Dirty Rotten Scoundrels is a Broadway musical, with music and lyrics by David Yazbek and a book by Jeffrey Lane; it is based on the film of the same name. John Lithgow, Norbert Leo Butz, and Sherie Rene Scott played the lead roles at opening, with Joanna Gleason and Gregory Jbara also receiving above-the-title billing. The show premiered in San Diego, California on September 22, 2004, before moving to Broadway in January 2005 and officially opening in March at the Imperial Theatre.

The show closed on Broadway on September 3, 2006 with a total of 666 performances. The Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: Original Broadway Cast Recording CD was recorded on March 14, 2005 at Right Track Studio in New York City and was released on May 10, 2005 by Ghostlight Records (an imprint of Sh-K-Boom Records). A North American national Equity tour launched on August 4, 2006 with Tony Award-winner Norbert Leo Butz reprising his role as Freddy, alongside Tom Hewitt as Lawrence.

The Equity tour wrapped on August 19, 2007. The 25-city non-Equity tour of the show, with Jamie Jackson as Lawrence and Doug Thompson as Freddy, debuted September 25, 2007 in Dayton, Ohio, with its final performance on March 23, 2008, in Memphis, Tennessee. International productions have opened in Tokyo, Mexico City, Madrid, Stuttgart, Seoul, Oslo, Stockholm, Tampere and productions are planned for Copenhagen, Reykjavik, and London.

The musical opens at a Casino near the French Riviera showing a con-artist, Lawrence Jameson, tricking wealthy women out of their money with his “bodyguard” Andre (Give Them What They Want). Andre warns Lawrence that a con-artist, known as “the Jackal”, is in the area. In a side story, one woman named Muriel (as well as other women) realizes that Lawrence is not who he says he is(What Was a Woman To Do).

While on a train, Lawrence watches an American named Freddy Benson swindle money out of a woman (although at much smaller amounts). Lawrence ends up bringing Freddy to his lavish mansion, where Freddy envies how Lawrence has made a living out of swindling. Then he talks of all the things he wants when he’s rich (Great Big Stuff).

Freddy asks Lawrence to “show [him] his ways.” Andre thinks Freddie is unworthy of Lawrence's attention, and compares Freddie to a "Chimp in a Suit". Lawrence doesn’t think much of it until Jolene Oakes, one of the women he is with, tells him that they are unexpectedly getting married and moving to Oklahoma (Oklahoma?), at which point Lawrence decides to use Freddy’s help. Freddy poses as Lawrence’s mentally challenged brother Ruprecht (All About Ruprecht).

When Jolene is introduced to him she calls off the wedding and breaks up with Lawrence. Lawrence begins to think that there isn’t enough room in town for the both of them. They make a deal: The first to get $50,000 out of a woman gets to stay in town, while the other has to leave the town (which is the perfect location for what they do).

Immediately after making the deal the arrival of “The American Soap Queen” (Christine Colgate) is announced (Here I Am). They simultaneously decide on her for the scam. Freddy creates an alias as a man paralyzed from the waist down.

She and Freddy become deep in conversation and he says there is a therapist (Dr. Shuffhausen) that can help him, but he doesn’t have the money ($50,000). Christine tells him hopefully "Nothing Is Too Wonderful To Be True".

She tells Freddy she has the money to pay for the therapist, as Freddy had hoped (The Miracle). She then tells him that Dr. Shuffhausen is at the hotel.

Freddy is shocked when he sees it is none other than Lawrence.

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