The spectacular new production of "The Scarlet Pimpernel," which opened Tuesday night at the Music Circus, flourishes on the striking vocal talent of its three leads, Brad Little, Leah Hocking and William Michals.
 Individually and collectively, the trio provide the most accomplished vocals of the summer season.

Little, Hocking, and Michals are all veterans of significant roles in distinctive Broadway, off-Broadway and regional musical theater productions.

Playing, respectively, the English nobleman Sir Percy Blakeney, his French wife, Marguerite, and her former lover, the murderous Citizen Chauvelin, the three form a seductive and believable love triangle set against the bloody brutality of the French Revolution.

As singers and actors, each performer possesses unique qualities, but they share generous talent and onstage magnetism that fill "Pimpernel's" romantic adventure with charisma and emotional resonance.

Director Glenn Casale effectively balances the play's humor, action and romantic intrigue, making efficient use of flexible stage configurations to suggest the numerous locations of the story.

Leon Wiebers' lush and witty costumes contribute to "Pimpernel's" sumptuous mood.

Though there were intermittent sound amplification problems on opening night, the drop-outs didn't affect the powerful singing performances.

Based on the novel by the Baroness Orczy, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" has a book and lyrics by Nan Knighton and music by Frank Wildhorn. Though many of the songs have a flowery power-ballad quality, the extraordinary performances make them more memorable than they probably deserve to be.

Set in both England and France, the story features an early beheading at the guillotine, which soberly balances the play's often-flippant humor.

Though Sir Percy Blakeney (Little) cultivates the air of an indulgent, foppish aristocrat, he has secretly formed a society of like-minded friends trying to overthrow the oppressive French revolutionary regime. Creating a disguised alter ego as the Scarlet Pimpernel, Blakeney and his collaborators make forays across the English Channel to create havoc for Chauvelin and the controlling French authorities.

Immediately after their marriage, Percy suspects his new bride (Hocking) may be an informer for the French regime, so he keeps his disruptive activities secret while maintaining an emotional distance as well.

Little has a flair for the production's broad visual comedy, while his vocal gifts are beautifully displayed in the duet with Hocking, "You Are My Home," and the yearning ballad "She Was There."

Hocking has a brassy, jazzy quality to her voice in songs such as "When I Look at You," "I'll Forget You" and the opening "Storybook."

Michals, as the jilted Chauvelin, shows a striking tenor in songs such as "Madame Guillotine," "Falcon in the Dive" and "Where's the Girl?"

The legacy of Leland Ball lives large in this production at the Music Circus. Ball, the former producing director of the California Musical Theatre (Music Circus' parent organization), believed in bringing the best national musical theater performers he could cast to Sacramento.

Ball's commitment to putting the best artists on stage has created a pipeline to experienced Broadway talent who now look forward to working under the new tent.
 
 

When Brad Little steps on stage Tuesday night in "The Scarlet Pimpernel," the Wells Fargo Pavilion audience will see a larger-than-life, swashbuckling character and a full-voiced actor. All the intense preparation Little and director Glenn Casale have done will vanish in the rush of the romantic adventure story. But the two men have been preparing for months to reach the concentrated two-week rehearsal period that leads to the brief one-week Music Circus run.
"I have all my work lined up before January, so the job from January to May is to prep for the summer," director Casale said during a break in "The Pirates of Penzance," which he also directed this summer at Music Circus.

"I can't come in here today and start prepping for next week, but people think I do that," Casale said with a laugh. Casale lives in Las Vegas, where he supervises the graduate directing program in the theater department at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He still directs theater productions all over the country, though Sacramento and Music Circus must certainly qualify as a home - he's staged 36 shows here and six more at the Community Center Theater for the Broadway Series since 1988.

Before spending part of the summer here, Casale was in Beverly, Mass., where he directed "Beauty and the Beast" in the round at the North Shore Music Theater. Doing shows back to back seems like a grind, but the director remembers summers when he and Leland Ball (former producing director at Music Circus) split the seven-show season between them, and the rehearsal time was less than the 14 days they now have.

Casale has learned he needs to immediately bring together everyone working on a production to create a strong sense of what they're going to do.

"The first day, I try to set what the whole idea is going to look like," he explained. "Then we go to the table and do a read-through of the script. That read-through puts everybody on the same page of this production. And for the next week and a half, I make sure everybody's working on this production of this play. I don't care what they did on the tour or on Broadway - this is a different arena, literally."

Based on the novel by the Baroness Orczy, "The Scarlet Pimpernel" has music by Frank Wildhorn with lyrics and book by Nan Knighton. The story takes place during the French Revolution, opening as French and English nobles Marguerite St. Just and Sir Percival Blakeney announce their engagement. But Marguerite is suddenly sentenced to the guillotine, and the two must escape from France to England.

"I went back to that novel, which is a great novel, but it's written about her (Marguerite) with her as the lead," Casale said.

"That source material gives you so much to go off of, whether it's the look of the piece or the real stuff that's going on with the characters. What you do is you get all this subtext and you can play a lot of that," he added.

Of course, staging a production in the round has its own specific issues.

"You want to look at where the focus of these 2,200 people is going to be," Casale said. "The hardest thing in the round is to keep switching focus. Do I have the person who's singing in clear focus, so there's no distraction? Because anywhere you sit in this arena it's going to be a different point of view."

When Casale directed "Beauty and the Beast" in Massachusetts, his leading man was also Brad Little. And though they talked some about "Pimpernel" they couldn't focus on it then. Little is a veteran of national and international tours of "Phantom of the Opera," starring as the man behind the mask. His Broadway and national tour credits also include "Cyrano, the Musical," "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Anything Goes."

Little is used to going from one show to the next and has worked out a system to prepare himself for the abbreviated rehearsal periods.

"First I read the script, highlighting all my lines in yellow. Then I memorize them," Little said.

He said this particular script looks like the yellow pages because he's in most of the scenes.

"Then I hire an accompanist to run the music for me, and I record that," Little said. "I take everybody else's lines and I record them, leaving spaces for my dialogue. Then I have the whole show on tape, and I just run it until I learn it."

"I'm not spending time here learning the lines. I'm spending time here dealing with the character and the relationships and the other important things," he said.

The toughest thing for Little at the Music Circus is figuring out which aisle he's supposed to exit down, especially after he's been singing while spinning on the center stage.

"You just try to find the musical conductor to orient yourself," he said with a laugh.

After all the work of getting ready for opening night, falling off the stage into some audience member's lap is not an option.
 
 

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The Scarlet Pimpernel
WHEN: Opens at 8 p.m. Tuesday and continues at 8 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, plus 2 p.m. Thursday and Saturday and 7:30 p.m. next Sunday
WHERE: Wells Fargo Pavilion, 1419 H St.
TICKETS: $32-$47
INFORMATION: (916) 557-1999

Eye-candy costumes and props, not the acting and singing, remain the real draw of "The Phantom of the Opera." So, for the latest national touring version, which continues to June 29 at the Sacramento Community Center Theater, it's a case of old wine in an old bottle.

That's unfortunate, but not surprising, for nearly every cushy seat in the 2,400-seat hall was sold. It's testament to producer Cameron Mackintosh's talent for getting people to plunk down cold cash - more than $3 billion worldwide since 1985 - for composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's dubious, 2 1/2-hour achievement. The score, with lyrics by Charles Hart, is a rhythmically disjointed, densely colored canvas of sound and most of the work's 19 scenes lack logical transitions.

Showstoppers unto themselves are this cast of characters which make "The Phantom" the plotless, music-challenged spectacle it is: the 10-foot-high, 1,000-pound chandelier, which, during one scene, comes crashing down; several candelabras, one which tops out at 14 feet; the giant descending angel sculpture at the fake proscenium's center; the remote-controlled gondola, which ferries the half-masked, black-caped and hatted Phantom about the stage; the 10 fog and smoke machines. And on and on.

But what seems to be new is better singing than was evident from the same company which stopped by Sacramento in late May 1997. The lead, Brad Little, has reprised the role in this Grand Guignol story about a masked figure who haunts the catacombs of the Paris Opera House, scaring the wits out of all who work there. He falls deeply in love with an innocent young soprano, Christine, then commits himself to nurturing her talent, with his actions leading inexorably to a tragic ending.

On several tunes, the California-raised tenor adds polish to this Harold Prince-directed opus. They include "Little Lotte/The Mirror (Angel of Music)"; the show's best-known tune, the dreadful "The Music of the Night"; and "I Remember/Stranger Than You Dreamt It."

Little, who left the company in 2000 but has returned for a 90-day stint, proves a game singer, injecting passion into songs by a composer whose best work came 10 years earlier with "Evita." The songs never lend themselves to the shimmer that a talented singer, like Little, can impart. Still, Little makes the best of it, sturdy on the low and high registers and fluid everywhere in between. If anything, his performance shows how a few years can burnish a voice and make it perfect for a particular role at a particular time.

His acting skills are equally noteworthy. When the audience first sees The Phantom, during a scene in Christine's dressing room, Little looked and sounded menacing as part of the trio singing "Little Lotte." His vocals, though somewhat sinister but tempered by love for Christine, meshed with those of Tim Gleason, portraying Raoul, and Rebecca Pitcher, a thin woman with an angular face, who plays Christine.

Tall and gifted with matinee-idol good looks, Gleason's voice seems a bit reedy at times but adequate for the job; and Pitcher's vocals never wane throughout. She is especially radiant and lyrical during her duet with Gleason on the roof of the opera house, during the songs "Why Have You Brought Me Here/Raoul I've Been There" and "All I Ask of You."
 
 

It begins on the stage of the Paris Opera House in 1911, with an auctioneer trying to dispose of the remains on the once-great theater. Stage props and posters are going for a pittance. Finally, he comes to the grandest piece of the lot, the chandelier -- the cursed chandelier whose fall in essence sealed the fate of the opera company.

When the chandelier is unveiled, it suddenly sparks to light and rises high above the theater (in the first of several exhilirating special effects), and the stage is transformed, back to 1881, when the Paris Opera is in dress rehearsal for "Hannibal."

Elegant but extravagant, colorful yet dark at its heart, "The Phantom of the Opera" is a dizzying contradiction. It is theater as spectacle, and it is spectacular.

The Andrew Lloyd Webber musical is now on its third national tour, having first played Sacramento in June 1997. It opened on Wednesday, but Friday night was its first performance for review. The play stays at the Community Center Theater through June 29.

Brad Little plays the Phantom, a horribly disfigured creature who, as a child was caged and taunted. A genius, his soul tortured, he was driven mad, and he came to loathe mankind as he pitied himself. Even as he turned against society, he yearned for love. Taking up residence in the bowels of the grand opera house, he exerts an eerie control through fear and evil acts. But when he hears the lovely Christine (played by Rebecca Pitcher) sing, he becomes her Angel of Music, coaching her, grooming her to become the star in an opera he has composed, and which he insists be produced by "his" opera house.

As a character (the story by Richard Stilgoe and Lloyd Webber is based on the Gaston Leroux novel, "Le Fantôme de L'Opéra"), The Phantom is a combination Frankenstein's monster and Svengali. Hiding his face with the famous half-mask that is the symbol of the show, he is able to approach the beautiful Christine and begin to exert control. Although she is in love with the young Raoul (Tim Martin Gleason), she is drawn to -- and is loyal to -- her "angel," even when she has been abducted to his hellish dungeon and has seen his monstrous face.

It is this act of love that ultimately saves Christine and redeems the Phantom, but only after tragedy.

This production of "The Phantom of the Opera" is an impressive technical achievement. Of course, the play has been touring so long that any bugs should have long ago been wiped out, but the sheer size and precision of the thing is amazing. The story might leave a little to be desired, but the presentation certainly does not.

Among the most impressive effects is the creation of the Phantom's lair beneath the opera house. The arrival amid fog effects and candle light is spectacular -- and, yes, a boat ferries the Phantom and Christine to their destination. In some ways, this scene is more effective than the rising and crashing chandelier, which sometimes moves haltingly.

Matching Little's finely nuanced performance as the Phantom is Pitcher's delicately flavored interpretation of Christine. Their interaction -- movement only -- as Little sings to her "The Music of the Night" reveals much about the push and pull of their relationship.

Gleason acquits himself well as Christine's suitor, Raoul, the Vicomte de Chagny. Hehas a strong and pleasant voice, shown off best in a rooftop scene with Christine in the duet "All I Ask of You." Patti Davidson-Gorbea as Madame Giry and Julie Schmidt as Carlotta Giudicell, the diva dumped in favor of Christine, also are excellent.

The costumes, particularly in the masquerade scene on the opera house's grand staircase, are eye-popping in their dizzying array of color. The choreography is solid throughout. The rehearsal scene from "Hannibal," with slave girls, a slave master (the leaping Joseph Woelfel) and even a mechanical elephant is a riot of color and movement. Production design is by Maria Björnson; musical staging and choreography is by Gillain Lynne.

"Phantom" is a force of theater. It can't be stopped -- but it certainly can be enjoyed. The best thing to do, as the song says, is to "open up your mind, let your fantasies unwind." And sit back and enjoy.
 

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The Phantom of the Opera

3 1/2 stars

Continues at 8 p.m. Tuesdays-Saturdays and June 24, and 2 p.m. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays through June 29 at the Community Center Theater, 1301 L St.; approximately 2 1/2 hours, including intermission; $15-$67.50. (916) 264-5181.
 
 

Never has a Sacramento opening night seemed quite so anticlimactic.  After the hubbub of the massive load-in job, after the TV news stories keyed to Thursday's first performance and Saturday's unprecedented gala dinner-dance, "The Phantom of the Opera" officially opened in the Community Center Theater on Sunday.

In theater, an opening is an arbitrary concept.  it doesn't mean the first performance or even the fifth.  In the case of this six-week visit by one of three national touring companies of "The Phantom," those performances and the ones between them were officially previews.

Traditionally, opening night is when the critics are invited to attend. It also marks when full prices for tickets go into effect. Starting with Sunday night's show, the prime orchestra seats began selling for $65.

That's steep by local standards, which is one of the reasons the producers of "The Phantom of the Opera" arrange it so that opening night and the resultant reviews come as a bit of an anticlimax.

Over the decade since it first wowed London theatergoers, "the Phantom" has not met with unanimous critical praise.  But that has never dampened its monumental and enduring popularity.  By the time the New York critics weighed in on this one, nine years back, advanced sales were already through the the Manhattan skyline.  Critical comment has always been an afterthought.  The thoroughgoing producers, notably worldwide hit-maker  Cameron Mackintosh, have effectively kept it that way.

If you're one of the legions who believe this is the must-see  theatrical event of the late 20th century, it's likely you've already purchased tickets.  If you've waited, you may be among those I've heard asking, "Is it as good as the San Francisco production?" and, "Is it pretty much what we'd see in New York?"

Yes to both questions.  It's been quite a while since I've seen either  of those other "Phantom" companies, but I think I can confidently report that this road unit's meticulous production standards will not disappoint.  There may be a couple of effects - the character Raoul's plunge into the Phantom's underground lagoon. comes to mind - that lack the impact I once thought they had, but perhaps it's just that I've seen them before.

"The Phantom of the Opera" uses sophisticated modern techniques to evoke, and even comment upon,  the 19th century idea of stage spectacle.  But it's not just the  famous falling chandelier, the underground lair or the pyrotechnics that give the show its cohesive look, its flow, its style.

From Maria Bjornson's truly impressive Victorian-operatic scenery (which clashes gloriously with the drab '70s architectures of the Community Center) to Gillian Lynne's sly choreography and Julie Schmidt's imperiously funny performance as the prima donna supplanted by the Phantom's favorite, everything about the staging, coordinated by the great Harold Prince, interacts as in a  precision machine.

Machinery - literal or figurative - has its fascination, but it has never been my favorite part of the theater experience.  Forgive the personal perspective here, but as I find myself so far in the minority as regards "The Phantom of the Opera," it's only fair to emphasize that my reaction to this show is my own.

Try though I might (and I tried mightily at Sunday's show), I can't bring myself to feel for any of its characters - not the impossibly dimwitted, if generous-hearted, soprano Christine (sung prettily by Kimilee Bryant), not her devoted young nobleman Raoul (crisply performed by Jason Pebworth) and not even by the Phantom.  I must admit, however, that Brad Little's performance in that role, so clearly tracing the madman-genious's mayhem to his bitter self-pity, is impressively well-acted and equally well-sung.

When the heart should be aflutter with romantic crescendo, mine beats on unaffected.  When breath might might be bated with suspense, mine proceeds without interruption.  This has much to do, I suspect, with the popularly acclaimed music of Andrew Lloyd Webber.  The score, featuring such catchy, melodically insistent songs as "The Music of the Night" and "all I Ask of You," is considered one of the show's chief attractions.

Never an avid Andrew Lloyd Webber fan. I find this particular set of his compositions pleasant at best, but more tiresome than anything.  To these maverick ears, the songs have calculated and even cynical quality about them.  They are somehow two-dimensional - not because they refer to Verdi or Frederick Loewe or any other theater composer but because I can find no emotional heart within either the skillfully crafted melodies or Charles Hart's stilted lyrics.

Take these reservations advisedly.  An acquaintance of mine, an intelligent and accomplished associate editor of a respected newspaper (not this one), dissolves into sobs when she hears "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," Christine's song at the grave of her father.  Honest theatergoers can disagree honestly, and most will disagree with this review.

I'm not entirely alone, however, not even among Sacramento first nighters.  In the crowd leaving the theater on Sunday, a young woman turned to her male  companion and asked, "How did you like  it?"  "It was OK," he replied cheerfully.  My sentiments exactly.