'Dirty Rotten' fun with the Strivelli Players

By Meredith Deliso

This show is dirty rotten fun.

The Strivelli Players bring the laugh-a-minute, Tony Award-winning musical “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” to Gravesend this month in a production that might make you forget the winning movie of the same name.

“I love this show — it’s incredibly funny, the music is fabulous, and the lyrics are so clever,” said the Dyker Heights-based director Danielle Giovinazzi, who loved the show so much, she saw it twice on Broadway. “It’s joke after joke, funny line after funny line.”

The scoundrels in question are two con men working the wealthy women visiting the French Riviera. One, Lawrence Jameson (played by Alex Amarosa, right), is a seasoned, sophisticated swindler, the other, Freddy Benson (Steve Velardi, left), an amateur who asks Jameson to show him the way. The town isn’t big enough for the two of them, though, and madcap, wildly funny drama ensues when the two try to out-con each other.

“It’s not ‘Hamlet,’ and it doesn’t have a big social message. I just want to make people laugh,” said Giovinazzi.

“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” at The Block Theatre [376 Bay 44th St. near Shore Parkway in Gravesend, (347) 492-0534], Fridays and Saturdays, May 6-21, 8 pm. Tickets, $20. For info, visit strivelliplayers.com.

Photo by Tom Callan