Plumping for ‘Pimpernel’

American-made musical theater, especially the rare contemporary kind that dares to entertain like “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” has never been a “guilty pleasure” for me (“This Time, He’s Dressed to Kill,” April 30). Jan Breslauer’s cheerfully spun report on a tuner kept alive by audience affection and, evidently, constructive rewrites may only err in leaving the impression--”boffo box office”--that it is finally turning a profit.

Despite non-fatal second-act overwriting, I found the “4.0” version (the only one I’ve seen) so full of seductive music, theatrical vibrancy and unabashed comic showmanship that I returned to see and hear it a second time!

The theater has a very gifted new tunesmith in Frank Wildhorn, who, let’s hope, seems to be following the path of a George Gershwin or Jule Styne--popular songwriter to show composer. For the fundamental pleasure he and his collaborators have given me through “Pimpernel’ and “Jekyll and Hyde,” I will thank audiences everywhere who wisely refused to believe the uppity reviews.

DAVID LEWIS

Piedmont