Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Reviews- Page 5

[Hank]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 6:14pm

Another rave from NJ. This time from The Star Ledger (NJ.com). Michael Sommers quotes: "Give these gents a Tony Award and be done with it".

Margo, just to correct you, it's The Bergen Record, not the Register. Or as they now wish to be called, simply The Record, since the also cover Passaic County and portions of Morris.

[MargoChanning]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 6:23pm

Thanks for the correction. The website that review was from was NJ.com which I remembered was for the Bergen paper, but I couldn't remember the name.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 6:39pm

Sara Ramirez is anything but awful...she's great.

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 6:43pm

Well, I guess it had to happen SOMEWHERE.

VARIETY is scathing. Makes Brantley look like he's tossing bouquets.

The good news is that so few people will read it because YOU HAVE TO SUBSCIBE!

[PB ENT.]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:04pm

Thanks Margo & others. I'll be in town on business on the 30th and have tix for the matinee. Looking forward to it.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:12pm

I can't believe some of the negative reviews - especially Variety's, if it's really scathing. I will NEVER understand how in the end, a show like DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (which is the best musical of open this season so far) isn't made to look any better than GOOD VIBRATIONS, BROOKLYN, or DRACULA. I would have loved to read Variety's review of GV and BROOKLYN. It makes me so angry.

[InfiniteTheaterFrenzy]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:17pm

What are some of these reviewers thinking?????????????????????

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:26pm

I'd be most curious at what Peter Filicia & Michael Feingold have to say.

Whatever they think, it will be well written and reasoned, whether one agrees with them or not.

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:46pm

The true test is...

Is it selling tickets?

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:48pm

I hope word of mouth keeps this show going. I don't know anyone who didn't like it and leave the theatre raving, it's really a shame that reviewers can be so predictable.

[magruder]

Posted: 3/4/05 at 8:57pm

It got more good reviews than not, and in the long run, I don't think the Times or Daily News reviews will hurt it. I liked the show a lot, and the audience I saw it with seemed to eat it up.

[Expressboy69]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 3:21pm

It seems that it is getting great reviews! I mean every show gets some bad to mixed reviews, but most are good ones!

[GirlfriendFromCanada]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 3:43pm

I'm finding the reviews on this show interesting. I agree, mostly, so perhaps that's why I'm not up and arms. I think this thread was an interesting read, because many of the critics provided examples for why they thought what they thought, but because they weren't necessarily positive thoughts, they're getting second-guessed. In my opinion, the show, while good and entertaining, does match up to the comments it is getting for the most part. I'd certainly recommend it, but the weaknesses are being pointed out. As are the strengths. Which is one of the points of reviews in the first place. And through my more neutral reading of the reviews, I find a lot more of them mixed than positive. But that's just my intepretation.

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 3/5/05 at 5:43pm

I hope to God either DRS or Spelling Bee wins the Tony. I do not want Spamalot to win at all.

[JO125]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 2:48pm

Roma Torre of NY1 gave it a rave review.
http://www.ny1.com/Living/theater_reviews.html

[Brandon]

Posted: 3/6/05 at 4:01pm

I thought the show was wonderful

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 3/7/05 at 6:57am

Peter Felicia weighs in. He had a great time and enjoyed himself. He thinks the score is serviceable. Everybody's just fine in it.

But his main enthusiasms --- and two reasons he enjoyed himself so much -- are Butz and Gettelfinger.


Love Letter to Norbert & Sarah

[Broadway Matt]

Posted: 3/9/05 at 11:11am

"Even with so-what songs, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a fun night out with a terrific cast." - John Simon

I haven't seen this mentioned yet. After a few weeks of inactivity, the scourge of the critic's circle known as JOHN SIMON has spoken on the topic of DRS.

"Well, yes: a bit vulgar, a bit hokey, a bit for the tired businessman, but often funny, not infrequently clever, with a nice sprinkling of the outrageous—that’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Yet another musical based on a film, and not even an outstanding one, it works for the most part. Not for the obvious reasons, though."

In further surprising fashion, he writes an overly-complimentary love letter to the cast:

"And to gloriously top it all, there is the cast: the ever-so-elegantly rascally John Lithgow as Lawrence, the no less wonderfully inelegantly rascally Freddy of Norbert Leo Butz, and the smoothly corrupt and understatedly Gallic cop of Gregory Jbara."

He does have some problems with the music, but even manages in this case to convey it without saying anything horribly insulting. I actually agree with him when he says:

"The real problem is where it least should be in a musical: the music. Yazbek can compose patter songs slickly enough, but with ballads, he’s in trouble. He makes even them veer toward the comic, but not quite into melody. Indeed, there are no songs that transcend the serviceable into the memorable."

It is not a great review by regular standards. But by John Simon standards, he's essentially awarded them the Nobel Prize. The full review is at:
John Simon's Review

[MasterLcZ]

Posted: 3/9/05 at 1:03pm

Interesting, Matt...Feingold is likewise mixed (maybe leaning towards the negative).

But even as he notes the things that annoy him (he thinks the musical is an uneasy meld of 'old school' musical comedy structure and loud, MTV-musical style, describing it as "about half...is a very pleasant and not unwitty old-style musical that seems to have been blown up way out of proportion, while the other half is a crass, laborious earache.") he can point out where he thinks it goes wrong without bashing it, gives praise to the cast ("Both Lithgow and Butz are charming in their very different ways, as are Gregory Jbara and Joanna Gleason in secondary roles") and quite extravagantly raves over Yazbeck's lyrics (but not his music):

"And although David Yazbek's music is thin on melody, his lyrics are often truly wonderful, flamboyantly funny in a freewheeling way that's a big step forward from his work on The Full Monty. They're also contemporary in a more meaningful way than the show's heavy-breathing efforts to get down: Using old-style wit and versification while stepping over taste boundaries, they give the show a 2005 equivalent of the brashness that made '20s and '30s musicals feel so alive in their own time."

On second read, I think its more of an OK review than not.

Two-Faced Tuner