Pippin

Pippin

Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, book by Roger O. Hirson

The Music Box, New York, NY

October 17, 2013

I saw Pippin in London at the Menier Chocolate Factory a year and a half ago (sitting behind Stephen Schwartz --squee!), and I thought the production concept was very clever and staged in an interesting space. A boy who plays too many video games finds himself suddenly inside one of them and has to get through all the levels of life. Of course, that the actor who played Pippin was playing the original Super Mario Bros at the entrance to the theatre helped, too: a nice shot of nostalgia sets up audience reactions nicely.

When I came back from London and found a different production of Pippin opening on Broadway, my reactions were mixed. 1)Ooh, but the video game was so much cleverer than the too-obvious circus. 2) So much Pippin right now! For a show that nearly disappeared after the '70s, it's making quite the resurgence. 3)I really liked the version I grew up watching on video disc with William Katt and Ben Vereen. (That third reaction was less germane to the story...but who doesn't like remembering videodiscs? Nostalgia, see?)

My reactions were not mixed after seeing the Tony-winning production at The Music Box. A combination of Cirque du Soleil and musical theatre, from a performance standpoint not much could be more visually stunning. Twirling, twisting, climbing, juggling--with and without fire, upside-down singing: Pippin has it all. Patina Miller as the Leading Player is a rock star. I've had an inexplicable crush on Terrence Mann since the film version of A Chorus Line, and he played an interesting Charles. Matthew James Thomas as Pippin was adorable, but at times his singing was drowned out by the orchestra. As in the London production (and probably all good productions) Pippin's grandmother Berthe stole the show. Tovah Feldshuh singing "No Time at All" while swinging upside-down on a trapeze is not something to be missed. 

While I still think the London production was conceptually cooler, this production is much more fully-realized and engaging. The bits of circus acrobatics alone are worth the price of the ticket, but any day that includes "Corner of the Sky", "Simple Joys", and "With You" is a better one.