Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Has a New Grifter, and He's Good at Engineering a Con

By Kenneth Jones
20 Nov 2005

Jonathan Pryce, a Tony Award winner for Miss Saigon, will take over as the more refined of two grifters in Broadway's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the producers announced Nov. 20.

Pryce, John Lithgow's castmate in Broadway's Comedians, will assume the Lithgow-created musical role of Lawrence Jameson in the Tony Award-nominated Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Jan. 17, 2006. His partner in crime will be Norbert Leo Butz, a Tony winner for his turn as rough-hewn Freddy, who spars and competes with Lawrence. Butz recently extended his contract to July 2006. Lithgow, Tony nominated for the musical, exits the Imperial Theatre Jan. 15.

Co-stars in the Jeffrey Lane-David Yazbek show remain Sherie Rene Scott, Joanna Gleason, Gregory Jbara and Sara Gettelfinger.

Producer Marty Bell said in a statement, "Jonathan Pryce is one of the most talented and versatile leading men on stage and screen. We are thrilled to be welcoming him back to Broadway after almost 15 years. This con is a pro!"

Jonathan Pryce won the Best Actor (Musical) Tony Award for his starring role as the status-starved, capitalism-crazed schemer, the Engineer, in Miss Saigon. For his Broadway debut in Comedians (1977), he received the Tony Award and Theatre World Award.

Pryce's film credits include Terry Gilliam's "Brazil" and "The Adventures of Baron von Munchausen," "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Tomorrow Never Dies," "Evita," "Carrington" (Cannes Film Festival Best Actor Award) and "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl." He is currently filming the sequels to "Pirates."

Pryce's discussions about joining joining Dirty Rotten had been reported about in recent weeks.