THEATER REVIEW:

Nearly 20 years ago, Michael Caine and Steve Martin teamed up to play rival con men on the Riviera in the movie “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.” A few years ago, an even-earlier flick hit the big time on Broadway when “The Producers” won every award in sight.

Reasoning that if Mel Brooks can do it, why can’t we, Jeffrey Lane (book and music) and David Yazbek (lyrics) turned the film by Dale Launer, Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning into a Broadway show, pushing the farcical pedal to the metal.

The result, now on view at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, is a musical comedy with the accent on “comedy,” with the considerable bonus of the presence of Norbert Leo Butz — who recreates his Tony Award-winning Broadway performance as the rougher-edged member of the crafty con artists.

Butz, playing the hayseed amateur to Tom Hewitt’s polished professional, is, quite simply, the funniest actor you’ll see on the center’s stage this year, or quite possibly any other. Imagine one person combining the funniest qualities of Robin Williams and Jim Carrey and you’ve got a pretty good start toward Butz.

In one extended scene, during which Hewitt tries to extract himself from an Oklahoma cowgirl (Jenifer Foote) who’s trying to lasso him for good, Butz is outrageously funny as the seriously wacko family black sheep. The sequence has the effect of priming the audience to expect some truly egregious moments whenever Butz appears — and the actor does not disappoint.

Lesser performers would be thoroughly obscured by such a display, but Hewitt more than holds his own as a suave, conniving Henry Higgins to Butz’s rustic Eliza Doolittle, even pirating a line from “My Fair Lady” — “he’s so deliciously low.”

The contrast between these two grifters is what makes director Jack O’Brien’s production soar, particularly when Hewitt goes on the offensive as a pseudo physician in the second act.

As a further bonus, the show spotlights a superlative Jenifer Foote — known as Jeny when she was a member of UC Irvine’s class of 2000 — as the aforementioned hilarious hillbilly. Foote also comes from the original cast, in which she reportedly was the vacation swing for every woman in the show, and nails the role of the Oklahoma cutie but good.

The comely target for the larcenous partners/rivals is Laura Marie Duncan, a “soap queen” from the States whose reputed fortune attracts both men and whose physical attributes then melt their hearts. Duncan is terrific in a role that requires a surprisingly wide range of talent.

Drew McVety as Hewitt’s assistant, and Hollis Resnik, playing an earlier “mark,” have a delicious subplot as tentative romantics — and excel in their demanding mission to maintain the audience’s interest when neither Hewitt nor Butz is on stage. Their duet, “Like Zis/Like Zat,” punctuates a scene punctured with puns.

Musically, the accent also is on comedy, most notably in Butz’s whopping paean to avarice, “Great Big Stuff,” and the “Dirty Rotten Number” involving the two stars near the show’s conclusion. Regarding the latter, playwright Lane may be guilty of writing past the climactic point as the show slogs on beyond its logical windup.

“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” was a funny movie, but it’s an outrageously hilarious stage production, with the inimitable Butz demonstrating what it takes to win a Tony.