Ed Dixon played Ozzy in the original cast of The Scarlet Pimpernel and stayed with the show throughout the entire run of SP1. At the time of our interview, Ed was nearing the end of the limited engagement of The Iceman Cometh, and was about to begin rehearsals for an original musical that he wrote called Fanny Hill.

Photo courtesy Ed Dixon

NR: Tell me a little bit about where you grew up.

ED: I grew up in Oklahoma.

NR: Really? That's pretty far from here.

ED: I've come a long way. I came here when I was 18. I had $100 and I didn't know anyone. I had never been to a large city before. (laughing) It's been a LONG walk.

NR: (laughing) I guess you were too young to know that that was a dumb idea!

ED: Things were so unpleasant in Oklahoma. If you can imagine Oklahoma in the 50's. Anything that happened to me here was so pleasant in comparison. (laughs) I didn't expect people to be nice to me. I didn't expect it to be easy. I expected it to be hard and unpleasant, and often I was surprised by how nice it was. I'd never had any money. We were very poor, so I was constantly trying to get a hot dog or something. I remember days when I could get two hot dogs. (laughs) It's really been a long journey.

NR: Did you come because you wanted to do theater?

ED: Oh, sure. I knew from junior high school on. One of the very first things I did was The Threepenny Opera (of all things, to start out with). I had a poster of The Threepenny Opera in German on my wall in my little room in Oklahoma - can you imagine? I also had a big panorama of the skyline of New York on my wall and I knew that that was where I was going. It was amazing that I knew that so early.

NR: Now, you do so many things. You do singing, acting, composing, writing...help me out here.

ED: I also teach. I coach people's auditions. I teach voice. I've done that since 1970. I was in the original revival of No, No, Nanette and some of the dancers came to me and said, "Will you help us?" because I was already getting a reputation as a singer. I said, "Well, I can't make them worse than they are." (laughs) I helped some really damaged voices very early on. Helen Gallagher, who taught a group class in those days, started sending me people, so by the time I was 25, I had a whole studio full of "damaged people" doing really serious repair work on voices. That's how I started out.

I have always composed. I got a scholarship to Manhattan School of Music doing a series of things which they required, but in the optional group I used some songs that I had written, which was what I think put it over the top in terms of me getting a scholarship.

NR: In the beginning, did you want to do everything, or was there one area you concentrated on?

ED: I considered myself a singer when I started. By the time I was 30, I realized that a guy singer was not a very saleable commodity. You've got to be an actor, so I started changing my whole viewpoint. I started off like a "walking voice." Singing was what really interested me first but I started to realize that you have to do a lot more things in order to be rounded.

NR: Did you start taking acting classes then?

ED: I took acting classes and audition classes. Because I came from small towns in Oklahoma and I was really uneducated, it was a long process for me to educate myself. The wonderful thing that happened was that I started doing classical roles and I started having to read all the classics to study. I wasn't a good student, but because of the way my life has been, I've learned things as I've gone along, and have finally become an educated person.

NR: That's great. You do tremendous dialects. Do they just come naturally?

ED: I studied a lot of languages when I was studying opera. I was also an opera singer. I ran away to Europe at one point and lived in Germany.

NR: Really?

ED: Yeah. I am the most eclectic person. I wasn't 30 yet when I did that. I'd always wanted to give it a shot. I went over and I lived there for awhile. That's when I realized that musical theater was what I wanted to really commit to. Before that, I'd always flipped back and forth - I'd do an opera, I'd do a musical, I'd do a concert. I've always been very eclectic for whatever reason.

NR: Well, you went from Pimpernel to Iceman...

ED: That's eclectic. In between, I did Midsummer Night's Dream.

NR: What do you prefer - being on stage or behind the scenes?

ED: You know, what I always find is that they use such different parts of one's personality. Like in teaching, it's a kind of parental thing. Because I don't have kids, it's like I get to exercise a part of myself that I wouldn't have otherwise. The creative act of writing is such a unique act because it's completely new, whereas when you're working as an actor. you're recreating something. So, they're all such different ways of expression and I can't imagine dropping any of them at this point. I enjoy teaching so much. I taught today. I enjoy it. It's kind of an interaction with another person that's unique. It's one on one. It has to do with sharing what you know and helping a person to do better. It's a very paternal feeling that I enjoy very much.

NR: Are the students that you are teaching adults or college students?

ED: I like to work with professional people. I started off doing really remedial work and it's been a long walk to get to work with people that...I got to coach Bebe Neuwirth for Chicago. We're old friends. That was a thrill. One of the most thrilling things that ever happened to me...my idol was George Rose. Before he died, one of the last things he did was a new Alan Jay Lerner show, Dance A Little Closer, and he wanted to change the way he did it. He was my idol, and he came to me to coach. He wanted to come up with a Germanic type of singing. It was an amazing experience. I got to coach Allison Reed for the movie A Chorus Line when she played Cassie. It's wonderful to be able to work with really highly skilled professionals in a way like that.

NR: Let's talk about Pimpernel a little bit. Looking back, can you believe the roller coaster that this show has been through?

ED: It's one of the most amazing things that I've ever seen.

NR: Have you ever seen anything like it?

ED: No, I haven't. Don't ever expect to again.

NR: Did you think about staying with the show for the second version?

ED: No. Ozzy was the first part I ever took in New York that didn't have his own song. It was a kind of humor that I hadn't gotten to do in New York. I'd played a part that was very similar to Ozzy in Iolanthe, a Gilbert and Sullivan piece in Boston. I had such a great time with him. I just loved that dithering, English, half-drunk, upper-class loser. I had so much fun doing it that when I saw it I thought that I had the opportunity to bring this to life. I was so tempted to do it, but I really fought with myself. I didn't want to do a role with no song in New York. I thought about it and finally I decided to do it. There wasn't a very long prognosis for the show's future when I signed on. I thought I would do it for a few weeks and then I would do something else. (laughing) Imagine my surprise!

NR: You made it all the way to October.

ED: I signed a year's contract but I just didn't think I would be there for a year. It was such a great experience working with Douglas (Sills) and seeing him come into his own. That was probably the greatest joy. That and the fact that Allen Fitzpatrick and I are old friends. We'd never worked together because we tend to do a lot of the same kind of parts. We're different, but for some reason we tend to do the same parts. Normally, if a show is going to have a particular kind of character man, it would be one or the other, but never both. For example, I did the national tour of Sunset Boulevard playing Max and he's doing the "bus and truck" right now. He's got the driest sense of humor of just about anyone in the world, so on days when I'd be blue, he would cheer me up.

NR: Well, it wasn't a solo, but "Into the Fire" looked like it was a fun song.

ED: Oh, that was definitely fun.

NR: And "The Creation of Man" looked like it was a fun song.

ED: Yeah, but nothing is fun after a hundred times. It is just really hard.

NR: Now, did you know that Douglas was going to torture you on October 1st? (the last performance of SP1)

ED: No, I didn't know that. That was so swell. We had played around so many times, and so often, and knew each other so well, that he felt safe to do that, and I felt safe to do it too. That was the aspect of it that was really remarkable. First of all, when was anything ever so free-form that such a situation could come up? Never. There was one day on the tour of Pippin when Ben Vereen was doing his farewell. He had also directed it. He was the star, he had created the role, he was the director and he was in charge. On the last day, we were in Florida somewhere, and he said, "I'm the director and I'm telling you that you can do anything that you want to do, and I mean anything." (laughing) On that one day, people did some very funny things, but the promoter came back and got very upset. It's a very rare situation when you get to do whatever.

NR: That was an interesting performance. (laughs)

ED: Yes, it was. I don't know that I've ever had more fun than that. That was so much fun.

NR: And it broke up the tension because I'm sure a few people were a little sad.

ED: Oh, sure.

NR: So now it seems like you're dealing with a hundred things at the same time. You're in a show that's a marathon. How are you doing all of these other things at the same time?

ED: Here's an exciting week - check this out. The Sunday of the Tonys...Bebe Neuwirth is an old friend. Her boyfriend was out of town so she asked me to be her date. She had on a quarter million dollars worth of diamonds. I had on an eight thousand dollar set of tails that I was given when Sunset Boulevard closed. It was such an event. We got home at two or three in the morning. At ten the next morning we started casting for Fanny Hill. I cast all day, went directly to the theater to do the show, got out at midnight. At ten, we started casting for Fanny Hill again. It went that way all week. Plus, we were doing a reading of my new play, Pere Lachaise which is about the famous cemetery in Paris where all these famous people are buried - Victor Hugo, Oscar Wilde, Isadore Duncan, Sarah Bernhardt, Jim Morrison, Rossini, and it's them sitting around talking about who's important and who should be remembered. We got half of the cast of Iceman, so we had to rehearse that and do the reading the following Sunday. That was a hell of a week. That was a week when you know you're in showbiz. But we seem to have picked up backing and it looks like that's going to come to Off Broadway. In the middle of all this, that's also going up.

NR: When do you think that will be?

ED: Hopefully next year. We're doing the papers right now. It's been a helluva year.

NR: How did you write Fanny Hill and your CD? How do you write all of these at the same time?

ED: I worked with Cy Coleman a lot in the old days. I used to listen to his music when I was a kid in Oklahoma and then we became friends and I did a number of his projects. I did a number of fund-raisers with him. I once did a fund-raiser with him of On the Twentieth Century. It was Cy Coleman, Betty Comden, Adolph Green and me. I used to listen to Sweet Charity all the time. The first show I saw - the first day I came here - was Sweet Charity with Gwen Verdon, and I worked with him ever since. I noticed that he always had three or four projects going at once so you don't have all of your eggs in one basket. You don't have that terrible feeling of "I'm living for this one project" and then you watch its ups and downs too closely. Besides, if you enjoy creating, you can't keep creating on one project all the time. I've really noticed some writers get attached to one particular project and then if it doesn't go well, they're just devastated.

NR: I can imagine. Look what would have happened if Frank Wildhorn only had Civil War.

ED: Imagine if that's all he worked on for ten years.

NR: Do you write the words first or the music first?

ED: Always the words first. To me, in cocktail music or cabaret music or in background music, you can always do the music first. But in theater, it has to be theater. So, if it ceases to move a dramatic idea forward, it's no good, even if the song is beautiful. I feel very strongly about this so I try to always have a piece be cohesive. Any high school kid of sixteen with a guitar can write a lovely melody or a lovely love song, and they all do, but a musical is a very different situation. You can have a great tune, but if it comes in the wrong place, and with no setup, it falls flat as a pancake.

NR: Do you write the story first and then decide where you need a song?

ED: I usually adapt a work in the public domain so I do an outline, and then I fill in dialogue. If I see, "Ooh, he's really got to sing a song to her here" then I'll write a dummy lyric and then I refine it, but it always comes from the work first.

NR: How long does it take roughly?

ED: A year.

NR: That's for a full scale musical? That's what Fanny Hill is, right?

ED: Yes. You can have a very cohesive draft in three months. You can see where the songs are but it's not complete. I work very fast. I like to get so I can see the whole lay of it. The first draft of Fanny Hill...the minute I thought of it I knew it was a good idea.

NR: I think I read on Playbill Online that you were saying that it's not obscene...

ED: (laughs) The original book is obscene. I was looking for subject matter.

NR: Where would you rate your version, if you were going to put a movie rating on it?

ED: PG.

NR: Really?

ED: Yeah, there's no nudity. It's insinuative, the way Chicago is or the way Cabaret is. I don't know what you'd rate those. They're naughty. Fanny Hill is naughty. It's almost a cartoon. It's funny. I used humor. When she's being chased around the room by an old man, as opposed to it being done in a pornographic sense, it's funny. He's a hundred years old, and I'm really trying to capture how absurd that is. I expect you to see her legs but I don't expect to see her naked. I expect her to be sexy but I don't expect her to be vulgar. A number of the situations that she finds herself in are very compromising but I try to treat it in a way that lets you enjoy it without feeling uncomfortable.

NR: Do you find that people question you when you say you're doing Fanny Hill? Do you think you're going to have to defend yourself or explain it all the time?

ED: I've had some instances like that. But, I can ask them if they've ever read Gaston Leroux's book The Phantom of the Opera. If you think it's anything like the Broadway show, you're very mistaken. It's an idea. You use it as source material. If it's in the public domain you can do whatever you like. This was written in 1750, so believe me, it's in the public domain.

NR: At least you know the author's not going to come after you.

ED: I think that the reason that nobody ever thought of doing it is because of that. It has something like 35 sex scenes in it, but when I got the idea I thought, "What if I look for the plot points and just skip all that? - OK, she was born here, she had to go to London, her parents died, she had to get a job, she meets a woman who seems like a mother figure but she's actually a madam, but Fanny's so naive." It's a fantastic story that she ends up getting into a profession and she didn't even know what it was. She has no options so she does it, but then she finds a man that she really loves, and she loses him, then she becomes very famous for her profession and in the end he comes back and he doesn't know what she does. It's a wonderful story. By the end she lives in the biggest house on the highest hill. She's weathered all this adversity and she finally marries the man she loves. I think it's sweet. She has all these adventures on the way.

NR: Now, you're hoping this will go to Broadway I believe.

ED: Right. Goodspeed is a place where people try things out. At Chester, they try new things and from there came Annie, Shenandoah, Man of La Mancha. It's been a launching pad for a number of shows that came here. People go up and look at things there. They spend a lot of money putting them up so you get to see a really fleshed out version of your show. When producers come and look at it they're really seeing your show. It would cost me two hundred thousand dollars to do this in New York. They're taking care of everything for me. And you know, two hundred thousand dollars up there is a million dollars down here, so you get a lot of bang for your buck. It's a real shot to have your show be seen. We have a wonderful cast and everyone's very excited.

NR: Did you start rehearsal already?

ED: No, we start Monday. I finish here Saturday.

NR: You get to sleep on Sunday?

ED: (laughing) I think everyone should have one day, don't you?

NR: Everyone should have one day to rest. God took one day to rest so I think you're entitled. (laughs) OK, so you have this next show coming up. Anything else going on?

ED: I wrote a musical with A. R. Gurney called Richard Cory based on an early play of his and we did it at Playwrights Horizons, at Manhattan Theater Club and at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Conference, and now it's going to be done in Dallas at the Lyric Stage. That's the company that did Cather County, my piece that I did two years ago and it won the Leon Rabin Award for Best New Work in Texas. They're doing a full version in January and February, so things are popping.

NR: Let me ask you this. What do you prefer doing - musicals or dramas?

ED: Some drama like Midsummer Night's Dream, which I just did, has a very musical feel to it. Doing The Iceman Cometh, it does not have a musical feel to it. It's long. My character is unbelievably depressed and hopeless and I end depressed and hopeless. After doing that for several months, I'm finding myself longing for a musical. I was booked to do Mr. Bumble in the revival of Oliver! which Cameron Mackintosh is bringing over, but now for some reason or other it's on hold again. That was supposed to have started in the fall and I was really looking forward to it. I've been working on "Boy For Sale" for the last year and now I guess it's going to be put off again, so I don't know what's next. The idea of going to Connecticut to do this short, fun, lively, sexy musical...I couldn't be more thrilled. I'm bringing a motor scooter up because it's the country. I'm going to be puttering around in the woods. I did that the last time I was up there. I'm so excited about it. I feel like I'm going to summer camp. Plus I know everybody up there and I know a lot of people in the cast. It's like being with my pals.

NR: That's wonderful. Good luck with it.

ED: Thanks.

Ed is such an interesting person to talk to. His interests are so varied and I found the different aspects of his career to be fascinating. He was the first Thenardier that I saw in Les Miz, and I still remember how very impressed I was with his portrayal ten years ago. His performance as Ozzy was such a marvelous component of SP1 and I'm happy to see that his post-Pimpernel career is flourishing. I wish him the best in all of his projects.

Questions suggested by:

Margaret Lo, Thom and Colleen Rosati, Shari Perkins, Tom Robson, Joanna Morton-Gary, Jan Combopiano, Michelle Irons, Tim, Susan Cassidy, Eric Kolb