What makes a good musical? Well let’s see. It needs humour, romance, cracking songs and a strong cast.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has it all – and not in a conventional way.
Professional conman Lawrence (Robert Lindsay) reluctantly teams up with newbie Freddy (Alex Gaumond) to try to gain £50,000 from Christine Colgate (Katherine Kingsley).
However, both men end up falling for her and friendly rivalry becomes much more bitter. But who is conning who?
I’ve seen Scoundrels 3 times this year now (here’s my original review for London Theatre) and it’s still as slick and as funny as the first time.
The songs are catchy, with strong opening numbers, romantic ballads and the showstopping finale!
Katherine Kingsley really does have a beautiful voice and she continues to have a lot of fun with the role of Christine.
New cast members are every bit as good (if not better) as the original actors, but have put their own spin on the characters to really inject their personality.
Bonnie Langford is a delight (as ever) and she brings her own warmth and humour to the role of Muriel, embracing the audience and making them feel included in each one of her scenes. Her chemistry with Gary Wilmot is lovely and watchinf their strange relations blossom is very believable.
Alex Gaumond proves his versatility with a complete character change from Miss Trunchball; he and Robert Lindsay are like chalk and cheese, making the scene with Ruprecht particularly hilarious.
Robert Lindsay continues to ooze charisma with his good looks and charm and seems to really enjoy the role of Laurence.
There does seem to be a bit more crotch shaking and grabbing, which isn’t really necessary, but he’s obviously responding to the audience, who continue to cheer and whoop each time!
The lovely Lizzy Connolly (who had a prior engagement on the day of the Wilma Awards but still found time to pop in to say hello) continues to (literally) throw herself into the role of Jolene and the audience adores her.
This must be one of the best West End roles – it looks so much fun!
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is definitely my favourite musical of 2014 – it’s witty, sophisticated and still giving audiences what they want, night after night!
My Stage is the World 
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