NR: Nan (Knighton) told me your character actually did exist.

EWL: She did exist. I did a lot of research on her. Her name was Marie Grosholtz Tussaud. She was an apprentice to the guy who did all the wax work, which was a big status symbol in those times. They didn't have photographs so to have your wax done was a big thing. She was forced by Robespierre...

KL: ...who was another real guy.

EWL: Yeah. She was in the prison. She had been in the court of Marie Antoinette. She was the art tutor to Marie Antoinette's youngest sister. (All of her sisters were at the court.) She was there teaching art. She was put in prison. Then she was let out of prison while the royal family was kept there, and she was forced to go get the head of Marie Antoinette and make a death mask of it. At that point they would make death masks, parade them around on sticks and charge admission. That was kind of how the whole wax work thing evolved. She married a guy named Francois Tussaud, had two kids very quickly and left him. Nobody knows why. Her sons never knew why. She went to England, did a traveling wax show and started Madame Tussaud's. That's true. She was born in 1761, so she was definitely there.

KL: She would have been in her 30's.

EWL: Yeah, she would have been in her 30's. She would have been my age. It's just been a wild ride. That's part of the reason we had to come back and do version 3. It's so unprecedented. I just felt it's like my destiny. I don't know why.

NR: Ken, how have the Bounders changed since the beginning?

KL: Well, the Bounders...everybody's become a lot more specific. There's less of them. Without Percy and Armand, there were nine and now there are just six. We really thought that it was going to be kind of sparse up there and it probably would be if we were back in the Minskoff. But here, this little tiny stage and jewel box of a theater - this is where I always thought that this show should be.

NR: Really?

KL: Yes, I really did. First of all, I did Victor/Victoria in the Marquis, which is the same as the Minskoff with its swooping auditorium. I feel like I'm in a high school auditorium. With all due respect to those theaters, they just don't have a lot of personality, and this theater does. All the little boxes just seem right, and the stage just seems right. Everybody's more highlighted. The three guys they took out had lines so that everybody got a couple more lines. Everyone's a little more focused and brought forward.

EWL: It's different for you anyway because you're playing a different role.

NR: I was going to ask you about that. What is that like?

KL: It's great.

NR: It must be a challenge.

KL: Yeah, it is. I had understudied this part before and had gone on a lot. I always liked the part. It was that stalwart best friend. I like it because I usually end up playing Capulet or characters like Orin Scrivello in Little Shop of Horrors. I always end up playing little weirdo guys, and this guy is kind of true blue and a good guy. I usually don't play characters like this so it's fun for me. That's really changed for me and I think for all the guys. Bobby (Longbottom) spent more time with us this time around, had more specific things to say about the scenes, and I think that "Creation of Man" is the best that it's ever been.

NR: Well, it was a lot more relaxed this time than the changeover from SP1 to SP2, especially for those of you who were doing both versions at the same time.

EWL: That was a tough experience. It was really hard and complicated. It was complicated emotionally and it was just hard work.

NR: It was quick. You had to do both at the same time.

EWL: Yeah, and it was just weird. A lot of people's jobs changed. All the material was cut. It was very hard. Terry and Christine (Andreas) were very beloved and very important to all of us. Ed Dixon was. A lot of people were. It was just a lot of changes.

NR: I assume the dynamics have changed again. You have all new leads and it's a smaller group.

EWL: The only thing that feels so different about this is that we had a long rehearsal process and we were actually all in the room trying to make it new. From 1 to 2, it was a bit disjointed. We didn't all get together till about two weeks before we really resumed. The leads had been rehearsing after they were hired, a lot of us were pulled from the show to go to rehearsal. This felt like it was starting a new show, as opposed to the second version that felt like it was trying to fit in things.

NR: I understand the public's having trouble even noticing or caring that you're back.

EWL: I know.

NR: What is the feeling about that?

KL: I think everyone's a little dismayed. Everyone's wondering, "What's going on?"

NR: Were you just gone too long? There was a lot of momentum last spring. Then all of a sudden it closed, with good reason. I understand why they're not at the Minskoff anymore, but three months is probably a long time to be closed in New York.

EWL: Look, it's the big question for everybody. I don't know if the theater is dying or it's just this specific show. I don't know. I think it's a little bit that we opened at a tough time. September's a tough time because people just went back to school. The momentum may build because this show has always been a show about momentum. What's interesting about this show is that it's been constantly...it's always been a run filled with questions about how long we're going to go. And you know what? We've surrendered to it. It's so much bigger than we are - the marketing of it. It's just not our job. We'll just continue to come.

NR: I remember when you told me that you took this over Romeo and Juliet because it was the more stable job. Did you ever think that Pimpernel would be more stable than anything else?

KL: No. Definitely not.

EWL: You know, when we left to do Romeo and Juliet, we left with a very open heart. It was a very amicable leaving. We both felt we had done what we could do at the Minskoff. We were just ready for a new challenge and we really believe in Romeo and Juliet.

NR: How did it work with Terrence Mann, since you had first worked together and then he directed you?

EWL: It was wonderful.

KL: It was great. That wasn't an adjustment for us at all. We're all very good friends and Terry treats us with the utmost respect. He's always interested in what we have to say or feel about a scene, even things we're not in.

EWL: And we felt really like part of the collaboration. That's the pull of new pieces. As an artist, you really do matter. When we got asked back to do this - on the same day. Do you know that?

NR: No, I didn't know that.

EWL: Romeo and Juliet and Scarlet Pimpernel on the same day.

KL: I want to tell you something seriously. It was about fifty minutes apart. We got offered this and less than an hour later Terry called and said, "I want to offer you the job."

NR: Wow. And a lot of actors and actresses are never offered anything like that. That's amazing.

KL: Well, we were flattered.

EWL: That was a decision that was really filled with a lot of angst. We had already taken a big gamble to leave. Broadway salaries are about as good as you can make in the theater...

KL: ...and it cost us money to leave the show and to go to Goodspeed.

EWL: Goodspeed pays very, very low. It's a very prestigious job but we lost money by doing that. It was a big time lag. They didn't start until July. We finished the first run at Goodspeed on February 15th. It was just a big chunk of time for us. Just the sequence of events...it was going to be another regional production. They didn't have any dates past that. We're people of a certain age and we need to make a living. So, we just decided to pass this time and hope that it will come back. We believed in the work that we had done there, and the foundation that we had laid. If we could have, we would have gone. The timing just wasn't right.

NR: Do you think they're going to come into New York?

EWL: I think they are.

KL: I think they will.

EWL: The producers are very dedicated to it.

KL: I don't think it will be for some time. It probably won't even be next year.

EWL: They definitely have to do another incarnation. They're just going to take a bit of a creative break from it. It all happened very fast. Sometimes these projects take years and years to get together.

KL: You know, ten months ago we did a reading of it here in town and they had just finished the second act. Then they had the Goodspeed version, and it got done at the Ordway in St. Paul.

EWL: So, that's fast. I think that they're going to take a little creative break and hopefully get something mounted for mid-2000. We're going to keep our fingers crossed that we'll be asked to go. We don't know. Actors don't look that far ahead. A couple months is about all we can stomach.

Interview conducted and photographs by Nancy Rosati.