My honest thoughts about The Scarlet Pimpernel musical (OBC soundtrack/watched the 1998 recording available on Vimeo)
It's been interesting to come full-circle with my opinions on The Scarlet Pimpernel musical. The first time I listened to the OBC soundtrack several years ago, I was deeply underwhelmed and disappointed by how the music doesn't really "feel" like The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Then, I got back into the OBC soundtrack recently and ended up really liking several of the songs I didn't used to (Believe, Vivez, When I Look At You, Storybook), which pushed me to finally watch a recording of the musical to put it all into context. (Granted, the quality of the recording I watched meant I really didn't hear much of the spoken dialogue... I read along with the licensed script, which shared a few lines.)
And now I realize the musical truly is just bad. Which is a terrible shame!
I deeply dislike what they did with Marguerite. She seems to be so surface level here compared to the novel and some other adaptations. She allows Chauvelin to slobber over her like a dog. I wish she and Armand had had a song together or that she'd been allowed to exist a little more outside of Percy and her love for him.
And Chauvelin - what they did to him, I really can't stand. His songs are garbage. They don't seem to focus on him and his own goals so much as his past. They truly reduce him to some lovesick beast that he just isn't in the source material. Put some respect on my mans.
I want to like Falcon in the Dive... I really want to... but I just can't. Terry Mann did his best with what he was given, but that song needed some TLC.
Really, that's one of my main critiques - the lyrics. So many of the songs have lyrics that are frankly basic, unimaginative, clunky, and literally sound difficult for the performers to choke out smoothly. And some of the BEST songs, if you heard them outside of the context of the musical... you'd literally have no idea they're even from a musical about The Scarlet Pimpernel, they're like generic love songs.
And why such an intense focus on love, anyway? Yes, the romance is MY personal favorite part of the original story and it DOES deserve some focus, but I was shocked by the utterly missed opportunity to actually show more of The Scarlet Pimpernel's daring rescues, or have a song based around him saving somebody, just... anything? Why are so many of his friends given weird non-canon names, anyway? Who is Ozzy, and where is Sir Andrew??
And the lack of interesting choreography didn't help, either. Watching Terry Mann and Christine Andreas standing completely still during several of their songs was frustrating. WHY didn't The Riddle feature an elaborate dance number at the ball??? What the crap?
At the end of the day... The musical is for one thing and one thing only: enjoying Percy and enjoying the Percy/Marguerite fanservice.
And by god, I DID so enjoy it... their whole wedding scene was... uh... very good. For me. It was worth watching at least once just for that.
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