NR: What is your favorite song in the show to sing?

RS: You know, "Falcon in the Dive," coming off of that last moment, it's like being in an Alfred Hitchcock movie. There's the light hitting you and you see your hands, and you know you're standing by a guillotine and it's an odd thing. It's physical work. Coming off of that thing when I've really delivered it I really feel ...I give thanks that I have the physical strength to pull it off because it requires a lot of work. And "Where's the Girl" is lovely. I've worked real hard to hone that and make that as simple as "arts and craft furniture." Just real simple lines. First Frank (Wildhorn) wanted me to do it in a really pop style and then from that point I started pulling as much stuff out as I could. I'm proud of that song in terms of its simplicity, trying to keep it so simple and not stagy and get the point across. It is the only opportunity in the show to show the humane side and the feeling side of this man. I really am glad that that song is there to accomplish that task and show he's not just a one dimensional character "waxing his mustache."

NR: Any chance there's going to be a cast album or have we lost that?

RS: I've never heard anything. I don't know. I think we're talking profit margins from here on in with this thing, much as I would like artistically to do that. I would love to have the record of this because I think this is a great sounding cast.

NR: And the orchestrations are wonderful. I have the first CD and I love it, but there are a lot of new things I would love to have also.

RS: Well, what a great opportunity. How many times can a composer go back in and tweak and do things and say, "I always wanted to do this" and have the opportunity to do it? And I think that Rachel and Doug...I think our three voices are very complementary to each other. They're all distinctive. They're real strong and they each have a unique personality.

NR: How do you compare performing a character in a musical vs. your pop or rock career?

RS: In Pirates, they welcomed my style of singing, but Frank was the first time that a guy said, "This is exactly the way I want to hear this kind of music." Frank makes no apologies about it. He writes in a pop style and that's what he believes in. He believes that's the future of musical theater in a sense of how it's going to succeed in the next millennium and when I sang for him the first time he said, "Man, that's what I'm looking for. You just sing it with style." And I said, "You don't know how long I've been waiting for somebody to say that to me. And not say, `Could you sort of adapt and make it sound like...?'" I think one of my strengths that's carried me for 20 years on Broadway is the fact that I don't sing in a "conservatory" style, which is wonderful and admirable, but I'm not interested in singing that way. If Frank is opening a door that I can continue to travel in singing... I've always put my own style into how I sing a song. I'm hoping that this is a good warm association with him with a bright future for some other projects.

NR: When did you first learn about the League and what has been your reaction?

RS: My wife and I were talking about it on the way here. This interview that I'm doing here is a unique thing now with the Internet. For example, if you do an interview for the Daily News, it will be scanned over by a whole spectrum of people. But this interview is specifically for people who are really, truly interested in this absolute moment, and know it well. This is like concentrated orange juice now. This is the real thing. It's not diluted at all. So this is a very important thing. One thing that I know is there are probably very strong opinions running in the League. I'm sure they run very strong. When I first came here I had the Internet setup and I thought, "Let me take a look at that thing." And there are such opinions in the thing that I said, "I have to stay clear of that thing, because it's kind of like Superman saying `Let's go look at some Kryptonite.'" because people are so strongly opinionated and I don't know if people like me or not but I've got to go out there and do my job every night and that's getting too personal for me. Because I can't cloud my judgement on calls that I make as a performer, and all I'm doing is making my calls as a performer, and some people seem to take it a little personally. You know, it's a personal business but it's very impersonal too. I approach it with all my passion and everything, but as soon as I'm done, as soon as that wig comes off, I'm walking my dog and going home and renting a movie or whatever. I can't take it with me. It does travel with me. It's in a lot of conversations about this stuff, about the future of the show and that sort of thing, but I don't beat myself up too much about Chauvelin.

NR: Actually, if you were reading things originally, everybody was very thrown. There was a new director coming in and there was going to be a new script and everybody wondered, "What are they going to do to our show?" It really didn't take long for people to say, "Oh, I really like that."

RS: But you have to understand "It's our show." We embrace everybody who helps us do it, but it's ... you know what? It's not even my show, it's transitory. It's like being in a piece of furniture. I'm Chauvelin for now, but there'll be another Chauvelin sitting here in the life of this show. Who knows what the future is? There'll be another Chauvelin saying, "Well I see it this way. That Rex had it all wrong." It's not mine. It's just mine for now.

NR: You just had a caricature at Sardi's. How did that feel?

RS: Really neat, really neat. We did it very quietly. We're going to do a bigger one, because it was just my wife and I and Doug joined us. It was just the three of us because we just got over a terrible flu. We went on our vacation and both of us got sick as dogs and we're expecting a child, by the way.

NR: Oh, I didn't know that. Congratulations. Do you want me to announce that?

RS: It doesn't matter. Courtney's 12 weeks along. Sure, you can tell people.

NR: What do you wish you had more time for in your life?

RS: My children.

NR: And what do you want to do in the future?

RS: I'd like to do everything I've done again and do it better. Not to go back, but as my life keeps going, and your days kind of repeat themselves, being a better husband, being a better father, being a better actor, being just better. That's it, just to improve.

NR: That's great. Thank you very much.

RS: All right.

Rex is thrilled to be back on Broadway and a part of this historically revamped version of The Scarlet Pimpernel. I wish him a long and successful run as Chauvelin and the best to him and Courtney with the impending birth of their child.

Questions suggested by:

Andrew, Tom Robson, Kathy, Peter Williams, Meredith, Suzanne, Mary Helfrick, Susan Cassidy, James

Interview conducted and photographs by Nancy Rosati.