NO IF, ANDS, BUT PLENTY OF BUTZ ORIGINAL CAST MEMBER STICKING WITH `SCOUNDRELS'.

Byline: Evan Henerson Theater Writer

There are any number of plausible reasons why the Broadway musical ``Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'' should have arrived for its L.A. engagement without its original star, Norbert Leo Butz.

Butz had, after all, already won every conceivable award in the theater world for his turn as con man Freddy Benson and could have extended his stay on Broadway -- where ``Scoundrels'' is still playing.

Or he could just as easily have exited. Counting the play's pre-Broadway San Diego run in late 2004, Butz has been clowning and grifting across the French Riviera for well over 18 months. And after seven years nonstop of performing musicals, musicals and more musicals, Butz admits he is looking forward to an extended period of staying in bed and doing crossword puzzles.

And yet there were compelling reasons for the 39-year-old St. Louis-born actor to extend the ``Dirty Rotten'' con -- opening Wednesday at the Pantages Theatre -- for a few more months.

Family for one. One of 11 siblings (and named after his father), Butz has kinfold on the West Coast.

``My brother and sister are out in Seattle, so getting to spend three weeks with them, there was definitely some selfish motivation there,'' says Butz. ``I really wanted to do it on the West Coast, especially L.A. I wanted it to be seen there and to be seen with it.

``And the fact that they allowed me to do it for three months (Butz leaves the tour Oct. 22, once the Dallas leg closes), I thought it would be a great getaway from New York City, where there's never much going on in the summertime,'' he continues. ``I thought, `Hey, man, I get to do this great role on the West Coast where it's a lot cooler.'''

``Scoundrels'' composer David Yazbek has an entirely different theory as to Butz's road motivations.

``He has severe mental problems. That's the only way to explain it,'' Yazbek says. ``Maybe he wants -- maybe he needs -- more people in other geographic areas to love him.''

Yazbek jests of course, but anybody who watches Butz's rather, er, broad performance as the scheming and disreputable Freddy might wonder about the personality of any performer who takes this wild man on.

In a career that has taken him from the Alabama Shakespeare Festival to ``Rent'' and ``Wicked,'' Butz has played some straight-ahead leading men. But it's been the live wires that have gotten him noticed: from the song-and-dance ghost in the Susan Stroman/Harry Connick Jr. flop ``Thou Shalt Not'' (earning Butz his first Tony nomination) to his national tour as the Emcee in ``Cabaret,'' and finally to crazy Freddy.

With the exception of ``Cabaret,'' Butz has performed only with the original company in new musicals. That appears to be deliberate.

``I'm a pretty insecure guy, and I think if somebody else had already done it, I couldn't do it,'' he says. ``I like knowing that there's no sort of right or wrong. There's no blueprint with the character. We're all building together. Discovering it there every day with the writers is what I enjoy.''

Freddy, played by Steve Martin in Frank Oz's 1988 film, and by Marlon Brando in 1964's ``Bedtime Story,'' is a none-too-smooth con artist looking to bilk wealthy women out of their money on the French Riviera. Partnering with -- and later competing against -- the more seasoned Lawrence Jameson (played on tour by Tom Hewitt), Freddy impersonates a mentally challenged man, uses a wheelchair and engages in any manner of outrageous antics.

Add music and dancing to this highly un-PC fest, and you get an idea of what Butz goes through on a nightly basis.

Or perhaps you don't. ``The character is like the Energizer Bunny,'' Butz says. ``He's all over the map, all over the stage. Really, from the get-go, it's like being shot out of a cannon. You're never off stage unless you're backstage doing a very fast costume change.''

Audiences and critics have noticed. Butz's Freddy won the Tony, the Drama Desk, the Outer Critics Circle Award and the Astaire Award for best dancer on Broadway.

Not a bad haul, considering Butz was convinced during early rehearsals that he would be fired.

``I had not done a comedy since doing Moliere in high school or something,'' he says. ``This wasn't so much singing as real, almost commedia clowning, and that muscle hadn't been worked in a long time. I don't mind saying I was absolutely terrified.''

Lack of confidence isn't exactly an issue anymore. Butz has now partnered with three actors playing Lawrence Jameson (Jonathan Pryce followed original star John Lithgow on Broadway), and ``Scoundrels'' seems to get wilder with the new energy. Director Jack O'Brien checks in periodically to ensure that the company isn't having too good a time.

``He slaps me on the wrist all the time,'' Butz says of O'Brien. ``Jack reminds us that getting a laugh is actually not hard to do. It's about keeping your integrity in a situation where the audience is begging you to go further. He's a real stickler about that.''

Granted, we're not talking about Ibsen here. ``Dirty Rotten Scoundrels'' has songs titled ``Ruffhousin mit Shuffhausin,'' ``Love Is My Legs'' and the ``Dirty Rotten Song.''

Butz's two daughters, ages 6 and 8, have caught their dad several times in the girl-friendly ``Wicked.'' (Butz originated the role of Fiyero, the love interest who comes between Oz witches Glinda and Elphaba). The girls are experiencing ``Scoundrels'' in smaller, slightly edited doses.

``It's tricky because `Scoundrels' involves everything from bestiality to scatological humor and all this stuff I'm trying to teach them not to do,'' says Butz, ``but I'm doing it every night on stage and calling it my job. They'll get to watch the first scene and then go out into the lobby or, if they're listening to the soundtrack, they'll turn down the volume on all the bad words.''

Evan Henerson, [phone]

evan.henerson(at)dailynews.com

DIRTY ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS

Where: Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd., Hollywood.

When: 8 p.m. Tuesday through Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday; through Aug. 27.

Tickets: $25 to $80. [phone]. www.BroadwayLa.org.

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Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) The multiple-award-winning Norbert Leo Butz has been playing the role of Freddy Benson since 2004.