Sills Shining Star of Brightened 'Pimpernel'
The News-Times
The Musical "The Scarlet Pimpernel" appears to have as many lives as its dashing hero. The version at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, where the show began its national tour Tuesday, is the fourth polishing since it opened on Broadway in 1997.
In three years, "Pimpernel" - with a score by Frank Wildhorn ("Jekyll and Hyde") and a book by Nan Knighton ("Saturday Night Fever") - has been restructured, rechoreographed, shrunk in size and lightened in tone. It will never be a significant theatre piece, but by now the creative team seems to have maximized the audience-pleasing pluses of the show.
Based on Baroness Orczy's 1905 novel about a band of Englishmen sworn to rescue victims of the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution, "Pimpernel" started off in 1997 on the wrong foot - a heavy one - perhaps trying to match the theatrics of "Les Mis�rables."
That was reflected in 1998, when new producers asked Robert Longbottom in "revisit" the show. He promptly recognized its humor and derringdo were far more entertaining than the grim realities of guillotine-happy revolutionaries.
Thus, he replaced the original opening and its emphasis on beheading, with "Storybook," a number that invites the audience into the spoof that follows.
Longbottom is the director/choreographer of the national touring production and he keeps the dial tuned to what have proved to be "Pimpernel's" stong points.
Unquestionably, one is the performance of Douglas Sills, who garnered a Tony nomination for Best Actor in a Musical as Percy/The Scarlet Pimpernel, and now leads the cast again. Whether singing a romantic ballad, brandishing a sword or affecting the swishy manners of a clothes-happy fop, he handles his two-faced role with perfection.
The role of Chauvelin, the Pimpernel's relentless pursuer, is in the capable hands of William Paul Michals, who wears evil like a magnetic field around his black-clad figure. He knows his way around a melody, as well, and uses his dark tenor to a dramatic effect.
Amy Bodnar plays Marguerite, the romantic interest with a hint of treachery. The French lady marries Percy but was once Chauvelin's lover. Regrettably, Bodnar doesn't produce a pleasing sound when she sings and that brassiness also pervades the character, robbing it of an air of elegance.
While the book now re-emphasizes the humor of the Pimpernel's scheme to remain undetected - he and his band of adventurers assume poses as elegant, mincing aesthetes - there is still a sullen undertow in the romantic triangle between Percy, Chauvelin and Marguerite.
A climatic part-comic, part-serious melee resolves the triangle, but only with the approach of the final curtain.
It might come as a shock, but the best number in this show about manly heroics is the witty "The Creation of Man," in which Percy and his pals show off their wardrobes like models to the runway born.
Among the hard-working cast of 29, Elizabeth Ward Land and Marie and Billy Sharpe as Armand offer especially well-shaded characterizations to complement their fine voices.
The rich, kaleidoscope costumres of Jane Greenwood go a long way in suggesting both the opulent and the oppressed side of 18th century life. Liberace would have been green with envy seeing the glad rags she stitched for the Pimpernel gang.
An adventure is always more thrilling when played out against colorful settings, and scenic designer Andrew Jackness has obliged with huge guillotines, ships at sea, a horse-drawn carriage speeding through the night, and a dungeon of the French Revolution.
"The Scarlet Pimpernel" may be too obvious an entertainment for the musical connoisseur, but it is a treat for audiences who love to laugh and gasp at swordplay and costume overkill.
There are surely enough of them to keep the seats filled no matter how long "Pimpernel" stays on tour.
-Chesley Plemmons, The News-Times
February 25, 2000
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