Not the worst community theater I'd ever seen but not great. And the show's music, lyrics and book didn't help any either.
"Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" is a Broadway musical, adapted from the film of the same name. The stage version follows the movie plot pretty much with some minor variance but aside from that, it's world's different. The original run Broadway show starred John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz reprising the roles in the film which starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin.
The plot revolves around competing con-artists vying for prime gullible rich widow hunting grounds in the French Riviera. There are a few short cons, a medium con and one long con that is supposed to be the "twist" revealed at the show's end. Having amateur performers trying to pull off the acting required to make the audience believe that the actors are themselves in on an act, well, it's like asking a singer to perform both parts of a duet. It just doesn't work. Actually, even the source movie with those great leads is only good for a couple viewings at best. I watched it a few months ago and knowing the twists and outcome ruins in quite well but in fact for belly laughs there was really only Steve Martin's Ruprect that I found comedy genius. He played the mentally defective faux brother subtly and his comedic timing was everything. The stage show reduces the Ruprect act to a bad cliche especially over-utilizing the leg humping gag. In fact, the whole show in comparison to the movie was much more low brow. It's as if the film were being interpreted and tweaked by and for 12-year-olds.
The only shining light was the actor playing the Freddy Benson role. Being a dead ringer for a future roll as Elder Cunningham (if he hasn't played him in an community or school adaptation of "The Book of Mormon" already) Tony Toler held up the show all on his own. He out sang, out acted and even out slapsticked the others by a mile. Now, mind you, he's no Josh Gad...I'm not sure he'll ever be, but he's definitely got a career in this if he works for it. He's also the only actor of the troupe that I recognized from his rather small, but well done roll in the previous show, "9 to 5," I'd seen here.
In the pic above, snagged from the write up about the show in the online version of the local rag here in town, Freddy is conning $20 from a kindhearted lady while in the dining car of a train. (Yeah, set design is rather, um, unimaginative here.) Well, that being just about what my ticket for this show cost, I feel like I was the one who was really conned.