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| Samantha Bond |
Samantha Bond and John Marquez are currently starring in one of this year’s most highly anticipated musicals, the UK premiere of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The production is currently playing to regional audiences prior to its West End opening in April.
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, which also stars Robert Lindsay, Rufus Hound and Katherine Kingsley, is the inaugural production for Jerry Mitchell Productions. The show is based on the legendary 1988 film which famously starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin. The musical premiered on Broadway in 2005 but has since been reconceived and reimagined for British audiences.
Samantha Bond plays Muriel Eubanks, a glamorous divorcee looking for love in Beaumont-sur-Mer on the French Riviera opposite John Marquez who plays Andre Thibault, Beaumont-sur-Mer’s Chief of Police.
Samantha is best known on screen for playing Lady Rosamund Painswick in Downton Abbey, Auntie Angela in Outnumbered and Miss Moneypenny in Bond films: Goldeneye, The World is Not Enough, Tomorrow Never Dies and Die Another Day alongside Pierce Brosnan. She has also worked extensively on stage with her most notable stage credits including: What the Butler Saw and An Ideal Husband (Vaudeville), Arcadia (Duke of York’s) and Amy’s View (National Theatre/West End/Broadway) for which she received a Tony Award nomination.
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| John Marquez |
Recently I sat down with the two performers to discuss their involvement in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Samantha, who is making her musical theatre debut, told me how excited she is about the production, “I think we are all really excited! I haven’t done a musical before, there’s part of me that feels like I’m on a roller-coaster, but the whole production is surrounded by the must wonderful cast, a fantastic ensemble, a brilliant director and the design is amazing! The quality of everything makes you feel like you’re in a very special place.”
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is directed and choreographed by the legendary Jerry Mitchell, who is behind the likes of Legally Blonde and Kinky Boots. But what is Jerry like to work with? “He makes the rehearsal room feel like a very creative place to be” Samantha explained. John added “The one thing I look for in rehearsals is discipline but with the ability to have some humour, you go too far in either one of those and I’m going to have a bad time. Jerry has the perfect balance, he very rarely has to raise his voice or say “can you stop doing that” but at the same time everybody knows that he’s not going to be cross if you have a bit of a laugh at something. For me he has the perfect way of working.”
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is following Broadway tradition by having out-of-town tryouts in Manchester and Aylesbury before opening in the West End. However, neither John nor Samantha is treating the regional runs as a tryout. “I wouldn’t know how to try out a show” John told me, “Even if there is just one person watching the performer in me is going to do it as well as I possibly can. But I don’t think I have ever done a piece where the show hasn’t changed slightly after opening.”
Samantha Bond and John Marquez rehearsing for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
Samantha added, “I’m not viewing it as a tryout either; I love Manchester, I’ve played it several times and have also filmed there and they are a great audience which is nice at the beginning. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is not a show you can perform half-heartedly, it is full-on and in your face!” The actress is loving every second of being back on stage after starring alongside Zoë Wanamaker in Passion Play last year, although she enjoys being able to work both on stage and screen. “It’s a huge, huge privilege to be able to cross between different mediums and in a funny way they seem to feed each other” Samantha explained, “Theatre is so thrilling because it’s live and it’s different each night and no audience is the same.”
Whilst Dirty Rotten Scoundrels doesn’t officially open in the West End until the beginning of April, there is already a great deal of hype and excitement surrounding the show. “When we started the press junket I realised that I haven’t done anything on this scale since I did James Bond!” Samantha revealed, “I’ve never experienced anything like this for a straight play, and I know Alexander Hanson, my husband, who does lots of musicals (and is currently playing the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Stephen Ward), has never done anything on this scale either. I think it’s down to Jerry Mitchell and his attitude of ‘get it out there, let them see it’!”
Interviewed by Andrew Tomlins (Editor)
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels opens at the Savoy Theatre on Wednesday 2nd April 2014 (previews from 10th March). Click here to book tickets. The musical also runs at the Manchester Opera House until this Saturday (22nd February) and Aylesbury Waterside Theatre from 26th February until 1st March.
Photo Credit: Helen Maybanks
Photo Credit: Helen Maybanks
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