Butz gives wild, tour de force performance in 'Scoundrels' tour

By: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, August 30, 2006 4:45 PM PDT ∞

When "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" got its start two years ago at San Diego's Old Globe, the musical's big star was John Lithgow, who played an elegant con man romancing the fortunes out from under gullible heiresses in a French Riviera town.

Now, as the David Yazbek/Jeffrey Lane Broadway hit returns to Southern California in its first national tour, it is Lithgow's co-star, Norbert Leo Butz, who gets star billing ---- and rightfully so.

Butz was the best thing about "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" in San Diego (he also won the show's only Tony award out of 11 nominations), and as the star of the tour now docked at the Orange County Performing Arts Center through Sept. 10, he has polished and filigreed the role of con man Freddy Benson to a high-wattage sheen.

Like a manic Tasmanian devil, Butz belts, boogies, convulses, humps and sleazes his way through a tour de force performance that goes down as one of the most charismatic and hilarious musical theater performances of the decade. Seeing Butz onstage is an event, and it's well worth the drive to Orange County to see it.

Tom Hewitt has replaced Lithgow in the role of Lawrence Jameson, and his amiable pairing with Butz works very well, but in a different way. Hewitt (star of Broadway's "Rocky Horror Picture Show" and La Jolla Playhouse's "Dracula, the Musical") may not have Lithgow's goofy rubber face and impeccable comic timing, but he's a much better singer and he's both dashing and elegant ---- making it easier to buy him as a Riviera playboy.

They also make a nice onstage team physically. Hewitt is tall, slim, reserved and well-groomed. Butz is petite, endearingly pudgy and loud, with his hair and clothes perpetually unkempt.

Retooled for the road by its original director Jack O'Brien (the Old Globe's artistic director), "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" hasn't changed much since its San Diego days. Yazbek has penned a new opening number that takes better advantage of Hewitt's singing skills; excess mid-scene dialogue has been trimmed; and there's more visual humor in the song "Chimp in a Suit." But more than anything, O'Brien has opened up the show to give Butz's enormous talent free rein ---- and it's obvious that Butz is relishing every minute of it. Like the Energizer Bunny, he juices up every scene with outrageous physical humor, and his singing ----- raunchy rock in "Great Big Stuff" and uber-schmaltz parody in "Love is My Legs" ---- is the highlight of the show.

Based on (and much better than) the 1988 movie starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" is the story of two con men ---- the sophisticated but bored continental playboy Lawrence Jameson (Hewitt) and low-class American crook Freddy Benson (Butz). Lawrence convinces eager socialites he's an exiled prince in dire need of cash for his fictional country's revolution. Freddy tells women he needs money for both a legless granny and a pricey psychiatrist to treat his tragic "dance fever" malady.

In a Pygmalion-style challenge, Lawrence takes on Freddy as his apprentice in crime, but when the student proves better than the teacher, they begin competing for the riches of apple-cheeked American soap heiress Christine Colgate (Laura Marie Duncan, in a wholesome, multilayered and vocally rich performance), with the agreement that whoever loses the contest must leave town for good.

David Rockwell's upscale turntable set has been faithfully re-created for the tour, with glitzy, over-the-top costumes by Gregg Barnes. And as before, O'Brien's direction breezes along so smoothly that you hardly notice the show's nearly three-hour running time.

Yazbek's witty lyrics have improved with age. He's a master of the oddball rhyme, such as "my little piece of heaven, Oklahoma/where the leading cause of death is melanoma" or the limerick-like "the Bushes of Tex were nervous wrecks because their son was dim ... but look what happened to him" (which, not surprisingly, drew scattered boos in ultra-conservative Orange County).

Yazbek's score runs the gamut from French chansons to tangos, to musical theater sendups and Cole Porter-style ballads. What makes the music especially interesting is how he wrote the songs so differently for the two main characters. Freddy's songs are rough-edged with intentionally banal lyrics (in "Great Big Stuff," he dreams of naked Twister, fur seats, a private Zamboni machine and a case of gout), while Lawrence's silky solos ("Love Sneaks In" is performed, Sinatra-style, against a moonlit lamppost) have Noel Coward-like panache.

Rounding out the principal cast are two of Lawrence's past scam victims ---- upbeat Muriel of Omaha (endearing redhead Hollis Resnik) and pushy Oklahoma cowgirl Jolene (squeaky Jenifer Foote). Nathan Lane-lookalike Drew McVety plays Andre, the corrupt French police chief who aids in Lawrence's scams.

The show's dance ensemble is excellent, though they're used only sporadically. Let's face it this is really a small-cast show, with Butz (and Hewitt as his sidekick) in the center ring.

Ticket-buyers should know that "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" has its fair share of curse words, sexual innuendo and sometimes outrageously naughty stage business (Butz bares a butt cheek in one scene, has his hands down his pants in another and frequently behaves like a dog in heat).

But the tone of the show for all its ribaldry is light and frothy. There's no heavy message in "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" and who needs one? Butz gives one of the most memorable performances I can remember seeing onstage, and the only downer is that Southern California residents will only be able to see it until Sept. 10 when the tour heads east. Butz is leaving the tour in October, so a new actor will be filling his slot when the show arrives in San Diego next spring. And that will be a shame, because without Butz as the mad hatter in this crazy tea party, it won't be half the fun.

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