DRAPER — The small, unimposing Off Broadway Theatre (OBT) is tucked off the main thoroughfare in the suburbs and, much like the titular character of their current production, The Scarlet Pimpernel, seems to be hiding in plain sight. Opening night was my first experience with OBT so I was unsure what to expect. Unless you are a regular at OBT, it’s easy to miss the fact that this production is a musical parody of the Scarlet Pimpernel story, which uses popular music as the basis for its musical numbers. The show plays like a farce with a touch of improv. It is not the 1997 Broadway musical. Unfortunately, the marketing material for the production does not make this particularly clear, so if you come ready to tap your toes to familiar Broadway numbers, you may be disappointed.
The script, adapted by Eric Jensen, OBT’s artistic and technical director (and one of the production’s directors), is a loving tribute to the Pimpernel. In his director’s notes, Jensen points out that the titular character seems to be the original version of every disguised superhero from Clark Kent’s Superman to Tony Stark’s Iron Man. And he’s not wrong. The story is set during the French Revolution and revolves around an Englishman, Percy Blakeney (Emerson Peery), who becomes a masked hero called the Scarlet Pimpernel in order to rescue French aristocrats from beheading—and finds love with a French aristocrat in the process. Like the nerdy Clark Kent, Blakeney disguises himself with a silly, foppish persona which keeps anyone from suspecting that such a ridiculous person could possibly be the masked hero.
The show opens with a fairly chaotic musical number called “Everybody Loves Us” to the tune of Journey’s “Any Way You Want It”, which is a bit overwhelming and challenging to understand all the jokes packed into it. This number sets the tone of the production and each character takes a turn at a joke or two. Some of the jokes are funny, some aren’t and some are simply unintelligible due to microphone issues, dialect issues or just too much happening at once.
The production struggles with some technical difficulties, as is often the case with small community productions. The lavalier microphones in particular are problematic. Some work intermittently and some not at all; when they do work, the balance is often off and I found myself alternating between straining to hear some characters and jarred by the piercing volume of others.
Blocking is crowded on the small stage and tends lined everyone up across the downstage edge, especially in the scenes in Percy’s mansion where there is too much furniture and set pieces for the large crowd of characters to navigate easily. Overall the show is a bit messy and insufficiently rehearsed—which is part of its charm as it feels a little like a long-form improv. It has very funny moments, but also often becomes wearying.
This is especially true in the musical numbers, which are long and legion. The numbers feel a bit like karaoke night with an awkward longish pause while the actors wait through the intro before they can start singing to the canned track. The parodies are fairly cleverly written, they’re just too long. So although most are initially quite funny, by the second or third refrain they grow tiresome. Jensen’s script would benefit in terms of humor, pacing and length by cutting most the songs in half, and cutting some of them entirely. This would be a boon to the cast as well—Marguerite, played by Kimberly Anderson, even nods to this in a parody of Taio Cruz’s “Dynamite” when she, seeming weary of the song herself by the third verse, ad-libs something akin to “one more time around”. The irony at the original lyric of that song, “Cause it goes on and on and on” is not lost. Nonetheless there are some laugh-out-loud musical moments such as “Out of Thin Air” (parody of Sinead O’Connor’s “Nothing Compares 2 U”), with fun interjections from Percy’s troupe of “Bounders” popping in from the wings, and even the trap door to add to the vocals and interrupt the love ballad. Also, in the number “The Scarlet Pimpernel” (parody of Bon Jovi’s “Living On a Prayer”), Peery channels his inner rock star to great comic effect. The “Fight Bring It On” (from Fun’s “We Are Young”) is also well done as a nod to the Broadway musical’s “Into the Fire”.
The playbill lists two casts, but it is unclear which cast performs which night, so it requires a bit of sleuthing through cast bio pics to figure out who is performing. This likely works fine for regulars who know performers by sight, but is a bit of a struggle for first timers like me who want to understand who is playing who. There is a wide range of vocal and acting skill within the cast and they are generally stronger comedians than vocalists, which works for a production that is more parody than musical. However, Peery does have both an excellent voice and good comic timing and Andersen can hold her own as a vocalist as well.
The cast’s dialects and accents vary in terms of skill, which is fine for a parody except when they become unintelligible and get in the way of the jokes, which is a particular problem with the French accents. The show could benefit from a good dialect coach or dialing back the dialects to improve clarity.
Percy’s maids and co-conspirators, played by Jill Stark, Wendy Johnson and Emily Dahl, are a worthy comedic force. The male ensemble of “Bounders” that become a cadre of dandies also have their moments. Their all-in commitment to the fop trope in the second act is hilarious and their choreographed movement and laughter is particularly funny in the Chauvelin’s office scene.
OBT’s mission statement clearly notes that the company aims to present family-friendly comedy and develop local talent. On balance, their production of “The Scarlet Pimpernel” does both, despite its shortcomings. It is funny (though parents should know that some of the comedy is more PG or PG13 than G), it is an adaptation by a local playwright, and the company is clearly in various stages of developing their talents. For fans of the Pimpernel story and who enjoy a healthy dose of silliness, the production is enjoyable, provided you know what to expect going in.
