Few Broadway shows exemplify the celluloid equivalent of the jukebox musical more thoroughly than Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which opened Tuesday night for a short run through Sunday at Miami's Carnival Center.
Inspired by the 1988 comedy starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, David Yazbek's lively musical revamp is largely faithful to the film original.
Suave con man Lawrence Jameson makes a comfortable living by swindling gullible women out of their riches.
He meets and takes an instant dislike to Freddy Benson, an equally deft but considerably more crass schemer.
The two rivals realize the French Riviera is too small for both to ply their trade and make a crook-take-all bet: the first to trick young soap heiress Christine out of $50,000 wins and the other must leave town.
That wager launches the two men on a series of ruses, disguises, and double- and triple-crosses in their race to beat the other.
Yazbek, also responsible for the musicalization of The Full Monty, has fashioned a brash, breezy score, somewhat self-consciously hip. If his slick, pop numbers manage to be catchy without quite staying in the memory, they suit the lightweight farce. Much like the characters' dealings, Yazbek's music is itself a kind of artful con, with mocking riffs on the love duet, power anthem and other pop and Broadway clich e s.
Yazbek's lyrics and Jeffrey Lane's book veer between clever one-liners and easy laughs.
Like the movie, the musical gets off to a slow start but takes off once Christine enters the stage, and the pileup of deceptions and twists rises. Jack O'Brien's fluid direction keeps up the momentum, aided by David Rockwell's elegant, functional revolving sets.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels needs a cast that can sell the comedy as well as the singing and dancing, and the current company delivers the goods. As the urbane Jameson, Tom Hewitt proved perfect casting. A look-alike for Carnival Center CEO Michael Hardy, Hewitt showed the right light touch, nimble of voice and foot, and a worthy foil to the tact-free Freddy.
Timothy Gulan has the flashiest role as Freddy and the best numbers. On opening night, Gulan's Great Big Stuff -- an ode to unrepentant materialism -- was amusing without quite hitting the heights.
Yet the University of Miami alum embodied the vulgar, incorrigible trickster, his uninhibited rock-style vocals and comic verve making Freddy surprisingly likable.
Laura Marie Duncan's Christine managed to steal the show. Her bright trumpet-like soprano blasted through the house and lifted the energy level in her entrance number, Here I Am. Duncan provided the best musical moments of the night with an awkward grace that rounded out the gawky Christine.
The second romance in the story, between Jameson's valet Andre and the persistent victim Muriel, was another bright spot of the performance, with Drew McVety and Hollis Resnik showing how less is sometimes much more.
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