| I would like you to meet... MESAMIES! |
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| the above people are WANTED for: creating far too many inside jokes; obsessing over The Scarlet Pimpernel to a point of insanity; and being far, far too sexy. |
| This is them in actuality (and me, in the middle, the way I like it. A top my head is Andrea (AJ), to my *your* left is Mark, to my right is Veronica (V), and on my knee is Melissa (Missy once, now Mel). Missing from this photo are a few other "mesamies" of ours: Lisa, Shannon, Mer, and Kelly. Shannon resides in Canada with Mel and Mark. But Lisa, Mer, and Kelly were unable to join us in our Canadian Adventure. We are hoping it will be so when AJ and Shannon are WED in a year! |
| I feel strongly that a word of explanation should be put forth onto how we all met. Or at least how I met all of them. It's true, you heard right when you heard that I met each and everyone of these people first on The Internet. But it wasn't thru a chat room, or random IMs, or anything like that. The force that brought us all together is a little musical by a little man named Frank Wildhorn: THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL |
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| The Scarlet Pimpernel I call a little musical, but it is little in no sense of the word. First of all, it is based on a classic bodice ripper by the Baroness Orczy. And there have been at least 5 movies made of it, including the made-for-TV variety. The likes of Leslie Howard, Richard E. Grant, and Ian McKellan have been seen in these films. And the particular musical version we happened to find each other thru was rewritten FOUR TIMES in efforts to keep it on Broadway and on tour due to its rather cultish fan following. And yes, my friends, I was part of the cult along with the fabulous people above. |
| SP 1 - "Into the Fire" |
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| The first version I don't believe any of us saw - it starred Douglas Sills (center) as THE Scarlet Pimpernel, Percy Blakeney. And Terrence Mann (left center) as the villian Chauvelin, and Christine Andreas as the actress Marguerite St. Just turned Blakeney. Though the show featured a "working" guilllotine and some smashing breeches, it was not very successful with the critics. And believe it or not, it wasn't the show itself that found me my Mesamies, but the fact that I adored Terrence Mann at that point in my life - I only bought the soundtrack cause he was on it. |
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| In an effort to brush the show up for a longer run on Broadway, Robert Longbottom was brought in and he re-orchestrated the show's direction and choreography. Songs were cut (my FAVORITE song was cut) and rearranged... the ending was rewritten, the working guillotine remained. As did the show's star, Douglas Sills - but the other two left and in came Rachel York as Margot (a GODDESS) and Rex Smith as Chauvelin (an 80s one hit wonder) - they are pictured right. None of us mesamies saw this incarnation either. |
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| I finally saw the show when it was rehauled a THIRD time - again, a new ending was written, and the scenery was heavily cut, and three new leads came in. Carolee Carmello, Marc Kudisch, and Ron Bohmer as THE Scarlet Pimpernel. And I gave those three A+s! Of course as it was my first time seeing this show after two years of drooling over it, I was bound to continue drooling. But Kudisch and Bohmer quickly became two of my favorite Broadway voices (Kudisch especially because he's, well, HOT, and Bohmer particularly because I saw him previously as the Phantom when that came to Providence. He's just GOOD!) |
| SP1, "The Riddle" |
| SP2, "Storybook Reprise" |
| SP3, Publicity photo |