The Official Tom Hewitt Page | home
Tom in Touring Cast of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Butz Will Partner With Rocky Horror Vet for Dirty Rotten Tour
By Kenneth Jones
09 Jun 2006
Tony Award winner Norbert Leo Butz and Tony nominee Tom Hewitt are expected to be announced as the con men who'll come to a theatre near you in the national tour of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Playbill.com learned that Butz, who won a 2005 Tony Award as Best Actor in a Musical, will again play scrappy grifter Freddy Benson when the tour launches Aug. 4 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle. Audiences have devoured his showy, voracious performance since Dirty Rotten's 2004 tryout in California. By spring 2005 he was rewarded with a Tony. He remains in the Broadway company.
Hewitt, who was Tony-nominated for The Rocky Horror Show, and starred in Dracula on Broadway in 2004-05, will take the role of suave con man Lawrence Jameson, originated by John Lithgow, then played by Jonathan Pryce (currently at Broadway's Imperial) and soon to be essayed in New York City by Keith Carradine.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels plays the Paramount Aug. 4-12. Dates have been announced throughout the country.
Casting for the touring production has not been officially announced.
The show by librettist Jeffrey Lane and composer-lyricist David Yazbek is based on the popular 1988 film and centers on two con men living on the French Riviera — suave and sophisticated Lawrence Jameson, who makes his lavish living by talking rich ladies out of their money, and small-time crook Freddy Benson, who swindles women by waking their compassion with fabricated stories about his grandmother's failing health. They agree the small French town isn't big enough for the two of them and make a bet: the first one to extract $50,000 from a young female target, heiress Christine Colgate, wins and the other must leave town.
As on Broadway, the production will be directed by two-time Tony Award winner Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Tony Award-winner Jerry Mitchell. The original design team of David Rockwell (sets), Gregg Barnes (costumes) and Kenneth Posner (lighting) will also be reunited for the tour.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels opened on Broadway on March 3, 2005, at the Imperial Theatre. The show won the 2005 Drama League Award as Best Musical, and was nominated for 11 Tony Awards.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is produced by Marty Bell, David Brown, Aldo Scrofani, Roy Furman, Dede Harris, Amanda Lipitz, Greg Smith, Ruth Hendel, Chase Mishkin, Barry Tatelman, Susan Tatelman, Debra Black, Sharon Karmazin, Joyce Schweickert, Bernie Abrams, Michael Speyer, Barbara Whitman, Weissberger Theater Group (Jay Harris, Producer), Cheryl Wiesenfeld, Jean Cheever, Clear Channel Entertainment and Harvey Weinstein; Produced in association with MGM On Stage.
The original, Grammy Award-nominated, cast recording is available on Ghostlight Records.
Visit www.dirtyrottenscoundrelsthemusical.com.
McVety, Resnik, Foote, Duncan Join Dirty Rotten Tour
By Kenneth Jones
26 Jun 2006
Full casting for the national tour of Broadway's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has been announced.
Joining the previously announced title actors Norbert Leo Butz as Freddy and Tom Hewitt (The Rocky Horror Show, Dracula) as Lawrence Jameson will be Drew McVety as accomplice Andre; Laura Marie Duncan as heiress Christine Colgate; Hollis Resnik (Mrs. Meers in the tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie) as Omaha divorcee Muriel; and Jenifer Foote as Oklahoma rich girl Jolene. Timothy Gulan will replace Butz in the role of Freddy beginning with the Columbus engagement.
The tour launches Aug. 4 at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle.
Butz, who won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his role of Freddy Benson in the Broadway production, will reprise the role for the first six cities of the national tour, including the Seattle, Los Angeles, Costa Mesa, Tempe, Houston and Dallas engagements.
The Tony Award-nominated musical comedy by librettist Jeffrey Lane and composer-lyricist David Yazbek is directed by Jack O'Brien and choreographed by Jerry Mitchell.
"Based on the popular 1988 MGM film, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels centers on two con men living on the French Riviera — the suave and sophisticated Lawrence Jameson, who makes his lavish living by talking rich ladies out of their money; and a small-time crook named Freddy Benson, who, more humbly, swindles women by waking their compassion with fabricated stories about his grandmother’s failing health," according to production notes. "After meeting on a train, they unsuccessfully attempt to work together only to find that this small French town isn’t big enough for the two of them. So they make a bet: the first one to swindle $50,000 from a young heiress, triumphs and the other must leave town. What follows are a series of schemes, masquerades and double-crosses in which nothing may ever be exactly what it seems."
The tour company also includes Todd Anderson, Tim Crasky, Beth Curry, Christopher DeAngelis, Ashley Blair, Christopher Freeman, Rod Harrelson, Danny Herman, Ken Krugman, Juliana Laufer, Emily Loftiss, Natalie Nucci, Martin Samuel, Kim Shriver, Sarrah Strimel, Francis Toumbakaris and Nicole Van Giesen.
|