GRANTSVILLE — The Scarlet Pimpernel is a musical adaptation of a book and movie by the same title. It follows the story of a band of men fighting back against the tyranny of the French republic. A story of intrigue and torrid love triangles with book and lyrics by Nan Knighton, and filled with beautiful music by Frank Wildhorn flies back and forth between England and France, dragging you along for the wonderful ride.
Show closed October 29, 2024.
The Old Grantsville Church Dinner Theatre put together a production of The Scarlet Pimpernel that was daring and brave, but ultimately fell flat in its execution of the show. The setting for this production was in the name of the location itself. An old church house that has been retrofitted for a performance venue made for a unique environment. The majority of the show uses the existing stage of the old worship space as a proscenium, while the audience sat in the area where one would typically see pews. While this set-up was used for most of the show, there were several scenes that took place either in the aisle or at the back end of the aisle between the rows of audience members. This may have been something that was decided for the several shows they put on in a dinner theater style, but while seeing the show as a regular show, it did not make sense for scenes to take place so far away from the regular stage. It caused the majority of the audience to have to turn around completely in their chairs and look behind them to view what was happening.
From the beginning of the show, it was easy to tell that the priority for this production was on the vocals. There were several moments throughout where little to no acting choices were being made. Whether this was a choice of the director, Vanessa Knickerbocker, or that of the actors in question is unclear.
Marguerite, played in this performance by Taylor Mower, had a tendency to stand in one place and simply sing at the audience. Very little emotion was displayed and her songs were devoid of character, including any remnant of her otherwise very strong French accent. She has a pleasant voice and sings with a fair amount of technical strength, but her entire performance was slighted by the lack of character. When acting, Mower seemed to only react to the people interacting with her directly, dropping all character when not directly involved.
The leading man, Percival Blakeney, was played by Joseph Knickerbocker. Knickerbocker played heavily into the ‘fop’ element of the character, glossing over any of the other pieces of the characterization. The strong and brave ‘Pimpernel’ and the fervent believer in the rights of the French people were watered down with an element of playful buffoonery. While the character of a ‘fop’ is a necessary part of this performance, it was disappointing to see all of the other character choices fall away for the piece that was going to get laughs. This was most obvious in scenes between he and Marguerite where they share quiet moments together, or he is recognizing he may be able to reconcile a lost relationship with her. Even in these moments, he played the fop in order to get a laugh from the audience. Knickerbocker struggled to remember lines, and played off mistakes as a silly goof, even going so far as to reset a scene out loud in character after missing a cue. “Let’s try that again, shall we?” uttered to a scene partner so they could try the missed cue again. The attempt to play off the mistake as a slip in Percy’s character came across as an actor failing to recover from their own blunder.
Riley Ernst played the villainous Chauvelin, a ranking member of the French Republic set on driving a wedge between man and wife. Ernst played the stoic character well, leaning into the quiet edge of darkness. Some opportunities for depth of the character were glossed over, but it is unclear if that is a personal choice or that of the director. His vocals were strong and he handled the wide musical range of the character well.
An important element of this show is that of the love triangle between these 3 leading characters, and is emphasized in several scenes between the three. This includes a rousing ballad titled “The Riddle,” ending the first act. This song would have been the strong point of the show if not for the lack of dimension. The vocals were strong, but the recurring problem Knickerbocker had with timing of music and the stationary ‘stand and sing’ decision brought the song flat.
Throughout the production there were small elements that stood out as impressive, including the wonderful costume work and the amount of details given to set dressing. This was balanced by props from the wrong century and several scenes where there was severe overcrowding on the stage. An enormous amount of people were involved in this production, especially for such a small venue and a low funded theater, and at times it felt as if every one of those people were on stage, standing and singing.
This production could have benefited from many different things, but foremost from putting priority and effort into more than just the vocals. There were several moments where the music came together in a perfect harmony or a resounding high note that was well executed, but a musical theatre production is so much more than just the music. This production team took a big swing at putting together a show with such difficult music, such beautiful characters and including so many people in the process. Unfortunately for them, and for the audience, this big swing missed this time. I wish them better luck in future productions.
