The Scarlet Pimpernel
Backstage: West Coast
"Version 4.0" of The Scarlet Pimpernel-as the much-revamped musical is termed by insiders-is as good as it is going to get. But thanks to Nan Knighton's absurd book and Doug Sills' outrageously silly performance, it's good enough, at least for an evening of purely lighthearted entertainment.
Sills is truly a wonder in this repeatedly retooled sliver of a musical: He's like a cross between Johnny Weissmuller, Wilde's Ernest Worthing, and South Park's Big Gay Al. As the elusive Pimpernel/Sir Percy Blakeney, saving France's aristocracy from the guillotine by night, and acting the effeminate and foppish British twit by day, Sills' comic bravura is impressive to say the least. It's the type of intentionally over-the-top performance that rarely makes it into a Broadway musical nowadays, but always succeeds when it does. (Think Faith Prince in Guys and Dolls.) His voice is likewise spectacular-though his songs have very little to do with the feel Sills' creates for his character.
The exception is the admittedly delightful preening romp "The Creation of Man," in which Blakeney and his cohorts show off their outrageous duds in preparation for the ball. Sills is also sincerely powerful in other numbers ("Prayer," "She Was There"), but sincere doesn't seem right for this peacock of a Pimpernel. The songs (music by Frank Wildhorn, lyrics by Nan Knighton) might as well be from another show, they have so little to do with the book as it stands. And except for Sills' merry band of blushing aristocrats, each more effete than the last and all thoroughly invested in the fun of the piece, the other characters in Pimpernel, like the earnest and bland songs, seem from another show as well. Amy Bodnar as Marguerite, Blakeney's newlywed French wife from whom he hides his identity, and William Paul Michals, as his black-coated, bloodthirsty nemesis Chauvelin, impress with their rich vocals but fail to register up against Sills' insane energy. They are all Margaret Dumonts to his Groucho Marx.
With the much-publicized rewrites of a show that was initially panned, director Robert Longbottom has saved a seriously wounded patient with a pile of Band-aids, and deserves much of the credit for the farcical pace of the scenes that makes this Pimpernel palatable. His design team brings a delicious look to the evening as well: Andrew Jackness' sets, which make it appear as if the characters are literally stepping out of a rococo painting, are gorgeous, particularly a moody moment on a bridge in Act Two (for which credit should also go to lighting designer Natasha Katz). And Jane Greenwood's animal skin-patterned get-ups give the late Howard Crabtree a run for his money.
Fans of Sills will be on their feet (and were) at the end of this ludicrous and jolly Pimpernel, and those who weren't fans yet are now.
-Scott Proudfit, Backstage: West Coast
May 2000
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