Giles Woodforde attends a production starring Robert Lindsay and Rufus Hound
‘Everything is ripe for the picking,” exclaims Lawrence Jameson gleefully. He has taken up residence at Beaumont-sur-Mer, a classy French Riviera resort, and is keen to start work. His profession? Relieving rich ladies of their jewels, and their bank balances. Soon Muriel Eubanks hoves into view, glittering with diamonds. “You hardly need such jewels when you are already a picture of perfection,” purrs Jameson.
Jameson first appeared in the 1988 film Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which has now followed the current trend of moving from screen to stage – acquiring a simplified book (Jeffrey Lane) and new music (David Yazbek) in the process. The stage production looks gorgeous: Peter McKintosh’s bright, colourful sets and costumes reek of expensive 1930s Art Deco atmosphere.
In the lead, Robert Lindsay gets to reprise his Me and My Girl hoofing skills. Exuding smooth self-admiration, he is first-rate as Jameson, a character who is the complete opposite of Lindsay’s upstanding Sir Edward Pellew in TV’s Hornblower. “He’s so deliciously low,” Jameson remarks when he encounters Rufus Hound’s Freddy Benson. Hound becomes the perfect foil to Lindsay as the scruffy Benson attempts to muscle in on Jameson’s wealth-grabbing schemes. Both, however, make the fatal mistake of falling for fading soap star Christine Colgate (Katherine Kingsley). Meanwhile, the diamond encrusted Muriel (Samantha Bond, sadly underused here) gets cosy with the bent local police chief (John Marquez).
Quite how the scantily clad Jolene (Lizzy Connolly) fits into the storyline isn’t clear, but she hails from Oklahoma, and comes complete with a posse of Stetson-tossing cowboys, who deliver a won-derfully whacky production number (director and choreo-grapher Jerry Mitchell).
David Yazbek’s middle of the road score fits the prod-uction well: it has, I suspect, been crafted to avoid any possible vocal embarrass-ments for the principal actors — Samantha Bond has a great time with What Was a Woman to Do, as does Katherine Kingsley with Nothing is too Wonderful.
“It’s a load of cobblers, but it’s a lovely load of cobblers,” opined a theatregoer after the performance. I agree entirely with that verdict.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Aylesbury Waterside
Feb 26-March 1
Box office: 0844 871 7607 atgtickets.com/venues/aylesbury-waterside-theatre
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