By Lynne Hendricks
NEWBURYPORT — When Newburyport High School's theater department players take to the stage tonight to enact the musical, "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels," they will be only the second theater company in America to bring the acclaimed show to the amateur stage.
They'll be among the first to try their hand at the hilarious dialogue adapted from the 1988 film starring Steve Martin and Michael Caine. According to NHS Visual and Performing Arts Department Chairman Lisa Zaleski, players' hard work, both on stage and off, should make tonight's opening performance a spectacle for most ages.
"It's really funny," said Zaleski of the PG-rated show, which contains enough sexual humor to elicit a warning from Zaleski for the youngest theater guests, but enough mature, witty dialogue to impress seasoned theater-goers.
"I saw the show when it was on Broadway and loved it," said Zaleski. "It's a very funny show, with a lot of physical comedy and some witty dialogue, too."
Like the film, the show is set on the French Riviera, where two con men, Lawrence Jameson, played by junior Matt Kiely, and Freddy Benson, played by senior Joe Keery, battle each other for the ability to swindle heiress Christine Colgate out of $50,000. While the older and more sophisticated Lawrence makes a lavish living by talking wealthy ladies out of their riches, Freddy is more skilled at getting what he wants by eliciting compassion from the rich, fabricating stories about his grandmother's failing health and such.
The two meet on a train and try working together to swindle a mark, but find the town isn't big enough for the both of them and agree to settle their territorial feud based on who can extract Christine's $50,000. Their game requires whoever loses to leave town, which begins a con battle of hilarious proportions.
Alongside Kiely and Keery, Zaleski has cast junior Sam Moore in the lead role of Andre, Lawrence's personal assistant, junior Shelby Steeves as Muriel, Andre's love interest, Emily deKanter in the role of Christine and Rachel Rikeman playing the featured role of Jolene.
"Then we have an ensemble of 15, and they play a variety of different characters — other women (Lawrence and Freddy) are trying to dupe, hotel guests and police officers," she said.
Zaleski said a major highlight will be the musical compositions of David Yazbak, whose show tunes "Great Big Stuff," "Chimp in a Suit" and "Love is my Legs" helped earn the Broadway production 11 Tony nominations. It's tricky stuff for any theatrical group, but the high school pit band and performers are handling the material really well, she said.
"The music is really challenging, and they are doing a really good job," said Zaleski, who has been working one-on-one with the players for weeks, teaching them techniques to get through the tough parts and helping them increase their range.
"I sit down at the piano with each one of them, and we talk about singing techniques," she said. "It's a process."
Guests can expect to see a different kind of set decoration than they're used to seeing for NHS productions, said Zaleski, who added the challenge of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" has been the variety and number of sets that are required.
"Normally with a musical, we tend to have a unit set, or a set that doesn't move," Zaleski said. "This has a lot of different locations, so we have some big pieces, but it's constantly changing."
Expect to see a set representing a two-story balcony, along with an interior of a villa, a train setting, a casino setting and an outdoor scene.
"We hope there's a lot of spectacle," Zaleski said.
The show is directed by Zaleski and Stephanie Williams, with Joe Nuccio serving as conductor and pianist.
Ensemble players include Ari DeNardo, Christian Doyle, Jordan Dunn-Pilz, Michaela Good, Oliver Howell, Dustin Kelly, Sally Klimp, Kayla McKinnon, Kate Nelson and Mikala Redgate, and musical dancers include Callie Jones, Amelia Jones, Lydia Jones, Alex Losh, Jordy Steelman, Megan Tinkham and Kyle Uhlig. Stage managers for the performance are Chrissy Beluk, Nicola Rossi and Alex Losh.
If you Go
What: "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels"
Where: NHS Auditorium
When: Friday, Nov. 13, and Saturday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m., and next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 19 to 21, at 7 p.m.
Cost: $8 for students, $10 for adults, with tickets available at the door.
