Royal Reed, who sings "Tell My Father" in the Civil War tour, and Andrea Rivette, Emma in J&H, both had great stories of how they got involved in their respective shows.

Royal Reed said: I had never heard of Frank. I got a call from my guitar player in L.A., he was friends with Jack Murphy, the lyricist. And they'd hired him to play guitar on the demos. And they just happened to ask at the time, "Hey, know any up-and-coming kinda new singers?" And he goes, "Yeah, the lead singer in my band is Royal Reed. Why don't you give him a call?" So I got this call to come sing for this Broadway guy. And I'm like, "What in the hell is this?" How did I get involved . . . going from a studio singer doing pop and country stuff to doing a Broadway thing? And I met Frank and Jack, and they're great guys, and they sat down, and Frank played me "Tell My Father." And I sang it for him, and I went back in the next night and recorded it on the demos. And then I did "Northbound Train." And after those two songs, I thought, "You know what? If this is what theatre's about, I could do theatre." Because the music moved me, and the lyrics moved me. This stuff just floored me. I feel blessed to be part of this. I really, really do. And I don't take it for granted one day. If I never do another piece of theatre in my life, it'll be an experience that I'll be able to feel proud that I was a part of.

Headshot courtesy of Andrea Rivette

Andrea Rivette said: The funny thing is that my fiancé, Charles Pistone, actually had the audition for this show, for the alternate for the tour. When he and the director were talking, the director knocked his notebook on the floor, and my headshot happened to be in my fiance's notebook, and it fell on the floor. And the director said, "Can she sing?" So my fiance said, "Yeah, she can sing." They were thinking of me for Lucy at the time, just because I had the dark hair and dark eyes. So I auditioned for Lucy, and at my third audition for Lucy, I said to them, "I can't do this role, this is not a role for me. I want to do Emma. So if you ever need an Emma give me a call." And sure enough, two days later they brought me in to meet Frank, and sing all the Emma material.

We asked Coleen Sexton (Lucy in Jekyll) about her character motivation.

You're so young! I think that shows up in your performance. Do you intentionally make Lucy younger than other actresses have?

Everyone who's played it has played it completely differently. The way I play her is, "the younger the better." It's really the only way I can play it, because I am so young. I play her more as a young prostitute who's kind of had to grow up really fast. It just works that way for me. And I think it also makes it very tragic, in the end, when she dies.

Do you think Lucy ever knows that Jekyll and Hyde are the same guy?

No, she never suspects it. However, I think the only time there may be an inkling there's something weird going on is as he's singing right before he stabs her. When he starts singing the words that were in her head when she was with Jekyll in the study scene, I think that she just has a little bit of a question in her head, and then he stabs her. It's always been a question in my mind, as he's killing her, does she know it's him? But, it's a question that I don't know the answer to.

Wildhorn Side spoke with Douglas Sills (Percy) during the Los Angeles stop of the Pimpernel tour.

Photo by Shirley Campagna.

Does the fan attention wear on you?

No, they don't wear me. I wear me. My inclination to please everyone and give them everything they want wears on me sometimes, but that's only at the end of a long weekend. But, generally, I consider it part of the show. It's all difficult some days if I'm having vocal trouble. There have been some occasions where I've just said, "I think people will understand, I need to get home." And they do. They understand. They just want to make a contact. And I nod and greet them, and go on. I think it's been an incredible force that has shaped the course of the history of The Pimpernel. And, in turn, shaped the course of the history of Broadway. The producers have learned some savvy lessons from Hollywood about hyping a show past a critic, finding an audience that it might not have found otherwise. And otherwise disparate fans of a show, that would find it either before it reaches Broadway or in its Broadway tryout in previews, can find each other on the web, and communicate and create a powerful force that didn't exist before. A lot of that really solidified itself through Jekyll & Hyde, but then again, through . . . through um . . . .what play am I in?

Gregory Porter and Gwen Jackson were swings with the Civil War tour. We asked them if they had a favorite moment from their experience with the tour.

Gregory: Swings are like this special family, right? We all kind of come together, and we learn the show together. A lot of times we won't learn it with the full cast. And so, we have this bond. So when Gwen goes on, when she went on the first time, I felt like her daddy. I was nervous. I was sweating and shaking. And I was proud when she did so well. That was just . . . my special moment.

That's so sweet.

Gwen: My first time on, it was nervewracking.

Gregory: She was great, though.

Gwen: Likewise, I was proud when he went on. "Represent!" Hold up the banner, the understudy banner!

Back to the first page