THEATER REVIEW
“Pippin”
Grade: A
7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 8 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 2 p.m. Saturday; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Through Sunday. Tickets start at $30. Broadway in Atlanta at the Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. 1-855-285-8499, foxtheatre.org/pippin.
Bottom line: Stunning.
“Pippin,” it seems, has always been a deliciously enigmatic musical — from the moment it appeared on Broadway 43 years ago right up until the minute it arrived Tuesday night at the Fox Theatre.
Loosely inspired by history and set in a circus, it’s the tale of a prince in search of himself.
It riffs on “Hamlet,” Freud, commedia dell’arte. It’s a medieval “Cabaret” with a bit of “Camelot.” (Or is it “Spamalot”?) It has a prestigious razzle-dazzle pedigree with names like Bob Fosse (the original director and choreographer), Ben Vereen (the original Leading Player) and Stephen Schwartz (a composer whose name you may know from “Godspell” and “Wicked”).
And in the stunning red-velvet-and-gilt production that looks so right under the stars of the Fox, it seats 1972's Pippin, John Rubinstein, on the throne of Charlemagne and television's Adrienne Barbeau (of '70s sitcom "Maude") in the role of the grandmother, Berthe, who if you really want to dig into Broadway lore was first played by Irene Ryan (aka Granny on "The Beverly Hillbillies").
Aided by the top-drawer design team of Scott Pask (sets), Kenneth Posner (lighting) and Dominique Lemieux (costumes), director Diane Paulus delivers a drop-dead gorgeous entertainment populated by dancers, clowns, acrobats, gymnasts, jugglers, hoop jumpers, flame throwers, trapeze artists and other stars of the circus tradition.
Cirque du Soleil and Barnum & Bailey are obvious references. But since we are in the capable hands of Schwartz, book writer Roger O. Hirson and choreographer Chet Walker (“in the style of Bob Fosse,” to quote the program), it’s a glorious affair.
That said, Hirson’s story arc — which has Pippin wandering the earth to sample war, carnality, revolution and ordinary life, all at the whim of the barking emcee/stage manager/Leading Player — is in great part responsible for the meandering, head-scratching nature of the proceedings.
Sure, there are dark Oedipal, Shakespearean and Sondheim-ian subtexts aplenty in this existential tale. (Pippin has a comic-book Gertrude for a stepmother, a preening stepbrother with royal ambitions, and a blonde love interest who feels plucked from the Brothers Grimm, and that’s just for starters.) So feel free to analyze and explicate. I’m just going to sit back and gape.
And gosh, what a spectacle.
As Pippin, Kyle Dean Massey sings like an angel, and he’s easy on the eyes, too. I’m not sure he quite nails the emotional conflict of his character as the show comes to its close. But he’s awfully good, and his big number, “Corner of the Sky,” is breathtaking.
Lisa Karlin, the Leading Player on opening night, is just right as the sadistic physical incarnation of what could be interpreted as Pippin’s subconscious. (Oops, said I wasn’t going to do that.) As Fastrada the stepmother, Sabrina Harper is great naughty fun (love the crown!), as is Callan Bergmann as Lewis, the narcissistic stepbrother.
Barbeau is a lovely grace note. Still radiant after all these years, here this impeccable actress is physically reminiscent of Katharine Hepburn, and after the girlish philosophizing of “No Time at All,” she gets some choice kinky bits, too. Kristine Reese imparts lovely, fresh-feeling details to the tricky part of Catherine, who we’re told is supposed to be older than the man she pursues.
In his review of the 1972 original, New York Times critic Clive Barnes wrote: “The book is feeble and the music grand, and yet the show runs like a racehorse.” I believe that all still applies, though I might replace the strong adjective “feeble” with “confusing,” “artsy” or “experimental.” What’s so appealing about “Pippin,” now and then, is the way it manages to be at once high-brow and low, sacred and profane, earthy and opulent. What other Broadway musical sounds like the ’70s, looks like the Middle Ages, and combines frothy comedy with such intellectual swagger?
“Pippin” is sexy, divine and one of a kind.
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