Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is based on the ridiculous 1980s movie of the same name where two con men work with each other, then work against each other, get a monkey boy involved, and eventually get beat at their own game by a better con artist than themselves. The musical, which came out in 2005-ish, isn’t the hugest hit, perhaps because the pacing of the plot is a bit odd: the main mark and yet-unknown opponent Christine Colgate (here played by Sarah Fleming Walker) doesn’t show up until the play is nearly halfway over, so the rest of the show has to rush to a conclusion. But it’s still a good time, and the songs are catchy. Austin Playhouse has mounted it on their fairly small stage at University Baptist Church, and while many technical elements of the show are good quality, something about the overall performances left me listless.

As the main duo of Lawrence Jameson and Freddy Benson, Scott Shipman and Andrew Cannata are great for their roles; Shipman is steady and collected while Cannata whines, wheedles, and annoys his way around the stage. Cannata’s Freddy is heavy on physical comedy, and Shipman gets to play with a number of different accents depending on which con Lawrence is running. Fleming Walker has a beautiful voice, though I’m not sure it was right for the role, which seems written for a voice with a bit more belt than Fleming Walker’s soaring soprano. But her Christine is sweet, cute, and seemingly pure next to the two rogues out for her money.

My favorite folks on stage, though, were Huck Huckaby as Andre, Lawrence’s friend and local police chief, and Jennifer Jennings as Muriel, one of Lawrence’s wealthy recent marks. These two have incredible chemistry, both romantically and comedically. In the middle of a story full of people pretending to be someone else and taking advantage of one another, the B-plot of Andre and Muriel falling in love is a sweet and genuine one. I would have liked to hear Huckaby sing more, but AP has cut Andre’s song in the first act, “Chimp in a Suit”. I assume this was motivated mostly for timing reasons, as the musical is heavily weighted to the first act.

The choreography (Laura A. Walberg) and other ensemble movements are decent, but they’re also cramped; the ensemble does what they can with limited space. The show can’t not have an ensemble, so AP chose it knowing they’d have to crush a dozen dancing people, plus large set pieces, onto their stage. I saw no run-ins or accidents, so all were clearly well-rehearsed, if lacking some energy. This is especially noticed in some particular ending poses – the energy has to travel through your whole body! Poses are not static! In fact, the energy levels are my main bummer with this production: something about the whole thing felt more amateur than other Austin Playhouse shows I’ve seen. Was it opening night jitters? Tech week fatigue is an “out” I am willing to give community theaters; for self-proclaimed professional theater, I’m hesitant. Perhaps it’s just that the acoustics in University Baptist aren’t terribly forgiving and the combo band could have used one more element. I admit I seem to be mostly alone in my thoughts on this, as the rest of the audience hooted, hollered, and standing-ovated. It was fun! It just needed a lot more oomph.

At first, I thought the show had been set in the 1960s, as all of the costumes (Buffy Manners) and set design (Mike Toner) were very cute-mod-retro. But songs in the first act reference P. Diddy, Hummers, and “the Bushes of Texas”. I looked closer at the program: the show is set in a fictional city on the French Riviera “that embraces the glamour and sophistication of the 1960’s”, an explanation which seems to basically mean the design can be entirely 60s-based, even though the show isn’t set in the 60s. (But then a background flight attendant in one scene wore a TWA uniform?) Toner uses a giant screen as the backdrops for each scene – ugh. I suppose I should learn to accept them as basically the modern equivalent of a painted backdrop, and an easy way to add a hint of “grandeur” to a small stage. But still, I don’t think the projected backdrops need to say the name of the location of the scene. The rest of the set, action, and sound design (Robert S. Fisher) gave me enough clues to know we were at le casino or l’aeroport without the screens literally spelling it out for me.

But where set design, props design (Ismael Soto III), and most costumes were of excellent quality, there were also, unfortunately, the women’s ensemble costumes. I saw them in a promotional photo on AP’s social media before going and thought to myself: surely, those can’t be the finished costumes. But they were. Where the gents all wear matching striped tops and black pants, the ladies all are in shirts that, while striped, are all of totally different colors and styles, and colorful pedal pushers that are too big on many of them. In “fancy” scenes, they throw cheap-looking skirts around their waists, but keep the shirts. Compared to how clean the men’s ensemble look and how nice all lead characters are dressed, the women’s ensemble looks half-hearted and thrown together. Perhaps the costume budget ran out? I feel a bit bad for the girls (Ella Mia Carter, Lydia Margitzia, Erin Ryan – plus Carolyn O’Brien, who plays Jolene Oaks for the first several scenes, then joins the ensemble. Phew!).

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is an easy, breezy, just-right-for-springtime musical. Making a big musical fit a small stage is a challenge that requires a lot of re-thinking and restaging that I’m not sure director Laura Toner Haddock has fully developed, but the production is completely, passably fine. I may have seen a hard night, or maybe my legs were just restless. Austin Playhouse rounds up quite a bit of talent in all areas, and I fault no one for rounding out a season with an inoffensive crowd-pleaser.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels runs at Austin Playhouse at University Baptist Church through May 11. For tickets and more information, visit Austin Playhouse online.