Productions
The Scarlet Pimpernel started as a workshop with Carolee Carmello as Marguerite and directed by Nick Corley, following a concept album (and Top 40 Adult Contemporary Hit - "You Are My Home").
The musical debuted on Broadway at the Minskoff Theatre on October 7, 1997 in previews, officially on November 9, 1997. Directed by Peter H. Hunt, it starred Douglas Sills (Sir Percy Blakeney), Christine Andreas (Marguerite St. Just), Terrance Mann (Citizen Chauvelin), Marine Jahan (Madame St. Cyr), Tim Shew (St. Cyr), Elizabeth Ward (Marie), Philip Hoffman (Tussaud), James Judy (Dewhurst), Sandy Rosenberg (Lady Digby), Pamela Burrell (Lady Llewellyn), Gilles Chiasson (Armand St. Just), Ed Dixon (Ozzy), Allen Fitzpatrick (Farleigh), Bill Bowers (Leggett), Adam Pelty (Elton), Ron Sharpe (Hal), William Thomas Evans (Hastings), Dave Clemmons (Ben), R.F. Daley (Neville), David Cromwell (Robespierre/Prince of Wales/Fisherman), Ken Labey (Grappin), Eric Bennyhoff (Coupeau), Jeff Gardner (Mercier), James Dybas (Jessup), Melissa Hart (Helene), and Alison Lory (Chloe).
In June shortly before the Tony Awards were announced, the show was slated to close. The show's fans known as "The League" decided it should have another try. With falling ticket sales, the show ushered in new producers and reopened with Sills and two new leads, Rex Smith and Rachel York and a vastly rearranged production in October 1998 (a year after the previous opening). The show closed at the Minskoff Theatre on May 30, 1999. It had a mini-tour of a scaled-down version in the Summer of 1999 with three new leads. The revised version (called the 3.0 version) opened on Broadway at the Neil Simon Theatre on September 7, 1999, closing on January 2, 2000 for a grand total of 772 performances and 39 previews. The cast starred Ron Bohmer, Marc Kudisch and Carolee Carmello. Like Wildhorn's two other big budget Broadway efforts (Jekyll & Hyde and The Civil War), the musical closed having lost money.
A US National tour began on February 20, 2000, through April 1, 2001, directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom with Douglas Sills re-creating his role and with Amy Bodnar as Marguerite and William Paul Michals as Chauvelin. Sills was replaced by Robert Patteri and finally Ron Bohmer.
The musical has had numerous regional US productions and has been produced in Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, Malta, and Norway, among others.
It has also been produced by the Japanese Takarazuka Revue, which had previously commissioned Never Say Goodbye from Frank Wildhorn in 2006, under the guidance of Wildhorn himself. Wildhorn also penned two additional songs exclusively for the Takarazuka production of the show, "A Piece of Courage" and "Days of Glory". The show ran from June to October 2008 and was performed by the group's Star Troupe. It starred Kei Aran as Percy, Asuka Tono as Marguerite, and Reon Yuzuki as Chauvelin. It was performed again by the Revue from April to June 2010, this time by the Moon Troupe. Hiromu Kiriya and Yuki Aono starred as Percy and Marguerite, respectively, with Masaki Ryuu and Rio Asumi double-cast as Chauvelin.
Read more about this topic: The Scarlet Pimpernel (musical)
Famous quotes containing the word productions:
“If you think it will only add one sprig to the wreath the country twines to bind the brows of my hero, I will run the risk of being sneered at by those who criticize female productions of all kinds. ...Though a female, I was born a patriot.”
—Annie Boudinot Stockton (1736–1801)
“It is well known, that the best productions of the best human intellects, are generally regarded by those intellects as mere immature freshman exercises, wholly worthless in themselves, except as initiatives for entering the great University of God after death.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Most new things are not good, and die an early death; but those which push themselves forward and by slow degrees force themselves on the attention of mankind are the unconscious productions of human wisdom, and must have honest consideration, and must not be made the subject of unreasoning prejudice.”
—Thomas Brackett Reed (1839–1902)