Noel Sullivan and Carley Stenson in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at the New Wimbledon Theatre and Touring. Picture: Alastair Muir
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels continues at the New Wimbledon Theatre, London until 24 October and then on tour until 28 November.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Since Musical Theatre Review saw Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in the early stages of its tour at the Liverpool Empire in July, Gary Wilmot has taken over from Mark Benton as con-man Lawrence Jameson’s ‘bodyguard’, just as he did from John Marquez in the West End last September.
Benton, hilarious as the building society manager in those Nationwide TV adverts, a much-loved Mr Chalk in Waterloo Road and a surprisingly nimble Strictly Come Dancing contestant, is a hard act to follow in any comedy role.
Wilmot is a better singer than actor, so it’s a pity the show doesn’t give him any good songs to sing. That’s because there aren’t many, and Andre’s one Broadway solo, ‘Chimp in a Suit’, was ditched at the Savoy where DRS limped along for a year before going on the circuit.
His ‘Like Zis/Like Zat’ duet with ageing sexpot Muriel (Geraldine Fitzgerald, excellent) is the best of what remains but this isn’t a part that shows Wilmot off to best advantage.
He’s not the only one short of a decent song to sing as David Yazbek’s music and lyrics (to Jeffrey Lane’s pretty faithful adaptation of the 1988 French Riviera caper movie starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin) are fairly forgettable – at least for the first hour.
It is only when the wonderful Carley Stenson enters the fray, allegedly as ‘American Soap Queen’ Christine Colgate, towards the end of Act I, that the show takes off.
Stenson is a breath of fresh air. In our original review from Liverpool, Kevin Byrnes wrote: “The stage buzzes with energy thanks to a career-defining performance which knocks the socks off her portrayal of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. She shows just what a versatile performer she is.” I can’t improve on that. The lady looks great, can sing, act and command a stage.
In the main part, Michael Praed, thankfully a less flashy Jameson than Robert Lindsay was in the West End, shows a pleasing voice in one of the few decent songs, ‘Love Sneaks In’.
His scene as the bogus German therapist Dr Shuffhausen trying to make partner-in-crime Freddy Benson, also faking it in a wheelchair, scream with pain even though he isn’t supposed to have any feeling in his legs, is genuinely side-splitting.
Noel Sullivan is a revelation as Freddy, the role that Rufus Hound mysteriously vanished from in mid-run at the Savoy, to be replaced by Alex Gaumond, and is consistently amusing, as is Phoebe Coupe in an acceptably OTT leg-slapping cameo.
But it’s a long evening with the high-jinks not quite making up for the lack of memorable lyrics. Jerry Mitchell combines directing with choreography and Ben Van Tienen is in charge of the ten musicians.
Jeremy Chapman
SHARE THIS POST:
Comments are closed.