"The Creation of Man" as seen in the 2000 national tour of "The Scarlet Pimpernel." Douglas Sills heads the company in the role he created on Broadway in 1997. The lyrics are at www.lyricsondemand.com/soundt...
I caught this at the Ahmanson Theatre in Los Angeles a couple years after seeing Scarlet Pimpernel 1.0 on Broadway and this was probably my favorite revision of the entire experience. The 1.0 audiences enjoyed the original version of this number for sure, but we just HOWLED and CHEERED for this presentation. Douglas Sills was even more at home in his role and I have to say I never tire of seeing any footage from this show at any stage of its production.
I saw it in San Francisco! So magical! I remember that we were sitting right next to the aisle and Douglas Sills ran right past us after the guillotine part! I was like “wait, he was just on stage getting his head cut off, how did he appear at the back of the theatre?!” Then he ran up the aisle and leaped up over the edge of the orchestra pit to confront Chauveline. It was awesome!
I got to see this show on Broadway in its original version. I quite like the rewritten version (I've seen various iterations around 20 times). But no one beats Douglas Sills. I was working on my Pimpernel thesis at the time, so you'd better believe it was beyond my wildest expectations that we happened to run into Sills after the production. He warmed my hands. I could seriously have swooned. Having read all 12 books in the Pimpernel series plus an embarrassing amount of affiliated materials, I can safely say Sills is the most definitive Pimpernel I've seen. Baroness Orczy would be pleased. For one thing, he was over six tall. Her greatest disappointment about the casting in the original black and white movie was Chauvelin towered over little Percy. Not so with this rendition.
He does, and it's a shame he never got to play it onscreen. I think the show's problematic second act kept anyone from thinking about making a movie version. Too bad, because the music is really good.
YEEESSS!!!! Thank you so much for uploading this! There is so little good footage of this show. If you have more, please share it! This is some of the best I've seen!
Thanks Aurora, great footage. I thoroughly enjoyed the show on broadway, think it was Version 2.0 and it starred the divine Rachel York in the female lead. I remember this number vividly and to see it again on here is such a treat.
WOW thank you for posting this! I saw the national tour with Ron Bohmer in the lead and I absolutely adored it!! Thanks so much for bringing back fantastic memories of this wonderful show!!!!
I wish they'd make a new "The Scarlet Pimpernel" movie, whether musical or not. Actor Jonathan Bailey would be perfect for the role and actress Emma Mackey would make an excellent Marguerite.
Even though I'm a big fan of this show, the one thing that does irk me a bit is that a big part of the plot hangs on the main character coming off as effeminate in order to seem unthreatening. I get that this is needed to make the story work, but the way it's played for laughs feels kind of homophobic now. I still love the score and listen to it often, but I never fully shake that feeling.
you're absolutely right! the musical was written in the late 80s, early 90s where it was more common for someone to write this as a running gag, and not as many people, if any, would say if they were offended as they would today. it especially upsets me because douglas sills is gay, so he was basically making fun of stereotypes of himself in the show. im glad that more people are speaking out about this kind of stuff nowadays. i am in no way saying that i hate this musical for this reason, in fact i'd give my left leg to see the show XD. especially version 2. and i think ive read a few interviews with douglas sills talking about how much fun he had with the role, but it was more common to joke about back then, however im glad it rarely happens anymore. (atleast from what i've seen)
I don't disagree---this probably wouldn't fly in a current or forthcoming musical. But as Sammy Barry states, "Pimpernel" was in development for quite some time before it finally made it to Broadway in '97.
yeah! and as i said, i dont hate the musical. far from it really! for a while this was my favorite musical! it still is in at least my top ten! thats why im glad that the musicals main focus wasn't "hey! we're gonna make a musical that makes fun of gay people!" it was more of a side gag. which doesn't excuse the fact that it was still joking about gay people, however if someone were to make a fourth version of this play, (i doubt it but,) they could maybe tweak the dialogue or change some of the jokes, that way the musical wouldn't be too changed, however it would get rid of the stereotypical jokes that are a bit outdated.
I personally never saw this aspect of the show as homophobic, because it has nothing to do with sexual orientation. The men are adapting the "fop" persona, which simply was a term for a man (often wealthy) who mostly concerned himself with things such as culture, fashion, and manners.
