An Overhauled and Over-the-Top ‘Scarlet Pimpernel’ Lands in L.A.

Fopzapoppin’! As Sir Percy Blakeney, the “demmed elusive” English foe to all things evil, French and off the rack, Douglas Sills is the whole demmed show in “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” A good show he is, too. And a good thing, since the oft-revised show itself, now at the Ahmanson Theatre, would be lost, lost--do you hear me? Lost!--without him.

Make no mistake: Of the three musicals composed by Frank Wildhorn that have made it to Broadway, this one’s the least lame. (The drecky “Jekyll & Hyde” has undergone as many changes as has “The Scarlet Pimpernel”; a revised touring edition of Wildhorn’s most recent, “The Civil War,” comes to Costa Mesa next month.) The overhaul of “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” spanning four separate versions, has led to a more agreeable diversion. It’s dopier, but better.

Sills takes an insanely campy approach to a character who’s foppier-than-life to begin with. His canary-eating grin seals it: This is a star turn, and at this point near the end of his run, he’s unleashed, unchained.

The performance was in fact markedly more effective a year ago in New York. A year ago, Sills didn’t indulge in quite so many Red Skelton crack-me-up bits, or place every flip of the hankie in italics, boldface and brackets. But let’s make no mistake about this, please. The thought of seeing this material without Sills isn’t pleasant, but we needn’t contemplate that. At least until the regional Civic Light Opera productions start rolling in.

Set in the 1790s, “The Scarlet Pimpernel” is about many things, mostly having to do with playing dress-up and saving innocent (allegedly) French aristocrats from “Madame Guillotine.” The 1905 novel by Emmuska Magdalena Rosalia Maria Josefa Barbara Orczy has proven hardy source material, with a nifty dual-identity peg. Recently married to France’s most shattering and beautiful actress, Marguerite (earnest Amy Bodnar, who puts you in mind of an Osmond or two), Sir Percy (Sills) conspires with his pals to crusade against the gory excesses of the French Revolution.

How? By acting the parts of “nincompoops” and voguing their way across the Channel, singing “Into the Fire.” (Lotsa fire and moonlight in Nan Knighton’s lyrics.) Who could suspect that these happy few, resembling the male chorus from the Marie Antoinette musical Dolores Gray never got to make, could effect so much social change, while changing clothes with such stylish regularity?

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The Pimpernel’s chief nemesis, Chauvelin (sniveling William Paul Michals), is essentially a summer-intern variation on Inspector Javert from “Les Miserables.” Ze old flame of Marguerite, Chauvelin attempts to blackmail the actress into helping in his quest for the Pimpernel.

Director-choreographer Robert Longbottom, the second guy in on this project, made many smart changes for the Broadway redux, most of which remain. The latest finale, set in the Comedie Francaise rather than at a rocky seacoast hideaway, isn’t one of them. You want an open-air resolution to this story. (Also, “The Rescue” in Act 1 comes far too fast on the heels of “Into the Fire.”) But in other ways the staging flows well, mitigating all that gabby exposition and the usual shrill amplification.

Librettist-lyricist Knighton and composer Wildhorn aren’t really in on the joke. Every turgid ‘70s power-pop ballad sung by Chauvelin reiterates the same issue--the man’s obsessed, he’s obsessed, he’s obsessed--and though the “Into the Fire” is rather rousing, most everything else is rather not.

Still, Sills sells it, and just try saying that three times fast. His distinctive, slightly adenoidal baritone extracts all that can be had from all that Wildhornian fervency. He transcends the show, and even if he has enough fun on stage to crowd the audience’s enjoyment a bit, well . . . after the risible seriousness of “Martin Guerre,” the Ahmanson’s previous short-term musical tenant, it’s rather sweet to encounter a brainless musicale whose deepest message is, in essence: Forget your troubles. C’mon. Get foppy.

* “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” Ahmanson Theatre, Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 2 and 8 p.m.; Sundays, 2 p.m. Also: May 7, 14, 21 and 28, 7:30 p.m.; June 1, 8 and 15, 2 p.m. Ends June 18. $25-$70. (213) 628-2772. Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes.

Douglas Sills: Percy

Amy Bodnar: Marguerite

William Paul Michals: Chauvelin

Elizabeth Ward Land: Marie

Billy Sharpe: Armand

John Paul Almon: Tussaud

Stephonne Smith: Coupeau

Russell Joel Brown: Mercier

Harvey Evans: Ozzy

Russell Garrett: Elton

Ken Land: Dewhurst

Stephen Hope: Jessup

Aaron Paul: Ben

Matthew Shepard: Farleigh

D.B. Bonds: Hal

David Cromwell: Robespierre/

Prince of Wales

Vincent Paul Boyle, Michael Bunce, Matthew Farver, Angela Garrison, Rebekah Jacobs, Elizabeth O’Neill, Christeena Michelle Riggs, Marisa Rozek, Kathleen Shields, Chloe Stewart, Michael Susko, Jennifer Zimmerman: British Guests and Servants

Book and lyrics by Nan Knighton. Music by Frank Wildhorn. Directed and choreographed by Robert Longbottom. Scenic design by Andrew Jackness. Costumes by Jane Greenwood. Lighting by Natasha Katz. Sound by Karl Richardson. Musical director Andrew Wilder. Production stage manager Harold Goldfaden.