Filled with swashbuckling derring-do, The Scarlet Pimpernel is Frank Wildhorn’s most sheerly entertaining musical, and for its recent concert version, Manhattan Concert Productions presented it with pomp and circumstance—and a guillotine set up at the back of center stage, surrounded by the chorus. Hearing this musical live with a huge chorus was a treat in itself!

The Scarlet Pimpernel (from Baroness Orczy’s famous novel) is set during the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution: British fop Percy, married to French singer-actress Marguerite, leads a band of his countrymen who rescue citizens from execution, with the evil French envoy Chauvelin on his trail. There are shades of Les Miserables in the story and the setting, but Wildhorn has a few musical aces up his sleeve. Alongside rousing choruses are pretty duets for Percy and Marguerite (“Believe” and “When I Look at You”) and defiant battle-cry numbers for Chauvelin (“Falcon in the Dive” and “Where’s the Girl”). All these—and more—were dispatched with aplomb by the starry cast, led by Laura Osnes’s delightfully appealing Marguerite, Tony Yazbeck’s hilariously brash Percy and Norm Lewis’ charismatically nasty Chauvelin. And setting the pace was the large and versatile orchestra under music director Jason Howland.

The most fun of the night was late in the evening, when Yazbeck did a soft-shoe, implored Lewis to do one, then duked it out with him in a short sword fight: Osnes joined in, wielding her weapon even more impressively than the men. Under Gabriel Barre's savvy direction, the whole evening made The Scarlet Pimpernel feel more like an authentic Broadway musical than it did 20 years ago.

The Scarlet Pimpernel 

Manhattan Concert Productions, David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, New York, NY

mcp.us