'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

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Hit the 'Town'

By Vera Zukelman

A runaway princess, a talking donkey, a singing rooster, and music-loving cat and dog are coming to the Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts — and, no, it’s not some knock-off production of “Shrek.”

It’s “The Bremen Town Musicians,” a candy-colored, Broadway-style musical based on the Brothers Grimm fairy tale which is coming to America after an acclaimed overseas run.

The story follows a band of animals that shares a dream of becoming musicians in the city of Bremen. Along the way, the fauna meet a wandering musician and a runaway princess, face bad guys and ultimately learn about the importance of love, friendship, team-work and following ones dreams.

The production is in Russian with no English subtitles — but that’s the point.

“We wanted to bring something bright to the Russian community in New York,” said promoter Anton Krylov. “The musical is for families that don’t want to lose their cultural ties. People remember the original movie and it’s great for the new generation of children to become familiar with one of the most famous Russian cartoons of all time.”

“The Bremen Town Musicians” at Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts [2900 Campus Rd. at Hillel Place in Flatbush, (718) 951-4500], Jan. 21 at 7 pm and Jan. 22 at noon and 6 pm. $25-75. For info, visit www.brooklyncenter.com.

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Grimm tale for grown-ups

By Meredith Deliso

This is musical theater for people who don’t like musical theater.

In a new production based on the classic Brothers Grimm fairy tale, “Hansel and Gretel,” the German siblings get a modern American retelling, with an indie rock score and Lynchian film and dance.

“Neither one of us likes musical theater that much,” said Carly Howard, who runs Sparrowtree Theatre Company with her husband, Chad. “It’s different musical theater — there’s dance in it, the film sections are more scary, and influenced by David Lynch and Tim Burton.”

The production, which opens Sept. 16, follows Hansel and Gretel years after they’ve left childhood and are coping with their unusual childhood. (For those of you who are a little foggy on your fairy tales, the two titular siblings are abandoned by their stepmother in the woods during a famine, only to be “rescued” by a cannibalistic witch before escaping, returning to their father and living “happily ever after.”)

Things aren’t so happily ever after in the Howards’ reimagining, which begins with the siblings returning home for their father’s funeral and having to confront their past.

“They had a really traumatic childhood if you really think about what happened to them,” said Carly, who stars as Gretel. “We’re seeing how they’re still haunted by this witch figure that was in their lives.”

Carly also wrote the music for the production.

“My favorite singer songwriter is Beirut, I was really inspired by the instruments he uses in his songs,” said Carly, who’s recruited a band comprised of a glockenspiel, tambourine, accordion, cello and guitar to play her music. “That’s the feeling I really wanted for this show — a traveling, Eastern European feel.”

Revisiting the fairy tale as grown-ups themselves, the husband-wife pair also look to delve deeper into the story’s themes.

“One of the biggest themes is the difference between what you want to come true and what actually does come true,” said Chad, who’s directing. “As kids, you have the whole world imagined, that everything’s going to turn out for the best.”

Here, though, things are decidedly more Grimm. As they should be.

“Hansel & Gretel” at 17 Frost (17 Frost St. at Union Avenue in Williamsburg, no phone), Sept. 16-25, Thursday-Sunday at 8 pm. Tickets $15. For info, visit www.hauntedandhunted.com.

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