Kicking off its summer season of Broadway musicals, Peninsula Youth Theatre (PYT) presents the highly acclaimed film-turned musical comedy, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. This funny and irreverent production will be performed by a talented cast of teen actors at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts July 18 – 21.
Based on the popular 1988 MGM film, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels follows the hijinks of two con men — Freddy Benson (Ria Cuellar-Koh) and Lawrence Jamison (Theo Gardiner of Santa Clara) — who are each out to bilk heiresses on the French Riviera in their own way, and then become bitter rivals for the biggest catch of them all. Whichever one of them secures $50,000 from “American Soap Queen” Christine Colgate (Audrey Venable) will win their bet — but will a mysterious con man known as “The Jackal” ruin the game?
Sophisticated and suave, combined with a spicy dash of mischief, this hysterical comedy was nominated for 11 Tony Awards and features a delightfully jazzy score by David Yazbek (Tootsie, The Bands Visit, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown).
“Dirty Rotten is a fun challenge because the musical is usually a fully realized show with multiple sets and locations,” said Meg Fischer Venuti, the show’s Director and Choreographer. “Because we are performing this production in SecondStage, it will definitely be a unique and more intimate experience for the audience.
“Every single actor in this show plays more than one character,” continued Fischer Venuti. “So we’ve done a lot of work on physicality and specific character choices to show the difference between these characters. It has been really great, detailed acting work for the performers.”
Venuti added, “I’ve even had to teach myself two new forms of dance to choreograph this show — salsa and country clogging — in addition to standard Ballroom and Broadway jazz, which I’m already familiar with. There are a wide variety of elements in this production — humor, big Broadway dance numbers, touching moments, intrigue — there something for everyone.”
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels opens Thursday, July 18 at 7:30 p.m. The show runs through Sunday, July 21. All performances take place at The Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts SecondStage at 500 Castro St, Mountain View, CA.
Content is appropriate for teens and up. Ticket prices are $24 for adults, $20 for seniors (62+), $20 for students 18 and under. Tickets are available online at http://pytnet.org/boxoffice/dirty- rotten-scoundrels/#tickets or through the box office at (650) 903-6000.
Later this summer keep an eye out for PYT’s next production, Aladdin Jr., July 25 – 29.