How would you describe your characters in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels?
Old. I'm the elderly
who's done very well
reached the top of his game, getting slightly bored
wants a bit of chaos in his life
meets this guy on a train and thinks, I used to be like him
I want to be like him
but I want to smooth him up a bit, make him look a little better
thinking he's just conned someone for twenty quid
I'm conning them for millions
I'm thinking "that's the game, that's what it used to be like".
It's a bit like us as actors
you know, I've done a lot, he's not done so much
I sometimes get a bit jaded about my life, career;
don't get me wrong, great family,
but sometimes in this business you get a bit
oh, another job, here we go again...
but this for me was
like, this is going to be some fun
and it is turning out to be a lot of fun
and he's just having a ball
and it's just great watching him growing up
are I'm bringing the kid on here, so it's kinda life mirroring art
and art mirroring life
that's my character, now you...
I think you've hit it on the head my character
is a guy doing small-time grift
this guy is basically doing the same that he's doing
but on a grander, more professional scale
and he's so overwhelmed that he wants to learn at the feet of the master
I've never done an musical before this man's started in Me and My Girl and took it to
Broadway
so if you want that parallel, it's there in spades.
So how would you describe the show in maybe two or three words?
Great big stuff
Great big stuff, brilliant
perfect title, probably the alternative title
to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
You know, Jerry Mitchell is the director of this; he directed
Legally Blonde here that that people will be familiar with, but Kinky Boots in
the States has won like every prize going
it recouped its money in record time, nothing is ever made money back quicker
than Kinky Boots
and the reason for that is its packed. It's kill for a ticket stuff
and the guy who's capable of delivering that on Broadway and Legally Blonde in
this country
had seen Dirty Rotten Scoundrels in America
but knew it wasn't perfect and had
seen Robert; it wasn't Me and My Girl, wasn't it? And it's always been Jerry Mitchell's
lifelong dream to be able to get his hands on this guy and work with him
and so, I mean you know
this show when using Robert in it, it feels like it must have been written for him
it's spot on, and I think that's largely, you know, the way that Jerry's approached
the piece in terms of mapping Lawrence on to
you know what you could do and then
what's been probably less pleasant for you
you know more challenging is then really stretching this guy back to what he
was doing
30 years ago. The love story between Jerry Mitchell and Robert Lindsay is
one that like
Jerry always thought that if I get my hands on him, I'll make him do what he had to do in
Me and My Girl and fast foward 20 years and this guy is still pulling it out of the
bag.
You know, I I didn't really know what to expect but
you know you've seen that second number, well that's the second of
two dance routines that this guy performs back to back
and looks spotless doing,
so great big stuff is like the requirement of you
is to be able to do great big stuff, the requirement of the ensemble
is to do great big stuff, the orchestration is full of great big stuff,
the set is great big stuff. It's a
full-on, full-out class show
that at the same time should make you laugh your arse off!
With essentially a great story. You know that's the other thing
everyone keeps banging on about the movie, well the movie isn't important to us because this is a musical and
it's got the story, and the thing about Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,
what's the movie that Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is based on? Bedtime Stories.
Then all these Cannes films, from
Oceans 11 to whatever, people love a conman,
they loce a rogue, and there are two wonderful rogues, a successful one
One idiot one
a low-class one, an upper-class one; it's a class story
about class. But you see my character you see
was from his roots, he was a lad
once upon a time who's gone like that,and of course our business is full of stores like that.
Yeah, the other weird thing I think about this is all the people all the British
people I know
who saw the show on Broadway
couldn't have loved it more, and my
hunch is that even though it ran on Broadway for I think
about three years, it wasn't loved
there wasn't you know there was lots of great stuff about it but it wasn't
adored
and I think that the reversion, the tightening and the rewrites that have come in
we are absolutely on track to deliver something
you know that is so perfect
for people who love a good West End musical
this you know if you love the West End musical this isn't a good West End musical,
this is an unbelievable good West End musical. And I think
if that's you
bag, then you'd be foolish to miss this one really, and
Katherine Kingsley's legs. Oh, hi Katherine!
It's on at the Savoy Theatre, is it a venue you like playing?
This man has played here
I did a year as Richard III
at the Savoy in 1999,
2000
a bit of a different return!
Although King Richard does make a brief appearance
in our show.
Yeah, and I've got the hump!
Just lastly, what would you reccommend for first-time visitors London
to do?
The first thing to do when you arrive in London is to book a ticket
for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
On message! I stayed at hotel last night
in London and there was our poster
on the desk which I then spread
out as I was paying my bill.
Putting all the leaflets out...
I was standing there and people there...
The first thing you should do when you go to London is to go to the pub. Nowhere has
pubs like London, so sit in one of those and
try some proper London Pride or something like that.
Iit'll be the cheapest thing that you do while you're here, so enjoy it while it
lasts.