We sure do love our stage rascals. There's a thrill of vicarious mischief when we laugh at the exploits of hapless con men in The Producers and the more recent Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the latest musical by Center Stage (through March 28). But this is a third-generation reproduction of the original story, which shows. This wasn't a problem with the 1988 film version, with Michael Caine and Steve Martin, in which director Frank Oz improved the 1964 original, Bedtime Story. The 2005 Broadway adaptation is another story, and I don't mean the plot line, which sticks closely to the namesake film. The 1988 version lasted eight months on Broadway, thanks to multiple Tony nominations. Nevertheless, while the music and lyrics by David Yazbek, who did clever work on The Full Monty, has all the notes in the right places, few of the lyrics are very imaginative.
At the Courthouse Center for the Arts in West Kingston, the Center Stage production doesn't rise above these disadvantages in the first act. Yet by the end, the troupe finally establishes characters we care about, which is all the more an accomplishment after such a slow start. The story itself is deliciously naughty. Lawrence Jameson (Russell M. Maitland) is the sort of debonair con man that wealthy divorcees on the French Riviera were created for, so they could be charmed out of money. Maitland, who is also directing and choreographing, presents a convincingly dashing and handsome character, a smiling scamp who loves his work.
Jameson's ongoing scam is to pretend to be dethroned royalty who needs money for soldiers who are fighting to regain his crown. He is aided and abetted, for a percentage, by the local police chief, Andre Thibault (played with just enough oily slyness by David De Almo). But into town strides a cocky Freddy Benson (Brad W. Kirton), who fancies himself a con artist on Jameson's level but is just a sleazy and not-too-bright hustler. His idea of a score is to get a free meal by sitting at a table looking pathetic, biting into a potato like an apple. Or he'll get a wealthy looking lady to contribute 20 bucks so his grandmother can gush over a brand-new leg under the Christmas tree. Jameson challenges him to a contest. The first one to swindle $50,000 from Muriel Eubanks (Kami Crary) will see his competition get out of town. Crary creates a vivacious character we can root for, but she can't save the show. (Neither can Emily Woo-Zeller as the rich, bad-boy-loving Christine Colgate, diligently pursuing Jameston.)
This version is written with much broader Humor than in the film. It's no excuse to suggest that adding songs requires cutting corners on character development. As for the songs, it says it all that "Chimp In a Suit" can come up with nothing better than "Buy him a castle/he'll still be an asshole." Much of that could have been made up for with a captivating Freddy. But not only does Kirton fail to establish a personality for the schlub beyond amiable dimwittedness, he dulls the potentially hilarious character of Ruprecht. When Jameson is threatened with a shotgun marriage to pretty oil heiress Jolene Oakes (a winsome Kaela Adams), he invents a dement-ed brother Ruprecht, the product of inbred blueblood, for Freddy to play. Threats about a "genital cuff" and the like are comical, but Kirton adds no wicked personality. Rascals can be entertaining, but only when they're funny.
