MICHAEL Praed once robbed the rich to pay the poor as a TV Robin Hood but in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels he is doing it all for himself.

He plays a French Riviera conman in this fun, glitzy and occasionally, enjoyably, ribald adaptation of the Michael Caine/Steve Martin big screen comedy.

Praed's debonair English gent makes a living pretending to be exiled royalty trying to fund a revolution in his tiny European principality. This fantasy sets the pulses of rich and romance-hungry widows racing and enables him access to their bank accounts – usually via their underwear.

He is aided and abetted by local police chief Mark Benton, whose contacts provide the the endless parade of lonely but well-funded holidaymakers.

But their cosy set-up is threatened by the arrival of a crass American con artist, played by former Hear'Say pop warbler Noel Sullivan, who wants a piece of the action.

After being forced to enlist his help in fending off one an over-keen target who is hell-bent on marriage, the two team up. But they find themselves in conflict, with each other as well as their own motives, when irresistable target Carley Stenson arrives at the resort.

Jerry Mitchell's lively production, based on Jeffrey Lane's original book but faithful to the film, zips through the story with plenty of the big screen version's familiar set-pieces.

Praed is a little stiff as the lead at first but warms to the role as the show progresses. He demonstrates great comic timing and a decent singing voice.

Sullivan is an excellent foil to Praed's English gent with his gutter manners and naked ambition left exposed without the veneer of his partner's veneer of sophistication.

Benton steals the second half of the show as the hapless Clouseau-esqe copper. It always makes a show more enjoyable when the cast appear to be having a good time and when he gurns into the faces of Praed and Sullivan you can see them struggling to keep a straight face.

The first half was stolen by a knockabout song and dance number from Phoebe Coupe as the rootin' tootin' serial widow woman from Oklahoma, whose threat of marriage prompts the show's standout Ruprecht sequence everyone will remember from the film. It's the point at which the show really takes off.

Stenson as the love interest makes less of an impact but she has a great voice. The story's twist is let down a little by her somewhat one-dimensional portrayal.

The production is peppered by David Yazbek's songs. They are full of clever wordplay but that is sometimes hard to make out, either because of the pace of their delivery or the strength of the voice delivering them.

They are beautifully choreographed though by Mitchell, neatly executed by a versatile ensemble and backed by Ben Van Tienen's lively musical direction.

One final nod to Praed's improv skills. In the closing number he tips his head to dislodge his trilby, which he is then supposed to catch. He missed the catch but instead drop-kicked the hat and mercurially sent it spinning into the arms of Van Tienen in the orchestra pit. If he performed this show every night for the rest of his life I doubt he'd pull that off again. Or was that another con?

The show runs at the New Theatre, Oxford until Saturday. Box office: 0844 871 3020 or atgtickets.co,/oxford.