SP: I think the League's biggest impact wasn't on ticket sales but on the morale of the cast members. Really, tickets that we have sold might have helped but the effect wouldn't have been that great.

NR: Nan said that the producers saw the great response. She would go to the message board that you two were talking about and find things and send them to the producers.

SP: She got back to me once. In the very beginning of `98 I had posted something saying why I loved the show. I guess I nailed what she had been trying to communicate and she posted that finally someone had seen the show and did something other than criticize it, because it had been brutalized by the critics so recently.

NR: Well, the critics didn't like it, but they're a very tiny minority and whenever I walked out of that house, the audience loved it. It was so rare to find anyone in the audience who wasn't completely grinning when they walked out the door. They were constantly saying, "Wow, that was much better than I thought. If we come back we can bring so-and-so."

Now, to wrap this up, let's talk about the future, how we can continue to support the show. Going into June, I know a couple of us were nervous. We've all sat through various debates about different performers and a lot of the times, that gets very nasty, unfortunately.

SP: I was afraid that a lot of the League wouldn't be prepared to accept anyone but Douglas.

NR: Exactly, that's what we were all concerned about. So far, it doesn't seem to be the case and I hope that continues. I think it was possible to like both Terry and Rex (Smith), and Christine (Andreas) and Rachel.

KH: And I liked Douglas, and Bryan (Batt) and George (Dvorsky). This is such a great character. I'm sure that Ron (Bohmer) is going to be great.

SP: I've been really cheering Ron on since I first heard he was cast. Like Pimpernel, he has such a supportive fan group, which says something about his talent and his personality. He's a really nice guy.

NR: And Carolee has a huge following. She's going to bring in people who would never, ever consider seeing a Wildhorn show. That's going to be really interesting. Hopefully, they will come in and say, "That wasn't so bad" as opposed to "That was really awful, but I loved Carolee."

SP: I always feel kind of skittish when people say, "No one can be Percy but Douglas Sills." Look at how many great Percys there have been - Leslie Howard and Anthony Andrews who were both fabulous. I don't know if any of you had seen Marius Goring in the TV series, but he was fabulous in another way. I know so many talented actors that I go to school with, or I've worked with in the past, and I think it's a little bit of an injustice to say that no one can play the part or bring something great to it. I can't wait to see more performers. I feel so privileged that I got to see four different Chauvelins.

KH: Going back to the whole thing about everybody being nice, we all have to remember that for each performer in this show, there is somebody who thinks that this person is the greatest person alive, and you can't just step all over everybody else. Everybody has their own opinions. I understand that you don't want to concede some points, but be nice.

SP: There's nothing wrong with having your own personal favorite, as long as you don't insist on them being everyone else's personal favorite.

KH: Exactly, and have an open mind about other people's personal favorites.

NR: Plus, they can have two completely different interpretations and they can both be good.

KH: That's right. I dearly loved Christine and I dearly loved Rachel. They both brought something different to the role. I don't see the need to say, "Well, I loved Christine and nobody else can do it but her." That's foolish because you're not opening yourself up to what this person could be bringing and you could be missing something.

NR: I have to admit that I never saw George because in those days I was avoiding Percy standbys like the plague, and I've heard wonderful things about him and now I'm sorry I missed him.

KH: George rocks!

SP: George has the most gorgeous voice and he sang the heck out of that part. It was amazing.

NR: Well, Bryan convinced me that someone else could do Percy and I would like it. I thoroughly enjoyed watching him, and ended up seeing him five times (which was more than his mother saw him.)

SP: I really wanted to see Bryan.

NR: He was wonderful. It was a very different take than Douglas in many ways, and it was really fun to see that someone else could do this part and do it well.

SP: That's part of what I'm looking at SP3 for. I have an expectation, and it may or may not come true, that this production of Scarlet Pimpernel will legitimize the show in many people's eyes. Not, of course, the League, who are already convinced that it's a legitimate show, but for the general audience who will be coming in and seeing the show, and realizing that it's got more substance than they recall, that it's not just a star vehicle for Douglas Sills, but that it's actually a show. It's such a well put-together fun, adventure of a show, and if people are ready to accept a show being a fun show, then, they just found it. I hope it will get a lot more respect this time around.

KH: Yeah, `cause we're still here, dammit.

NR: I hope so. So, does anyone else have anything else to say?

SP: Viva La Pimpernel!

NR: That's great. Thanks a lot guys.

PW: Thank you.

SP: Thank you. This has been fun.

Interview conducted by Nancy Rosati.