The Scarlet Pimpernel
Sacramento CitySearch
What better way for an English aristocrat to fight the French guillotine than to go undercover as a weird-nosed Belgian spy, while keeping up appearances back home as a lazy loafer who dresses in leopard-patterned knickers and pretends to devote his life to the virtues of good fabric? Obviously, there is none. At least not in the Broadway musical "The Scarlet Pimpernel," now playing at the Community Center Theater. "It is our duty as males not to go to battle, but to the tailor," the Pimpernel says. And surely, he means it.
"Pimpernel," now on tour with a rewritten and revamped version of the original, brings us wit, wild color and tasty tongue-in-cheek chivalry with a twist. It's based on Baroness Orczy's classic story about Sir Percy, a rich Englishman who decides to battle the injustices of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror with a confederacy formed of his six pampered pals, using a mind-over-matter approach toward victory. Rather than fight with fists, they will trick the French regime with silliness and absurdity, and free the innocents from an ultimately headless fate. Thus, Percy becomes the Scarlet Pimpernel (which, of course, has nothing to do with being a pimp at all�it's merely a flower and his family's crest), a Zorro-type hero, saving the world in disguise and leaving his mark at the scene of each rescue. Yet, Percy�aka Pimpy�can't tell his lovely new wife, French actress Marguerite, about his secret identity; he has reason to believe she may be in cahoots with Chauvelin, the leader of the Reign of Terror.
What makes the story all the more dramatic is that it revolves around an old, abandoned theater, a nearly beheaded costume designer and the clever use of special effects as a way to outwit the bad guys. Percy preens and primps in one outlandish getup after another, and makes a mockery of the evil Chauvelin at every meeting they have on English soil, referring to him as "Shovelin'" and feigning fear of his black clothing and aggressive mannerisms. Marguerite, like any damsel in despair, cries a lot and often finds herself in one awful state of affairs or another, but her songs are quite beautiful and her voice is outstanding.
In a show whose premise relies on fashion and ornamentation, the costumes cannot be considered separate from the whole of the performance. The costume designer may have had her hands full with this baby, but the end result is a grand garishness that actually looks good. From billowing ball gowns that match the glinting chandeliers overhead to the pastel knickers of Percy and the Pimpernel gang, the costumes almost function as a second lighting board.
While the story lacks any sense of reality or depth, and one can hardly view the British aristocracy as an underdog, "Pimpernel" is a unique mix of glamour and humor. As Percy says at an extravagant party thrown for the Prince of Wales, "Englishmen are known for their splendid balls." On second thought, a comment like that might warrant further investigation.
-Karen Macklin, Sacramento CitySearch
April 2000
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