By Christopher Cappiello

The Troubies Salute the Doobies

It's a fine line between spoof and celebration, but the Troubadour Theater Company has built a reputation for breakneck-paced, ridiculously funny and outlandishly physical adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, always served with a heavy dollop of pop music from a prominent artist. With an 11-year history that includes Fleetwood Macbeth, The Comedy of Aerosmith, and Romeo Hall and Juliet Oates, the Troubies have kept audiences laughing and singing along to the Bard's plays with remarkable inventiveness.

In the Troubies' latest effort, this summer's Much Adoobie Brothers About Nothing, Shakespeare's perennially popular battle-of-the-sexes comedy gets a classic-rock makeover with the addition of songs from the 1970s funk-rock chart toppers. The Doobie Brothers' impressive list of songs we all know includes “Listen to the Music,” “Takin' it to the Streets,” “China Grove,” “Black Water” ("I want to hear some funky Dixieland, pretty mama come and take me by the hand."), and “Long Train Runnin'” (“Without love, where would you be now?”). Whether you know the titles or just the refrains, expect most of them to pop up somewhere in this madcap adaptation of the rocky relationship between Beatrice and Benedick.

Much Adoobie Brothers is directed by Troubadour founder Matt Walker, who left a highly successful television career in the '90s to accept a full scholarship to Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College. He subsequently gathered a gang of actors interested in physical, improvisational comedy and started the Troubadour Theater Company.

Much Adoobie Brothers About Nothing runs Aug. 10-Sept. 10 at the Miles Memorial Playhouse, 1130 Lincoln Blvd., in Santa Monica. For tickets and information, call (310) 979-7196 or visit www.Troubie.com.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels Sneak into Pantages

The latest visitor in the Broadway L.A. series of touring musicals at the Pantages Theatre is Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, the 2005 stage adaptation of the 1988 film about a pair of con artists battling for turf on the French Riviera. Unlike the decidedly second-string casts that sometimes come to town with touring productions, Scoundrels comes with its Tony-winning leading man, Norbert Leo Butz, who was performing in the Broadway production until mid-July. Butz beat out co-star John Lithgow for his award, which was the only Tony the show took home in spite of 11 nominations.

Like the famed Michael Caine/Steve Martin film, the musical centers on two polar-opposite con men working the same ritzy town: Lawrence, the more stylish and sophisticated of the two, who uses his suave ways to con rich women, and Freddy (Butz), a small-town crook who uses fake stories of his grandmother's poor health to squeeze money out of unsuspecting broads.

In a “this town isn't big enough for the two of us” showdown, the two men agree that the first one to trick a local woman out of 50Gs gets to stay in town and the other has to disappear.

With an upbeat pop musical score from David Yazbek (The Full Monty), Scoundrels is directed by Jack O'Brien, longtime artistic director of San Diego's Old Globe, where the show premiered before its Broadway run.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is at the Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., in Hollywood, from Aug. 15-27. For tickets and more information, visit www.BroadwayLA.org.