A production of “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels” is shaping up at Kenmore West High School.

The stage adaptation of a 1988 film comedy starring the likes of Steve Martin, Michael Caine and Glenne Headly was already gaining good reviews Wednesday, after a full rehearsal staged in the school’s auditorium.

The show’s three-night run officially opens to the public tonight, at the high school’s auditorium beginning at 7:30 p.m.

Rich Tomasello, who teaches art at the nearby middle school, was among those to get a preview of the show Wednesday afternoon.

“I thought it was great,” he said. “They did an excellent job for high school students. Good acting, good singing,” he said.

Ken-West math teacher and the show’s director, Phil Jarosz, is no stranger to the stage. In addition to this being his fourth musical at the school, he just produced his first show as part of his own production company, Forte Production, at the Lancaster Opera House. Music Director Paul LaDuca also has an impressive resume, having been involved in 20 consecutive musicals at the school.

“We encourage everyone to audition,” he said. “They don’t actually have to sing or be in chorus to be in the show.”

Jarosz said he has tried to expose students to musicals both old and new — everything from Gilbert and Sullivan to, well, this.

“Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” he said, was only released for the stage in the early 2000s.

“It’s very funny,” he said of the script, which revolves around two male con artists, Freddy and Lawrence (played by students Jake Harton and Chad Battaglia respectively), and of course the heroine, Christine (played by Annie Morris).

Lawrence preys on his targets with style in the hunt to scam them to the tune of thousands while the opportunistic Freddy is happy to score a few bucks here and there.

The victims are females similar to the character Christine, but Morris indicated revenge is sweet.

“I think audiences are going to have a lot of fun with this because it’s really comedic,” LaDuca, who plays piano in the pit alongside music students, said.

Morris, who didn’t originally go out for the lead, said the experience is more fun — and also more work — than she could have imagined.

Of how difficult it’s been to play Christine, she said: “She’s kind of a few different characters. The audience thinks of her as the sweet innocent girl — there’s a little twist at the end.”

It’s the sweet, innocent parts she said that come most naturally for her.

Harton (playing the low-brow Freddy) has been involved in drama throughout school and said he and the other cast members have worked hard — for some, that has meant about every day for the last two months — to prepare for the show’s debut. That certainly applies to Battaglia, a senior, who represented the sophisticated scoundrel Lawrence to great applause Wednesday.

It is not only his first lead, but the first time he has ever acted in a play.

Audiences were likely convinced otherwise.

“I just kind of wanted to give it a whirl,” he said. “And lucky enough I landed the lead. At first it was exciting and then it’s ‘wow, I have a lead as a first-time actor and singer.’ But it’s been very, very fun and well worth the time.”

And time he has spent, even watching films to try and perfectly mimic an Austrian accent he is required to feign. In other ways, however, he was born for the part.

“Lawrence is always older,” he said, “ which is actually the role I play in real life. I don’t mean to go off, but everyone kind of sees me that way.”

The show opens tonight and the curtain also goes up Friday and Saturday, same place, same time.

Tickets are $7 for adult and $6 for students and senior citizens. They can be purchased in the main office of the school, located at 33 Highland Parkway, during regular school hours. Tickets may also be purchased at the door the night of each show at the same price.

Contact reporter Neale Gulley at 693-1000, ext. 114.