HILARIOUS, entertaining and a good night out – Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at The Dolman Theatre, Newport, pulled out all the stops to make sure this musical was a success.

Following the story of two con men, Lawrence Jameson (Mark Cooper) and Freddy Benson (Joe Whittington) compete at who can be the most successful swindler.  

I’ve seen this as a stage show a few times and New Venture Players captured the humour and the mischievous nature of the con men perfectively.

Both Lawrence and Freddy worked well together, bouncing off each other’s comments and creating numerous comical acts. The scene where Freddy poses as Lawrence’s repulsive brother Ruprecht is particularly hysterical and there are several cheeky scenes that had the audience react like naughty school children.

When these con men are ‘working the room’ there are several women they try to take advantage of such as Muriel Eubanks (Georgia Tasker-Davies), Jolene Oakes (Rebecca Evans) and finally Christine Colgate (Mia Goddard). All these women played their eccentric characters well and their singing was fantastic!

Inspector Andre Thibault (Huw Brettell) must also be mentioned for his relations with Muriel; their passionate relationship only added to the amusement of the show.

The hard work put into this production was obvious with a range of sets, glamorous dance scenes, clever songs and high quality acting.

The show continues until Saturday and I would definitely recommend it.