Line #5 Theatre/TheScarletPimpernel


1	''The Scarlet Pimpernel'' is a musical based on [[Literature/TheScarletPimpernel the novel by Baroness Orczy]]. The music is by Frank Wildhorn (''Theatre/JekyllAndHyde''), book and lyrics by Nan Knighton. It debuted on Broadway in 1997, going through several revisions over the next few years before settling on version 4 in 2000.
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4	!!In additional to various tropes inherited from the novels, this musical provides examples of:
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6	* AscendedExtra: Dewhurst, here TheLancer instead of just another league member.
7	* BSODSong: Plenty of them. Percy has "Prayer", Chauvelin has the reprise of "Where's the Girl?", and later versions give Marguerite "I'll Forget You".
8	* ButHeSoundsHandsome: "They Seek Him Here," in which Sir Percy sings his new poem in praise of the Pimpernel, which quickly becomes a court fashion. Also briefly during "The Scarlet Pimpernel" when, after hearing all the rumors, Percy proclaims the Pimpernel "This lucky bloody swell."
9	* CelibateHero: Although Percy is madly in love with his wife, he shuns her because of her apparent crime and has yet to consummate their marriage. Also, given his profession, he probably doesn't have the time to be anything else.
10	* CompositeCharacter: The eighteen strong League of the Scarlet Pimpernel, aside from Percy and Armand, were folded into Dewhurst[[note]]Who also inherits the novel's Ffoulkes position as The Lancer[[/note]], Elton, Farleigh, Ben, Hal, Ozzy, Hastings, Neville, and Leggett. Later revisions cut the later three men out and give their lines to the first six.
11	** The Creator/TakarazukaRevue production merged Armand's character with Tussaud, making the former the love interest of Marie.
12	* DareToBeBadass: "Into the Fire".
13	* DarkReprise:
14	** Chauvelin sings "Where's The Girl?" as a love song to Marguerite, then later renounces her in a snarling reprise.
15	** Shortly after "When I Look at You", it is repeated by a second character with exactly the same lyrics.
16	** A reprise of Madame Guillotine. While hard to make darker, it is a declaration of determination to hunt by Chauvelin and is in some cases referred to as The Riddle: Part 1. While not on most albums, it's on the German cast album as "Das Verwirrspiel: Teil 1"
17	* DecompositeCharacter: The Creator/TakarazukaRevue production restores Ffoulkes as a separate character.
18	* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Marguerite's best friend Marie Grosholtz, later Marie Tussaud. Yes, that Madame Tussaud.
19	* HomesicknessHymn: The cut song "Home", which would have had Marguerite swear to return to France one day, somehow. Well...at least she [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor gets her wish by the end of the musical.]]
20	* InterplayOfSexAndViolence: “Madame Guillotine” plays with imagery of the guillotine as a lover.
21	--> Now come let our lady possess you
22	--> In her breathtaking hair-raising bed
23	--> She will tingle your spine
24	--> As she captures your heart and your head
25	* IWantSong: "Home Again" and "When I Look At You" -- In the latter, Marguerite wants the man she fell in love with back, please.
26	* InsistentTerminology: Percy prefers to call Chauvelin "Mr. Shoovelin." The Creator/TakarazukaRevue production had characters find new ways of botching Chauvelin's name. Percy himself corrects one instance.
27	* LovingAShadow: In "When I Look at You," Marguerite looks at her cooling marriage and wonders if she simply fell in love with her idea of Percy rather than the real thing:
28	--> Did I create a dream?
29	--> Was he a fantasy?
30	--> Even a memory is paradise for all the fools like me.
31	** Shortly after, in a CallBack, Percy reprises the song to show that his thoughts are running in the same course -- his fear that he fell for a dream that he can never have.
32	* MyGirlIsNotASlut: Chauvelin was Marguerite's lover for a brief time before she met Percy; she's so afraid that Percy will leave her if he learns about her past and thinks her to be a loose woman that Chauvelin is able to blackmail her.
33	* OpeningChorus: "Madame Guillotine"
34	* ThePromise: "Prayer," where Percy, shaken by the death of his friend and the [[spoiler:seeming]] betrayal of his wife, vows to battle the evils of the Revolution:
35	--> With time,
36	--> I'll find a way to right this wrong,
37	--> If it takes my whole life long,
38	--> Lord, I'll fight my battles all alone,
39	--> But make me strong!
40	%%* PromotedToLoveInterest: Marguerite and Chauvelin have a history that keeps repeating itself.
41	* SarcasticConfession: At one point, Sir Percy cheerfully confesses to being the Scarlet Pimpernel, getting an AndImTheQueenOfSheba in response.
42	* SpiritedYoungLady: Marguerite moves easily in society, but is also a former performer at La Comedie Francaise who sparkles with wit and enjoys living life to its fullest -- something seen at her wedding reception in "Vivez" and when she infiltrates France in disguise as a tart in "Storybook."
43	* VillainSong: "Falcon in the Dive" for Chauvelin.
44	* WeUsedToBeFriends: At the heart of "When I Look at You," where Marguerite sadly concludes that the Percy she's married to is not the Percy she used to know.
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Context Theatre / TheScarletPimpernel