This is the second part of my interview with Ron Bohmer. If you haven't already done so, you should read the first part.

In this section, Ron shared some more thoughts on Percy, and we discussed his website and his approach to his fans.

Ron with his dog, Griffin

NR: How did the show evolve from the beginning of the tour to when you got to New York? Where there a lot of changes made?

RB: Well, the whole Grappin thing was something we started talking about at the beginning of the tour. We took measurements for a new costume although we didn't know what it was going to be. I talked about some ideas with Jane (Greenwood). I had this kind of a Spanish idea - I wanted a sort of a Spanish influence. She said, "We can do that. Sure." We even talked about making him a Spaniard, just getting rid of the Belgian thing and making him Spanish. Ultimately when everything arrived we realized that wasn't necessary. We just let the costume do the work. That was something we needed to change.

The fop changed a lot for me from the beginning to the end. We went from really going for the laughs in the beginning, having him be really silly in the drawing room, to having him be a little more bitter with her and a little more hurt. Rather than have him immediately be able to just put this on, having it be harder for him, having the posturing be challenging for him, having him realize he has to think about this. We have him slip out of it when Armand says, "The Pimpernel," and for a second Percy thinks, "Oh damn, I forgot my disguise." Then he goes back into it. Also too, we're heightening what is under that veil of disguise with Marguerite, which is pain. It's painful. It's not fun to live with him. We tried to make that scene much more Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and much less slapstick. There are varying degrees of whether or not people think it works, but I think it gives you much more of a sense of what life in the Blakeney house has become like with these two people who never consummated their marriage and, consequently are always making nasty jokes to each other.

NR: OK, let's get away from Pimpernel for a moment. Tell me about your song writing.

RB: (laughs)

NR: How long have you been doing that?

RB: (laughing) Not very long.

NR: Really?

RB: No, not long at all actually. The song writing came about when I was doing my CD, Everyman, and my producer, David Chase, who's a good friend of mine and a wonderful song writer...he's written songs for Baywatch and material for Eric Carmen and a number of good performers. He was so busy with my record and I told him that I wanted to do at least one original song on the record. I wanted it to be a pop song instead of all theater stuff. He said, "Great. I'll work on it." but his muse wasn't coming. I'd call him every week and say, "Any ideas for the song?" He would say, "Well, I'm getting feelings for it but nothing's really coming." I started to think, "Oh no, we're recording in a month and you don't have anything written." I started to get really nervous. I started to think, "What would I like to be on the record?" Then I started writing some ideas down. Most people I've talked to about it - song writing is like this. You really don't know where they come from. Something just happens. You become like you're taking dictation. "For Everyman" was the first song I wrote for the record. I wrote it in about six hours. I got the idea and boom - it was just there. I called him and I don't play any instruments. I called him up and I said, "It sounds like this" and I sang it. He said, "Wow! That's a good song!" I said, "Really?" So, we started working on that. Literally, the next day, I wrote "When the Lights Go Out." That one just came to me in a flash. I wrote the third one that we included on the record, "Tell it to the Wind" in an hour. I wrote it in the shower. I got in the shower, got an idea, and got out and wrote something on a piece of paper. Then I got back in the shower, jumped out again and wrote something else. It was before a matinee of Sunset Boulevard. By the time I finished the shower, I called David and said, "What about this?" I sang it to him and he said, "Man, you've got another one."

NR: Do you want to keep doing that?

RB: Yeah, I have kept doing it actually. I want to get my next CD going. My next record we'll include at least seven original songs that I've done. I've written nine. There are seven of them that I want to record.

NR: Tell me about your website. First of all, I have to say that it's very well done. Kristine (Kulage) has done a terrific job. I had to really think, "What can I ask in this interview that's not already there?" How did that come about?

RB: Kristine contacted me. She had seen Aspects of Love years ago at the Fox in St. Louis. Then she came to see Sunset Boulevard. She and her sister were the best audience ever. They were so enthusiastic. They came back stage afterwards and we signed autographs. Kristine wrote me when I was doing Phantom. I was out in L.A. and the CD had just come out. She wrote me and said that she was just getting into this type of thing. She was doing a website called Gateway to Broadway and it was about St. Louis theater. She said if I was interested in doing a website she would be happy to do one for me. I had just gotten into computers. I had just bought one myself recently. The Internet was brand new to me. I looked at some of the fan sites that were out there and I realized there were a lot of unofficial sites. I thought that if I said, "No," she could really do this anyway, and maybe not do it very well, but if I said, "Yes," and I helped her and I gave her a lot of stuff, and told her, "I'd like it to be this," or "I'd like it to be that" it could be a really great site. So, that's what we did. It started out on Geocities as a free site but it was hard because the address was so complicated, it was hard to get people to come to it. It was actually my friend, Brad Little, who plays the Phantom out on tour that said, "You really should purchase a domain name and make it RonBohmer.com." I did that and boom, the hits just went up instantly. We started getting a lot of attention. The wonderful thing about Kristine is that she's a fast learner. She's very eager to get things going. As she became more and more excited about the site, she would learn how to do more things and she would add more things.

NR: You're so open on that website. It doesn't bother you to have everyone know so much about your life? Does it make you nervous at all? I noticed you mentioned something on the site about your daughters.

RB: I'm careful about my daughters. I don't run photographs of them on that. I did initially and I got a reaction from family and friends saying, "This makes us uncomfortable." There were a lot of horror stories about people finding out about celebrities' children - not that I'm any big celebrity or anything like that, but nonetheless, when you publish on the Internet, everything is out there. I thought about it and I agreed that it's better to be safe than sorry. So, in that regard I'm very cautious about it. But, I have found through my life...I went through a divorce last year and that was one of the hardest times for me ever. What was tough about it was that I had spent a large part of my life projecting an image of myself that I could not keep up. It was an image of the perfect father and the perfect husband and also, "Yeah, look. He's an actor and he does Broadway, but he's so normal and he's such a good father." And I really found that ultimately, (and it had more to do with my relationship than anything else), I found that I was projecting something that I was not. I was trying to create a "Superman" kind of "Mr. Perfect" image that I couldn't live up to. Through the course of going through the divorce and all of the therapy, I really found out that it was OK to be flawed, and to not be what everyone expects you to be. Somehow that made it OK for me to become an open book. I got much more open with the website. I became more free about "This is who I am. This is where I'm from. This is what I like. This is what I don't like. This is who I love." I feel a lot better about that than I did about trying to create something. This way, if people come and they've visited the website, there's a much more personal sense. I think that by demystifying somebody that you see in a show, it takes away some of the crazy element that some fans have, where you get people who think, "Oh, I have to find out everything I can about this person. I have to follow them home." The great thing about the Internet for me is, "You want to find out more about me? Go see my site."

NR: That's true, but do you think it makes you more accessible? I remember when Douglas told me that he was very friendly and very open with people, but it made some people think of themselves as his friend, when actually he considered them to be an acquaintance. Then they felt they had access to his life which was not what he wanted.

RB: I know that Doug was tremendously open with his fans and with his time. I heard that Douglas used to have people come up to his dressing room - people he didn't even know. I know I would never do that. I just would not do that because I think that's lowering a barrier that you should not lower. With the Internet, I still have a barrier. Whatever is there is through my eyes first. Kristine and I have created it and said, "Yes. You're privy to this. You can have all of this." What it does in a lot of ways is it gratifies that "need to know" in certain people but at the same time, doesn't put them in that mode of "let's find this out." Consequently it gives me space but at the same time allows me to feel that I'm in touch with everybody.

NR: Now, you encourage people to email you...

RB: Totally.

NR: ...and you answer them back.

RB: It's so much easier than people writing me here at the theater. I'm horrible about answering my regular mail, but I do get to my email because I don't have to lick any stamps. I can just type, "Thanks. Glad you liked the show. Here's the answer to your question."

NR: Are you afraid you're going to come home and each day there's going to be more and more e-mail, and you're going to have trouble getting to it?

RB: (laughing) It has gotten a little heavy since I started the show. I think there were 31 messages this morning when I downloaded it. For me that was a lot.

NR: You did two shows today. If you go home tonight and you get another 31 messages that people expect you to answer, do you see where this could get to be a problem at some point?

RB: Generally, my rules about the site in terms of answering email, are that I don't become a pen-pal. I will respond to somebody but if it gets to the point where somebody is writing to me a number of times and asking me a lot of questions, I just let it phase out. Sandra's offered to help me and I'm probably going to have to hire somebody to sort of help me go through it. I will always answer everything personally because I really believe in that. It isn't a case with this show - this show sells because of its fans. My fans are not necessarily what keep this show alive, but for my CD, that is what keeps my CD alive - my fans. I feel that I always have a second to express gratitude to people who have shown an interest in something that I do, or who have taken the time to write and say, "I like this. This meant something to me." I can always find time for that. Like you said, it's getting heavier than I expected because of the exposure from the show. It's pretty manageable for me at this point. The nice thing about this show is it attracts some wonderful enthusiastic people who are delightful to talk to. Let's be real about this - this is the best job in the world! How many jobs are there where when you're done with your job, people stand up and applaud and cheer for you? Then on top of that, wait to personally tell you that they thought you were wonderful. That's great and I'm thrilled about that. I'll always find time for that.

NR: What do you think the League can do to keep the buzz going?

RB: That's a tough question. I think that word of mouth has always been the strongest thing this show has ever had going for it, and not just with the League, but just with the "average joe." What keeps this show alive is that people have a genuinely good time. This is a fun show. This isn't a show for people who have come to learn something, or who have come to elevate themselves, although I believe those things happen through this show. This is a show for people who've had a rotten, lousy day and get to come and they're smiling by the end of it.

NR: (laughing) It's funny you should say that because that's what happened to my family. We had all had a rotten day the first time we came. It was raining and we were stuck in traffic. We had about five minutes to eat a slice of pizza before we ran into the theater and I remember all four of us just sitting in our seats and thinking, "OK, entertain us!" By the end of the show we were smiling and laughing and thinking about when we could come back.

RB: That is unique of anything on Broadway. I haven't seen The Lion King...I haven't seen everything on Broadway so that's not fair for me to say that, but this is totally fun and that's a very rare thing. Shows like Les Miz or Miss Saigon are very heavy. Phantom is very heavy and the lead character is a wacko. All that stuff makes you crazy. This show is about fun and God bless it for that. I think Broadway's been aching for this. This is a remedy for what's been wrong with theater for a number of years. I'm thrilled to see it and I want to see more of it. This is where I think theater should be headed - towards things that people truly enjoy, can laugh at, and gives them some great tunes that they walk out humming at the end of the night. It seems to me that that's exactly what Broadway needs.

NR: So, what do you do to try and keep yourself sane?

RB: Well, love helps. My baby keeps me sane because she keeps me rooted in the real world.

Sandra: (laughing) He means the dog!

RB: (laughing) My dog keeps me sane. My kids keep me totally normal. It's been heady stuff for me coming into this and having the attention that I've gotten out of this. What's really kept me at an even keel is that I have a lot of people who really love me and care about me in my life that I'm very close to. They have been very much there for me to appreciate everything that has happened for me, but at the same time remind me, "You're just a guy. You're just my dad." That keeps me sane.

NR: That's wonderful. Thank you so much.

RB: You're welcome.

Ron does a beautiful job in the role of Percy and, not to contradict his daughters, but he's more than "just a guy" - "he's a really nice guy." I'm thrilled to see that SP is in his very capable hands and I encourage everyone who has been hesitating to put those fears aside and see the latest interpretation of The Scarlet Pimpernel.

Questions suggested by:

Gillian, Andrea Barranti, Lois and Elizabeth Colpo, Beth Riley, Andrew Reith, Laura Cutler, Aimee Cherry, Ann Koehler, Stephanie C., Kristina S., Jan Combopiano, Karen K., Anne Teitelbaum, Leona Hoegsberg, Susan and Lauren Cassidy, Vi Janaway, Mary Alice Davis, Judy P., Renee Girard, Trisha Petty, CJL, Lisa George, Susan Luchey, Stephanie Henkin, Amy Lovett, Ladybel, Ruth Farco, Mary Helfrick, Katherine Trottier, Clare Fischer-Davies, Tom Robson, Jennifer Blaylock, Cathy Lemieux, Ken Miller, Michelle, Cheryl Glennon, Bec Finkelstein, Chris Miller