CBS This Morning Transcript
January 12, 1999
The Little Musical That Could: "The Scarlet Pimpernel"
MARK MCEWEN: It's 12 before the hour.
Just call it the little musical that could. When "The Scarlet Pimpernel"
opened on Broadway last year, audiences loved it, especially women,
but the critics didn't.
A year later, the producers changed lots of things about the show,
but not the lead. Now the critics are happy, the audiences are happy,
"The Scarlet Pimpernel" is a hit.
And Douglas Sills was, and is, the lead. He's here to sing for us
this morning -- Douglas Sills.
DOUGLAS SILLS, "THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL" (singing): So many nights
I have stood in the moonlight watching it fade into dawn. Wanting
her back with me warm in the moonlight, knowing that moment was gone.
Out of mind, out of sight, until the moon rose tonight. All at once
I felt a chill. In a spill of moonlight, she was there. Though we
both held very still, there was something pulling in the air. In
between us stood a wall. In a flash it fell apart. Is it possible
she heard every last unspoken word racing out of my heart. She never
turned to me, but suddenly, we had so much to share. I never took
her in my arms, but she was there. Oh, she was there.
No, I never pulled her in, still her tenderness was everywhere. Oh
she slipped beneath my skin, just as if she had always been right
there. Has she been there all along? Was I too far gone to know
what a fool I must have been? For how could I pull her in when I
have never let her go.
(APPLAUSE) MCEWEN: Yeah! I heard you going up there. I thought
it's early in the morning, and you went anyway.
SILLS (speaking): It is early.
MCEWEN: Douglas, nicely done.
SILLS: Thank you, and our musical director, Ron Melrose.
Thank you, Ron.
MCEWEN: Hello, Ron Melrose.
What is the story of "The Scarlet Pimpernel," for people who don't
know?
SILLS: This is the very first super hero. This is the guy that Zorro
and everyone from Superman to the Green Hornet was modeled after.
This is a guy who decides to dedicate his life to something more
important to himself. So during the French Revolution, he's a British
lord and he crosses the English Channel to rescues innocents from
the guillotine. And all the while he's taking a wife and there's
a villain. So it's a triangle of love.
MCEWEN: What's a pimpernel?
SILLS: It's a (INAUDIBLE) you get...
MCEWEN: Go to the doctor.
SILLS: No, I'm kidding. Go to the doctor, it's a little antibiotic
thing.
No, it's a small wayside wild flower that grows near this guy's estate.
And so it's on his family crest and that's how he signs all his letters
with it. So the guys that are with him know that the letters are
from him.
MCEWEN: You know, I said nice voice and you said I wasn't a singer.
SILLS: No, not the thrust of my career, mostly acting stuff.
MCEWEN: How did this happen?
SILLS: I guess I inherited a little bit of a voice, and I worked
on it. And they needed an actor for this job, I guess, more than
a singer and I was grateful for that opportunity. And I worked my
butt off.
And it's just a traditionally classic role from literature with a
lot of dialect and a lot of physical changes. It's, you know, it'
s "Hamlet" with music, so it's a great time.
MCEWEN: I asked you earlier, how many performances. You said well
over 500. What do you do when you've got the flu? What do you do
when you don't feel like coming out and singing?
SILLS: Well, you live in New York. There's no "not feel like it."
That stuff doesn't exist. But you depend on your great co-stars
-- Rex Smith, and my dear friend Rachel York -- to help you get through
it.
And a lot of illness you can sing past. With a lot of training you
can sing past. And otherwise, that's what great, great understudies
and standbys are for. And it does happen. I mean, obviously, the
show must go on, but occasionally there are things that are beyond
your control like pneumonia or pregnancy.
MCEWEN: There you go.
SILLS: Pregnancy?
MCEWEN: No, not pregnancy.
SILLS: No, yeah.
MCEWEN: The little show that could, "The Scarlet Pimpernel."
SILLS:
Yeah, it's amazing. People are having the most incredible time.
They're on their feet. I get letters from these women that say,
oh, my God, you changed my life, this was a healing for me, I can'
t believe it.
This woman told me she'd been to the show on Sunday for her 34th time.
MCEWEN: Nice.
Douglas, Douglas Sills, thank you so much. My wife has been saying
we have to see that.
SILLS: Yes, bring her backstage.
MCEWEN: I'll bring her backstage.
SILLS: We'll put her on stage. We'll take her head off, if you want,
in the guillotine.
MCEWEN: OK.
(LAUGHTER) Thank you very much.
-Transcript by Electric Library
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