But this is for sure no fault of the hardworking actors, who put forth a tremendous amount of talent and effort to sell the show’s madcap plot. Though the combination of these factors means that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has a higher than average moment-to-moment entertainment value, in the end, the fact that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels ’ main characters aren’t out for anything but their own ends still leave it feeling somewhat vacant, even soulless. A catchy and varied score and many a fun musical diversion keep the proceedings from getting too predictable or tedious, and high class costumes, frequently shifting sets, and engaging choreography keep all visually interesting as well. The fact that the show was too silly to bother taking actual umbrage with also isn’t to say that it isn’t, often, quite witty in its stupidity, with many a clever lyric or joke adding to the show’s consistent comedy. If anything, the later subplot in which Freddy purports to Christine to be Sergeant Fred Benson, who became paralyzed not in war but in psychosomatic reaction to having caught his fiance cheating on him, is even more broad and ridiculous. However, the sheer outrageousness of the show’s off-color humor eventually did help me to start taking it less seriously and, for all its politically incorrect implications, the ridiculous number in which Freddy drove off his clingy mark Jolene as Lawrence’s dim-witted brother Ruprecht was one of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels ’ funnier ones. Its also one in which Freddy not only distastefully pretends to be Lawrence’s cognitively disabled younger brother but then impersonates a wounded veteran later in the same act. Though one would suppose the well-off nature of Lawrence and Freddy’s “targets” in some sense justifies their shameless deception of them, forgive me if it took me a few numbers to get over my instinctive aversion to a musical that revolves, pretty much, around men lying to and manipulating women, and which is also one in which all the female characters look more or less like naive idiots until one charming twist late in Act 2 finally turns the tables. While the show feels a little aimless until this challenge gets established mid-way through the first act, from then on the bet does give more of a sense of stakes to the proceeding well, at least as much of a sense of stakes as can be had when dealing with such hard-to root for protagonists. Lawrence first tries to reluctantly take Freddy on as something of an apprentice before arriving instead at an unusual ultimatum in an attempt to get rid of the pest: the first to con their next mark, the fresh-faced new arrival Christine, out of $50,000 dollars, is the one who gets to stay on. It’s only the arrival of Freddy, a young and brutish wannabe fraudster who emerges to encroach on Lawrence’s territory, that threatens to throw a wrench into the latter’s well-practiced antics. By seducing and swindling wealthy women who pass through as tourists with an absurd lie about being a foreign prince in need of funds, Lawrence has established a life living large in the French Riviera, and being in cahoots with local police chief Andre means he’s more or less safe from repercussions as he does so. Loosely based on a 1988 film, this hedonistic comedic romp has as its protagonist the suave silver fox scammer Lawrence Jamison, who has a bizarre money-making scheme down to a science. As long as you’ve come to the Maltz Jupiter Theatre ’s first production back in its newly renovated theatre space in search of a good time rather than anything more substantial, you’re unlikely to be disappointed by Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

Scoundrels mousterpiece theatre