Entertainment :: Theatre
Laura Marie Duncan Gets ’Dirty’ by Robert Nesti
EDGE National Arts & Entertainment EditorThursday Mar 1, 2007When Laura Marie Duncan takes to the Opera House stage next week, it will be a homecoming-of-sorts for the musical theater performer. 12 years ago she graduated from the Boston Conservatory of Music, and now she’s has the female lead role in the national company of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the 2004 Broadway hit, where she plays sexy heiress Christine Colgate who is hit on by two con men. (If the title sounds familiar, it is because of the 1988 film comedy that starred Michael Caine and Steve Martin as a pair of swindlers on the French Riviera.)
"It will be exciting to go to a place where I know how to get around," she explained from Providence where the tour is completing a week long run prior to coming to Boston. "I know how to ride the T."
Scoundrels is the first national tour for the New York-based actress, something she’s avoided since moving to the city upon graduation from the Conservatory. "I don’t know why I haven’t tour before this," she explained. "Most of my peers had in their younger days, but I guess I was married for awhile, and it just didn’t seem like something that was practical. But this was such a good opportunity because I understudied this part with the Broadway company (she understudied Sherie René Scott who originated the role of Colgate), and felt so lucky to have been offered it. So I decided to take advantage of the offer. And I love it. There are some hard things about it. Of course it’s hard to live in a hotel every week and not to have your stuff. It’s a good lesson in managing your ’stuff’ and paring down your life. You live out of two suitcases and you come to realize how little you miss the stuff if you don’t have it."
What’s been unique about Duncan’s experience with the show is that she’s been with it from when it tried out at San Diego’s Old Globe Theatre in September 2004. From there it moved to Broadway the following March where it ran until last September, racking up 666 performances. "It’s my second time doing a Broadway show from the very beginning (her first was The Full Monty). And it is an invaluable experience in terms of getting to see how a show happens from scratch. It changes so much. I feel so fortunate to actually done it with John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz (who played the disparate con men Lawrence Jameson and Freddy Benson in the original company) on Broadway, and then with Norbert a few months on the tour. D.B. Bonds is playing Freddy now - he’s different than Norbert, but fantastic. And we are so lucky to have Tom Hewitt. A. because he’s dreamy, and B. because he’s so right for this part. I’ve so lucked out in getting this part. The casting gods must have been smiling when they cast this tour."
In fact she had played the role so often (some 40-50 times) during the Broadway run that when she came to rehearse for the road, she was already ahead of the game. "Tom would say to me he couldn’t believe I was so comfortable with the role already while we were in rehearsals," she recalled with a laugh. "And I would say, I’ve been rehearsing for two years."
One thing she really didn’t want to talk about was her character, largely because to do so might ruin the element of surprise that’s so crucial to the show’s enjoyment. "I really think if you haven’t seen the movie it is best not to see it before you come. I have had people ask me that because sometimes shows can be easier to understand if you see the source material. But this one has so many surprises in it that it’s best to be clueless. But it’s just as enjoyable if you’ve seen the movie or not, but for different reasons."
What she will say about Christine is that she loves how multi-faceted she is (something she feels is unusual for female characters in musicals today). "I also love being able to play a role that vocally stretches my abilities so much. David Yazbek writes these incredibly varied scores - there are so many different styles of music in the score. When I look at the big numbers I do, they show something completely different about my voice, which is really unusual. And I think the script (by Jeffrey Lane) is incredibly smart and clever. I often feel with musicals you either get one or the other - the music is really great or the book is really great; but to have both, is really lucky."
Scoundrels also marks Duncan’s second association with Yazbek, the Broadway composer/lyricist with strong pop/jazz roots. She had previously been a member of ensemble for The Full Monty, Yazbek’s first hit that boasted a strong pop-influenced score. Bit with Scoundrels she feels he’s achieved something quite different. "David Yazbeck is a very contemporary composer -, but I think he’s written a classic musical with this score. His favorite musical is Guys and Dolls. He has some great pop albums to his credit. It’s funny I think he’s such a rock-popper, but the way he translates that into musical theater is groundbreaking. It is where musicals should be going in a lot of ways. It’s wonderful to have a contemporary voice that pays homage to classic musicals in the way that he does here."
"That’s funny because Law and Order is on all the time, but I’ve never had that happen. I’ve had people come up to me after a show and say, I saw you on Law and Order today. And I’d say, great. I’ll be getting a check fo The tour continues through the middle of August, at which time she plans on returning to New York to begin looking for work again. "This has changed my life a little bit. It’s going to be interesting, I was talking to my producer yesterday. When it gets done, I would have been with this show for three years, and that’s unusual. It’s such a coveted position, and I’m so incredibly lucky. But at the same I’ve been out of the loop for a while. And this is my first role of this magnitude, so for me it has changed what I’ll be auditioning for. I’m excited. But you live a real sheltered life on tour. It’s fun being out here just doing my thing, but it’s going to be a challenge going back to New York. But I love New York, I didn’t at first - but I love it now."
Returning to Boston also presents her with the opportunity to visit old friends, classmates, and teachers from her Conservatory days (that’s if she can fit in into her busy performing schedule). But sentiment aside, does she think her education at the school prepared her for the rigors of a musical theater career?
"Definitely. I could not have auditioned in New York without my Conservatory training. You basically practice auditioning every day, and in my case that was every day for three years. And the intensity of it - we’d start at 8 in the morning and work well into the night. It’s hard work, this crazy thing that we do. I think that my teachers were great, and I know this sounds like I’m making this up, but I think the Conservatory is a fantastic school. I think it teaches its students to be individuals - I think they try to nurture people into the various niches that are available, and there are a lot of niches available. And everyone is really different. If you’re talented you can be a character person, you can be an ingénue, you can do commercial work - there are many things that people can do in this business and I think the Conservatory helps them find exactly what that is."
Of course being a working New York actress means that at one point she has been featured in an episode of Law and Order. She’s done two - one for the flagship program, and another for SVU.
"Yes," she said laughing. "Isn’t that part of the rite of passage for a New York actress? Everyone gets on eventually if they can get in for an audition. I had to audition 11 times before I got one! Those shows are a life-saver for New York actors, and now there are three of them. I hope they last forever."
Has she seen herself on the show in one of its numerous reruns while on the tour?
"I know," she said, "Law and Order is on all the time, but I’ve never had that happen. I’ve had people come up to me after a show and say, I saw you on Law and Order today. And I’d say, great. I’ll be getting a check for that. And one time when I was doing this show on Broadway, the crew was watching Law and Order backstage, and one of them came to me and said, we’re watching you on television right now. Now that was funny."
Robert Nesti can be reached at rnesti@edgepublications.com.
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