes up for it here... Still, the show belongs to Butz, who finally has a Broadway show (unlike Thou Shalt Not) and a role (unlike Wicked) worthy of his gifts. The rubber-limbed actor skates very close to the edge of overacting and, one could argue, right past it now and then. (The thought of seeing this performance in a few months, after O'Brien has moved on and audiences continue to give positive feedback, is a sobering one.) But it's impossible to keep your eyes off Butz, and he backs up his comic bravura with a soaring tenor.”
“Scoundrels, as is the habit lately, simultaneously mocks and embraces the hoariest musical-comedy clichés. (The Miss Saigon-era pop ballad receives a devastating send-up in Act II that has to be seen to be believed.) But few theater clichés are more often accurate, sadly, than the second act that needs work.”
“But it's hard to grumble too much about these qualms, legitimate though they are, when howls of laughter from the audience drown out entire verses of the songs. Seeing an old pro like Lithgow and young turks like Butz and Scott sin their way through a meaty, tuneful new musical goes a long way toward excusing any flaws. If you're looking for good, unclean fun, sidle up to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and hand your wallet over.”
Broadway.Com – Eric Grode
Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek
Book by Jeffrey Lane
Directed by Jack OÂ’Brien
Choreography by Jerry Mitchell
Featuring: John Lithgow; Norbert Leo butz; Sherie Rene Scott; Gregory Jbara & Joanna Gleason
Opened 3rd March 2005
Extracts from various reviewers:
“We all know the famous saying: You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Why, then, are so many musical theatre writers today insistent on trying? Different authors succeed to different degrees, but most attempts are usually better camouflaged than they are in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”
“The musical's writers, Jeffrey Lane (book) and David Yazbek (music and lyrics)… go to any lengths for laughs, even to the point of making the audience aware (every five minutes, it seems) that they're watching a Broadway Musical Comedy and not a story they should become involved in; now one character is singing in the audience about the theater, now another is commenting about the moving set.”
“One can't help but wonder how talents as sharp and in-demand as director Jack O'Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell allowed this show to remain so unkempt under their stewardship. They probably aren't fully to blame for the bargain-basement look of the piece - Kenneth Posner's lights are fine, but Gregg Barnes's generic-chic costumes and David Rockwell's two-dimensional sets could have been lifted from a low-budget cruise ship production of La Cage aux Folles - but their work overall, while professional, is undistinguished.”
“Despite these problems, the show manages to entertain, even frequently, and it's never a chore to sit through. But the final effect is one of gears grinding rather than of effortless musical comedy beguilement, which is what a show like this really needs. The Producers demonstrates how a show can steal your heart while its central figures steal other characters' dollars, but how can Dirty Rotten Scoundrels effectively steal our hearts when it doesn't have one of its own?”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“No need for tuner fans to pinch themselves; the unbelievable is actually occurring. This season, the word "comedy" is being emphatically and joyfully reinserted into the phrase "musical comedy." First, there was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, followed quickly by Altar Boyz. Now we have Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, spoof-positive that the formula refined in the 1940s and '50s for a certain brand of musical still works -- if the right people are working it.”
“Do you start with John Lithgow doing a suave, 180-degree shift from his Sweet Smell of Success role of J.J. Hunsecker? Or with Norbert Leo Butz more than living up to the star-in-ascendent publicity that he's been accumulating? Or with Sherie Rene Scott, who suggests that -- in musicals, at least -- blondes really do have more fun? Do you begin with a salute to tunesmith-wordsmith David Yazbek, who comes into his own as a theater writer with this melodic, laugh-out-loud collection of adorably dopey ditties? Do you bow first to librettist Jeffrey Lane, who has adapted the Michael Caine-Steve Martin film and its antecedents into a stage piece in which sophistication and vulgarity climb into bed with each other and then mess around? Do you initially nod toward Jerry Mitchell in acknowledgment of his devil-may-care choreography, or toward the design team -- David Rockwell for his witty sets, Kenneth Posner for his bright lights, Acme Sound Partners for their discreet amplifying and mixing, Gregg Barnes for his stunning costumes? Should you commence by singling out director Jack O'Brien for again demonstrating that any show with which he's involved is going to be scintillating?”
“There's so much story to tell in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and so many numbers in which to tell it, that the show is undeniably longer than it needs to be... But too much of a good thing is always preferable to too little. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is naughty, bawdy fun.”
Theatermania – David Finkle
“It's easy to forget when you're shelling out a lot for a ticket, but Broadway has always had a soft spot for the lowbrow. Whether it's Tallulah Bankhead oozing sex as the maid in Thornton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth or Gypsy Rose Lee's stripper pals belting "You've Gotta Have a Gimmick," slobs and sleazes have long kept a grimy fingerhold on the Great White Way. As one dame laments in Chicago, "Ain't there no decency left?" Not in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, there ain't. And thank God for that.”
Composer-lyricist David Yazbek and director Jack O'Brien delivered a down-and-dirty good time with The Full Monty in 2000, and this time they've taken their act to the French Riviera. Based on the solid 1988 Michael Caine-Steve Martin film, Scoundrels is a bouncy, slightly shameless musical packed with good songs and great performances. It's not perfect by any means, but it offers plenty of laughs and even a tiny bit of heart.”
“Lithgow, who rarely gets the chance to show off his comedic skills on stage, makes up for it here... Still, the show belongs to Butz, who finally has a Broadway show (unlike Thou Shalt Not) and a role (unlike Wicked) worthy of his gifts. The rubber-limbed actor skates very close to the edge of overacting and, one could argue, right past it now and then. (The thought of seeing this performance in a few months, after O'Brien has moved on and audiences continue to give positive feedback, is a sobering one.) But it's impossible to keep your eyes off Butz, and he backs up his comic bravura with a soaring tenor.”
“Scoundrels, as is the habit lately, simultaneously mocks and embraces the hoariest musical-comedy clichés. (The Miss Saigon-era pop ballad receives a devastating send-up in Act II that has to be seen to be believed.) But few theater clichés are more often accurate, sadly, than the second act that needs work.”
“But it's hard to grumble too much about these qualms, legitimate though they are, when howls of laughter from the audience drown out entire verses of the songs. Seeing an old pro like Lithgow and young turks like Butz and Scott sin their way through a meaty, tuneful new musical goes a long way toward excusing any flaws. If you're looking for good, unclean fun, sidle up to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and hand your wallet over.”
Broadway.Com – Eric Grode
Walter PlingeFri, 4 Mar 2005, 01:11 pm
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek
Book by Jeffrey Lane
Directed by Jack OÂ’Brien
Choreography by Jerry Mitchell
Featuring: John Lithgow; Norbert Leo butz; Sherie Rene Scott; Gregory Jbara & Joanna Gleason
Opened 3rd March 2005
Extracts from various reviewers:
“We all know the famous saying: You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Why, then, are so many musical theatre writers today insistent on trying? Different authors succeed to different degrees, but most attempts are usually better camouflaged than they are in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”
“The musical's writers, Jeffrey Lane (book) and David Yazbek (music and lyrics)… go to any lengths for laughs, even to the point of making the audience aware (every five minutes, it seems) that they're watching a Broadway Musical Comedy and not a story they should become involved in; now one character is singing in the audience about the theater, now another is commenting about the moving set.”
“One can't help but wonder how talents as sharp and in-demand as director Jack O'Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell allowed this show to remain so unkempt under their stewardship. They probably aren't fully to blame for the bargain-basement look of the piece - Kenneth Posner's lights are fine, but Gregg Barnes's generic-chic costumes and David Rockwell's two-dimensional sets could have been lifted from a low-budget cruise ship production of La Cage aux Folles - but their work overall, while professional, is undistinguished.”
“Despite these problems, the show manages to entertain, even frequently, and it's never a chore to sit through. But the final effect is one of gears grinding rather than of effortless musical comedy beguilement, which is what a show like this really needs. The Producers demonstrates how a show can steal your heart while its central figures steal other characters' dollars, but how can Dirty Rotten Scoundrels effectively steal our hearts when it doesn't have one of its own?”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“No need for tuner fans to pinch themselves; the unbelievable is actually occurring. This season, the word "comedy" is being emphatically and joyfully reinserted into the phrase "musical comedy." First, there was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, followed quickly by Altar Boyz. Now we have Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, spoof-positive that the formula refined in the 1940s and '50s for a certain brand of musical still works -- if the right people are working it.”
“Do you start with John Lithgow doing a suave, 180-degree shift from his Sweet Smell of Success role of J.J. Hunsecker? Or with Norbert Leo Butz more than living up to the star-in-ascendent publicity that he's been accumulating? Or with Sherie Rene Scott, who suggests that -- in musicals, at least -- blondes really do have more fun? Do you begin with a salute to tunesmith-wordsmith David Yazbek, who comes into his own as a theater writer with this melodic, laugh-out-loud collection of adorably dopey ditties? Do you bow first to librettist Jeffrey Lane, who has adapted the Michael Caine-Steve Martin film and its antecedents into a stage piece in which sophistication and vulgarity climb into bed with each other and then mess around? Do you initially nod toward Jerry Mitchell in acknowledgment of his devil-may-care choreography, or toward the design team -- David Rockwell for his witty sets, Kenneth Posner for his bright lights, Acme Sound Partners for their discreet amplifying and mixing, Gregg Barnes for his stunning costumes? Should you commence by singling out director Jack O'Brien for again demonstrating that any show with which he's involved is going to be scintillating?”
“There's so much story to tell in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and so many numbers in which to tell it, that the show is undeniably longer than it needs to be... But too much of a good thing is always preferable to too little. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is naughty, bawdy fun.”
Theatermania – David Finkle
“It's easy to forget when you're shelling out a lot for a ticket, but Broadway has always had a soft spot for the lowbrow. Whether it's Tallulah Bankhead oozing sex as the maid in Thornton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth or Gypsy Rose Lee's stripper pals belting "You've Gotta Have a Gimmick," slobs and sleazes have long kept a grimy fingerhold on the Great White Way. As one dame laments in Chicago, "Ain't there no decency left?" Not in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, there ain't. And thank God for that.”
Composer-lyricist David Yazbek and director Jack O'Brien delivered a down-and-dirty good time with The Full Monty in 2000, and this time they've taken their act to the French Riviera. Based on the solid 1988 Michael Caine-Steve Martin film, Scoundrels is a bouncy, slightly shameless musical packed with good songs and great performances. It's not perfect by any means, but it offers plenty of laughs and even a tiny bit of heart.”
“Lithgow, who rarely gets the chance to show off his comedic skills on stage, makes up for it here... Still, the show belongs to Butz, who finally has a Broadway show (unlike Thou Shalt Not) and a role (unlike Wicked) worthy of his gifts. The rubber-limbed actor skates very close to the edge of overacting and, one could argue, right past it now and then. (The thought of seeing this performance in a few months, after O'Brien has moved on and audiences continue to give positive feedback, is a sobering one.) But it's impossible to keep your eyes off Butz, and he backs up his comic bravura with a soaring tenor.”
“Scoundrels, as is the habit lately, simultaneously mocks and embraces the hoariest musical-comedy clichés. (The Miss Saigon-era pop ballad receives a devastating send-up in Act II that has to be seen to be believed.) But few theater clichés are more often accurate, sadly, than the second act that needs work.”
“But it's hard to grumble too much about these qualms, legitimate though they are, when howls of laughter from the audience drown out entire verses of the songs. Seeing an old pro like Lithgow and young turks like Butz and Scott sin their way through a meaty, tuneful new musical goes a long way toward excusing any flaws. If you're looking for good, unclean fun, sidle up to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and hand your wallet over.”
Broadway.Com – Eric Grode
Music & Lyrics by David Yazbek
Book by Jeffrey Lane
Directed by Jack OÂ’Brien
Choreography by Jerry Mitchell
Featuring: John Lithgow; Norbert Leo butz; Sherie Rene Scott; Gregory Jbara & Joanna Gleason
Opened 3rd March 2005
Extracts from various reviewers:
“We all know the famous saying: You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. Why, then, are so many musical theatre writers today insistent on trying? Different authors succeed to different degrees, but most attempts are usually better camouflaged than they are in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.”
“The musical's writers, Jeffrey Lane (book) and David Yazbek (music and lyrics)… go to any lengths for laughs, even to the point of making the audience aware (every five minutes, it seems) that they're watching a Broadway Musical Comedy and not a story they should become involved in; now one character is singing in the audience about the theater, now another is commenting about the moving set.”
“One can't help but wonder how talents as sharp and in-demand as director Jack O'Brien and choreographer Jerry Mitchell allowed this show to remain so unkempt under their stewardship. They probably aren't fully to blame for the bargain-basement look of the piece - Kenneth Posner's lights are fine, but Gregg Barnes's generic-chic costumes and David Rockwell's two-dimensional sets could have been lifted from a low-budget cruise ship production of La Cage aux Folles - but their work overall, while professional, is undistinguished.”
“Despite these problems, the show manages to entertain, even frequently, and it's never a chore to sit through. But the final effect is one of gears grinding rather than of effortless musical comedy beguilement, which is what a show like this really needs. The Producers demonstrates how a show can steal your heart while its central figures steal other characters' dollars, but how can Dirty Rotten Scoundrels effectively steal our hearts when it doesn't have one of its own?”
Talkin’ Broadway – Matthew Murray
“No need for tuner fans to pinch themselves; the unbelievable is actually occurring. This season, the word "comedy" is being emphatically and joyfully reinserted into the phrase "musical comedy." First, there was The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, followed quickly by Altar Boyz. Now we have Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, spoof-positive that the formula refined in the 1940s and '50s for a certain brand of musical still works -- if the right people are working it.”
“Do you start with John Lithgow doing a suave, 180-degree shift from his Sweet Smell of Success role of J.J. Hunsecker? Or with Norbert Leo Butz more than living up to the star-in-ascendent publicity that he's been accumulating? Or with Sherie Rene Scott, who suggests that -- in musicals, at least -- blondes really do have more fun? Do you begin with a salute to tunesmith-wordsmith David Yazbek, who comes into his own as a theater writer with this melodic, laugh-out-loud collection of adorably dopey ditties? Do you bow first to librettist Jeffrey Lane, who has adapted the Michael Caine-Steve Martin film and its antecedents into a stage piece in which sophistication and vulgarity climb into bed with each other and then mess around? Do you initially nod toward Jerry Mitchell in acknowledgment of his devil-may-care choreography, or toward the design team -- David Rockwell for his witty sets, Kenneth Posner for his bright lights, Acme Sound Partners for their discreet amplifying and mixing, Gregg Barnes for his stunning costumes? Should you commence by singling out director Jack O'Brien for again demonstrating that any show with which he's involved is going to be scintillating?”
“There's so much story to tell in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and so many numbers in which to tell it, that the show is undeniably longer than it needs to be... But too much of a good thing is always preferable to too little. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is naughty, bawdy fun.”
Theatermania – David Finkle
“It's easy to forget when you're shelling out a lot for a ticket, but Broadway has always had a soft spot for the lowbrow. Whether it's Tallulah Bankhead oozing sex as the maid in Thornton Wilder's Skin of Our Teeth or Gypsy Rose Lee's stripper pals belting "You've Gotta Have a Gimmick," slobs and sleazes have long kept a grimy fingerhold on the Great White Way. As one dame laments in Chicago, "Ain't there no decency left?" Not in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, there ain't. And thank God for that.”
Composer-lyricist David Yazbek and director Jack O'Brien delivered a down-and-dirty good time with The Full Monty in 2000, and this time they've taken their act to the French Riviera. Based on the solid 1988 Michael Caine-Steve Martin film, Scoundrels is a bouncy, slightly shameless musical packed with good songs and great performances. It's not perfect by any means, but it offers plenty of laughs and even a tiny bit of heart.”
“Lithgow, who rarely gets the chance to show off his comedic skills on stage, makes up for it here... Still, the show belongs to Butz, who finally has a Broadway show (unlike Thou Shalt Not) and a role (unlike Wicked) worthy of his gifts. The rubber-limbed actor skates very close to the edge of overacting and, one could argue, right past it now and then. (The thought of seeing this performance in a few months, after O'Brien has moved on and audiences continue to give positive feedback, is a sobering one.) But it's impossible to keep your eyes off Butz, and he backs up his comic bravura with a soaring tenor.”
“Scoundrels, as is the habit lately, simultaneously mocks and embraces the hoariest musical-comedy clichés. (The Miss Saigon-era pop ballad receives a devastating send-up in Act II that has to be seen to be believed.) But few theater clichés are more often accurate, sadly, than the second act that needs work.”
“But it's hard to grumble too much about these qualms, legitimate though they are, when howls of laughter from the audience drown out entire verses of the songs. Seeing an old pro like Lithgow and young turks like Butz and Scott sin their way through a meaty, tuneful new musical goes a long way toward excusing any flaws. If you're looking for good, unclean fun, sidle up to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and hand your wallet over.”
Broadway.Com – Eric Grode