Butz Will Partner With Rocky Horror Vet for Dirty Rotten Tour

By Kenneth Jones
09 Jun 2006

Norbert Leo Butz in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.
Norbert Leo Butz in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.

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.