If you need a little extra pep in your step, look no further than the Hayes Theatre Co where its new production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is guaranteed to lift your spirits and send you home smiling.

Rowan Witt, Kristina McNarama and Blake Erickson in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. Photo © John McRae

The 2004 show with music and lyrics by David Yazbeck and book by Jeffrey Lane is a wonderfully old-fashioned, joyous piece of musical comedy – fast, irresistibly playful, laugh-out-loud funny and a delight from start to finish.

Last seen in Sydney in 2013, this staging may not quite match that stunning production, but it comes pretty close.

Based on the 1988 film starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is set in the French Riviera where two conmen with their sights set on wealthy women – the suave, sophisticated Lawrence Jameson and the younger, brasher Freddy Benson – compete to swindle $50,000 from a soap heiress called Christine Colgate. The loser must leave town.

Yazbeck’s deliciously witty songs are full of inventive rhymes (Oklahoma and melanoma, for one) and double entendres, combined with beguiling, catchy melodies that...