Newfield High School’s drama department took us to the French Riviera last week with its production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. The first night of the show was on Thursday, March 15, 2018. Mr. Sullivan of Newfield High School hosts the annual event for the senior citizens in the community in a night referred to as “Senior Citizen’s Dinner.” After the show is over, the senior citizens go to the gymnasium. There, they are greeted by student volunteers from Newfield High School’s G.O. and are served food and beverages. The night closes off with dancing and volunteers, and senior citizens alike are seen dancing together.

Spoiler Alert!

The underlying themes present throughout the musical are manipulation and deceit. Lawrence Jameson and Freddy Benson are two lead characters that make their livings by conning women out of their money. Lawrence cons wealthy women out of their money and Freddy uses false stories of an ill grandmother to deceive women into giving him money. Lawrence and his assistant, Andre, set up a scam that targets wealthy women who want to escape from boredom and reality. Multiple women fall victim to this scam throughout the musical, including Muriel Eubanks and Miss Jolene Oaks of Oklahoma. 

Freddy and Lawrence meet on a train and later on agree at a hotel that the French Riviera is too small for both of them to work together; instead, they agree that the first man to swindle $50,000 from Christine Colgate will stay in the town. Freddy meets Christine Colgate at the casino and uses a wheelchair to suit his facade as a disabled US Army officer. Christine and Freddy bond and he tells her that he has no money to pay for the cure by specialist Dr. Emil Schaffhausen. Christine is intrigued and offers to cover the specialist’s cost, $50,000. She is able to get the Doctor to travel to the French Riviera from Vienna, who turns out to be Lawrence. Freddy is shocked and realizes that Lawrence is trying to get the $50,000 from Christine Colgate as well. In the process of swindling money from these women, these men fall to the curse of love. Andre falls in love with Muriel Eubanks, one of the victims of the scam established by him and Lawrence. Lawrence falls in love with Christine Colgate, which proves to cause the fall of the scam. Christine pretends to fall in love with both Freddy and Lawrence and is able to get Lawrence to give her $50,000 in cash when she accuses Freddy of taking all her money. Freddy, Lawrence, and Andre discover that Christine is the Jackal and end up becoming the victims of swindling. The show ends with Freddy and Lawrence being met by Christine and a group of wealthy tourists. All ends well when they agree to con the wealthy tourists together.

What the majority of the audience that views the productions put on by Newfield High School don’t understand is the sheer amount of work put into making the show possible. Most people involved in the show begin working in early December. The cast, stage crew, tech crew, costumes and props, publicity crew, and pit orchestra put countless hours of work into perfecting lines, singing, set pieces, costumes, lighting, sounds, and music. Although the musical is entirely run by the students on the night of the show, it would not be made possible without the expertise and dedication of Mrs. Hahn, Mrs. Adams, Ms. Schaarschmidt, Dr. Goldstein, Mr. Adams, Ms. Maffia, and Mr. Austin. Congratulations to all involved in the show, and A job well done!