No. 37. “Here I Am”
DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (2005). By David Yazbek (music and lyrics) and Jeffrey Lane (book).
Spring 2005. You’re at Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a new musical based on a Steve Martin movie you’ve been meaning to watch. To be honest, the main reason you’re here is to see Sherie Rene Scott and Norbert Leo Butz reunite after they starred in Jason Robert Brown’s The Last Five Years back in 2000. The show opens on the French Riviera and boasts a bright jazzy score with genuinely funny lyrics by David Yazbek. You meet Lawrence Jameson, a refined con-man (John Lithgow) who is on the lookout for a mysterious, more infamous con-man known only as “The Jackal.” Lawrence comes across a course American con-man named Freddy (Norbert Leo Butz), deduces Freddy is The Jackal, and initiates a guarded partnership between the two. They join forces with a hilarious scheme that has Freddy posing as Lawrence’s deranged brother to fend off one of Lawrence’s past victims (who NOT Sherie Rene Scott—when does she show up?) As much as Freddy and Lawrence enjoyed their collab, they realize the Riviera’s con-man economy can only support one of them. They make a wager: they will select a target and whoever is the first to swindle her out of $50,000 gets to stay while the other will leave town. (Have they not seen Guys and Dolls or My Fair Lady? Don’t they know that making a bet on a woman in a musical never ends out like they think it will?) When they hear that a soap heiress, Christine Colgate is coming to town, they decide to make her their mark. A crowd gathers, humming and looking upstage in anticipation of Christine’s arrival, only for a woman in the crowd (Sherie Rene Scott, finally) to turn around and say, “oh, that’s me” before launching into an infectious and charming introductory number (“Here I Am” ).
It’s pretty difficult to write a song that is legitimately funny. Writing a song that one finds funny after listening to it for 20 years is almost unheard of. But that’s David Yazbek for you! How can you not be delighted by a lyric like this?:
I mean
The air is French
That chair is French
This nice sincere sancerre is French
The skies are French
The pies are French
Those guys are French
These fries are French!
David Yazbek made his Broadway debut in 2000 with The Full Monty. He came to the theater with a background writing for The Late Show with David Letterman, jingles, and music for children’s tv. His first theatrical score kept pace with the laughs from the source material while also mining it for emotionally satisfying material. While the follow-up, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels wasn’t as critically successful (and ran about half as long), it proved Monty wasn’t a one-off fluke and established Yazbek as Broadway’s funniest composer. He has proved surprisingly prolific as well with four subsequent eclectic projects including the ambitious-but-flawed Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the deeply felt The Band’s Visit, Tootsie, and the recent musical about a corpse, Dead Outlaw. He also co-produced Buena Vista Social Cluband was a producer on its cast recording.
Recommended Recording: ”Here I Am,” Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (2005 Original Broadway Cast)
Sherie Rene Scott is a national treasure. Her bright, seemingly indestructible belt is paired with clinical precision and an uncanny deadpan delivery that I find endlessly amusing. Listen to how deftly she handles the lyric with perfect vocal placement. While …Scoundrels marked a reunion for Scott and Norbert Leo Butz, long simmering tensions between them came to a head during the production, and they didn’t really appear onstage together after it until they created a show about their fallout called Twohander which played at 54 Below in 2019 and should be on Broadway (or anywhere) right now.
Alternate Performances
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels has only received one other cast recording—a 2008 Mexican Cast, starring Eugenio Derbez. It apparently was only sold at the theater and isn’t available digitally.
Is it Covered by The Rat Pack, Audra McDonald, or Glee?
Audra McDonald, Glee, and David Yazbek all competed against each other at the Grammy’s this past weekend for their contributions in the Best Musical Theater Album category. Audra was nominated for Gypsy, Gleeks Jonathan Groff and Darren Criss were nominated for Just in Time and Maybe Happy Ending respectively, and Yazbek was nominated for Buena Vista Social Club. (Also, Just in Time, a Bobby Darrin jukebox musical, has big Rat Pack energy. I’m just sayin’.) Buena Vista… won..
In the Wings
Before I leave you to fend for yourselves as you await the release of song no. 38, it’s vitally important that you know David Yazbek wrote the theme song to Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?. If you don’t know what that is, stop what you are doing and listen to it right now.
Catch up with all the songs to date!
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