"What the critics don't seem to understand is that there's room in life for both twinkies and eclairs, and they are not to be confused with one another -- but on those occasions that you really yearn for a good twinkie, even the best eclair won't do." -- Gina on SP in LA
Broadway Nostalgia
Here are some excerpts of SP1& SP2 reviews that rate from "positive" to "glowing". Not from fans, but real newspapers!
It may be old to some of you, but someone out there must be smiling...
from a Liz Smith article, May 31, 1998
"...I've been to many closing nights on Broadway, nights when the curtain finally fell on great fabled productions. But never in all my years have I seen or heard anything like what went on at last Sunday's matinee when "The Scarlet Pimpernel" (SP2) breathed its last -- at least for a while. (A more compact production will inhabit a smaller house sometime down the road.)
The audience, a vociferous claque of "Pimp-heads," as one might call them, screamed and applauded hysterically at every musical number, every quip, every little movement on the Minskoff stage. It is the first time I have ever heard a commonplace expletive, uttered by the leading lady, evoke the kind of roars and rapturous applause that I daresay Julie Andrews never heard when she finally mastered "the rain in Spain."
The stars -- Douglas Sills, Rachel York and Rex Smith -- who usually play to the rafters anyway in this high camp candybox production, reached new heights of swash, buckle, and swoon. They gave 1,000 percent, performing not just as if it were the last time for the show, but as if their very lives depended on it. Frank Wildhorn, who wrote the music for "Pimpernel," was in attendance and was mobbed during intermission.
There were a few audience members present who were not part of the "Pimpernel," fan base, who looked utterly bemused at all the carrying-on. Indeed many of these fled the theater as soon as the show ended, to spare their eardrums during the long curtain calls. (The show has had a famously tumultuous life on Broadway, teetering on the brink, then coming back revitalized. Perhaps the underdog quality is part of its appeal?)
I'm telling you, "Star Wars" fans are pikers compared to 'Pimpernel" aficionados."
(Pikers? -- Helen)
from a November 10, 1997 Star-Ledger article
'Pimpernel' scores a palpable hit
by Michael Sommers
"Tis innocent blood that runs in the gutters of Paris!" cries an aristocrat about to lose his head to the guillotine. The blade falls. The mob roars for more. The tumbrils roll as the Reign of Terror rages on.
Meanwhile, back in Merrie olde England, the high-born and dandified Sir Percy assembles a club room full of noble chaps and tells them, "This is a war against humanity!"
Soon they're all storming across the Channel to rescue the unjustly condemned from the scaffold, led by that mysterious superman in buckled shoes known to everyone as "The Scarlet Pimpernel".
Yes indeed, Baroness Orczy's gallant hero of the 1905 best-seller and 1934 motion picture fame finally has been musicalized for late 1990s Broadway tastes. And let's say that first and foremost, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is great fun.
Swooning tunes and swordfights, spirited heroines and villains who pursue 'em, mob scenes, gavottes, decapitations, big dresses, and a glamorous central figure who hides his bold heart behind sissy-boy ways are the stuff of which "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is made, and it's delightful escapist fare for the whole darned family.
Oh, of course none of it's meant to be taken very seriously. That's one of the charms about Nan Knighton's musical adaptation and Peter Hunt's wise staging. The musical's makers walk a precarious high wire between middle-brow entertainment and camp, successfully fashioning a likable show that leaves you with a smile on your face and a couple of melodies to hum on the way home.
Speaking of music, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" is lighter in mood and approach than "Jekyll & Hyde," composer Frank Wildhorn's previous show, and he provides a bright and tasty score that brims with robust romance, like a ripe red noveau that goes down very easily.
So does this show, which moves swiftly and surely toward a swashbuckling climax which offers a few surprises even sophisticates will appreciate..."
"...The story, which Knighton tells with economy and speed, unfold amid 1790s scenes of English splendor and French tumult. Royal festivities. Public beheadings. Daring escapes. Moonlit moments flooded with melting ballads.
Designer Andrew Jackness' scenery delineates the to-and-fro between nations by separate looks: Monochromatic engravings depict the darker scenes in France, while Gainsboro-like backgrounds color the English climes. Jane Greenwood dresses everyone gorgeously in frou-frou and outrageous chapeaux.
The glittering ball graced by the Prince of Wales that begins the second act is one of the show's several highlights. Simpering Sir Percy twits a visiting Chauvelin into a rage by leading the English gentry into a giddy dance lauding the Scarlet Pimpernel that begins with the immortal refrain, "They seek him here, they seek him there, those Frenchies seek him everywhere."
A big handsome lug dolled up in cream satin and lace ruffles, twirling his swagger stick like a baton, Douglas Sills does wonderfully by silly Sir Percy. Since the audience is aware from the get-go that Sir Percy's sibilantly airhead manner is all a charade, Sill's mad hankie-waving is hilarious to watch. And when the secret hero sometimes opens up his brave heart in song, Sills' splendid tenor rings out as nobly as the man himself.
In excellent contrast, Terrence Mann plays Chauvelin as a sonorous blackguard, all burning eyes and insinuating dark tones, threatening Marguerite with seductive suavity. The lady herself is ravishingly portrayed by Chrstine Andreas, whose rippling soprano soars through several luscious ballads. Headed by the gifted likes of Allen Fitzpatrick, Ed Dixon, and David Cromwell, a 36-member ensemble acts and sings with zest.
Oh, sure, nothing's perfect ... but the sheer fun of the show and its exhuberance compensate for most shortcomings.
Wildhorn's music is a major contributor to the success of this occasion. The opening theme, "Madame Guillotine," is a choral number surging with bloodthirsty lust. His "Into the Fire" anthem for the Pimpernel's band of bucks and blades is a galloping stout-hearted-men march that would do Romberg or Friml proud. "You Are My Home" is a "Lez Miz"-style inspirational duet performed in prison. Both "When I Look At You" and "Only Love" are starry-eyed ballads. Knighton's accompanying lyrics are frequently nice and neat...
;...If there's something of a cornball quality about this pleasurable new musical version, its makers are serving it up with winning awareness."
from a Star-Ledger article, November 11, 1998
Dramatic changes bring out color in 'Pimpernel'
by Michael Sommers
" As the brass rang out the martial opening fanfare of the overture to "The Scarlet Pimpernel," New York Post critic Clive Barnes leaned over my shoulder and murmured, "Once more into the breach, dear friends, once more..."
Indeed. This is the second time reviewers have had "The Scarlet Pimpernel" in our sights.
When the musical swashbuckler premiered a year ago, many critics yawned in response. I believe the show had its dull spots but whipped up considerable fun, Frank Wildhorn's robustly romantic music was often splendid, and newcomer Douglas Sills was terrific in the lead role.
The show persevered, but scarcely reached blockbuster proportions. When Radio City Entertainment took over as producer this summer, it decided to spruce things up. Robert Longbottom, the director-choreographer who made the late. lamented "Side Show" so striking, was hired to rework the script and score with its makers. The show was closed down for a week in October to institute their changes and, voila, a better musical has been reborn.
A few songs are gone, others added, and much of the remainder tweaked in the rearranged score. Perhaps half of the show is altered in some way. Even the guillotine effect is much sharper. Entirely new opening and closing sequences and all sorts of material in-between have been created to bring greater flair to this epic of a dashing British hero who snatches people from the jaws of the French Revolution.
The outline of Nan Knighton's escapist script, derived from Baroness Orczy's popular turn-of-the century fiction, remains the same: apalled by the revolution's slaughter, Sir Percy leads his aristocratic cronies to Paris on secret missions to rescue hundreds from the guillotine. Back home, they pretend to be foppish twits to elude detection by those who would stop them.
Percy mistakenly believes that his beautiful new wife, Marguerite, may be a spy for the new regime, and she has no idea that her now-cool mate is a hero in disguise. then her former lover, Chauvelin, now a ranking revolutionary, blackmails Marguerite into trying to unmask the Pimpernel.
The plot, as they say, thickens...
Well, no, actually, the plot is not nearly as thick as it once was. Between Longbottom's astute staging and Knighton's revisions, matters are clarified considerably. The romantic triangle between Percy, Marguerite and Chauvelin is more pointed, and the entire affair generates greater excitement.
Recasting also gives the show higher wattage. Her performance still recalling Christine Andreas' charming Marguerite, but offering a creamier vocal quality, Rachel York is a fetching nightingale with a nice way with disdainful glances. Superior in every detail to Terrence Mann's overly creepy Chauvelin, a handsome Rex Smith fearlessly tears into the music with rip-roaring power while making the character appear quite the fiery-eyed avenger in his pursuit of enemies.
If it's possible to improve upon a wonderful performance, Douglas Sills does so. His smile glittering with idiocy as Sir Percy masquerades as a simpering dandy, Sills strikes hilarious glints of comedy from every silly-ass line he drawls. Such breathtaking fatuity creates excellent contrast with Sills' decisive attitude as the "real" man beneath that peacock disguise. His splendid vocals sounding more burnished than ever, Sills delivers one of the truly memorable musical theater performances of this decade.
Speaking of musicals, anyone who gripes that they can't recall tunes from modern-day shows will take great pleasure in Wildhorn's old-fashioned melodic seductiveness. From his ravishing ballad "Where's the Girl?" to the surging "Madame Guillotine" to the stout-hearted choral thunder of "Into the Fire," Wildhorn's songs have a way of clinging to your ear long after you've left the theater..."
"...One of the nicest things about this show is its very lack of pretentiousness. It's simply meant to be fun, festive Broadway entertainment.
Imagine a Classics Comics come to life as a lavish old-style musical, blazing with adventure and bursting with resplendent music, and -- zounds! -- that's exactly what "The Scarlet Pimpernel" delivers."