SHOW PREVIEW
“Pippin”
May 5-10. 7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Fox Theatre, 660 Peachtree St. N.E., Atlanta. Tickets start at $33. foxtheatre.org/pippin. 1-855-285-8499 or at Fox Theatre Box Office.
Adrienne Barbeau made her Broadway debut as Hodel in “Fiddler on the Roof” in 1965. And now, the almost-70-year-old veteran actress takes to the trapeze in Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of the beloved musical “Pippin” with remarkable grace and ease.
Perhaps best known for her role as Carol in the hit 1970s TV show “Maude,” Barbeau plays Pippin’s grandmother, Berthe, but she is not your typical grandmother. She even sings while hanging upside down high above the stage.
The reconceived production of the 1972 musical by Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson features dramatic acrobatics and circus tricks to tell the story about a young man trying to find meaning in his life. The high-energy revival will turn the Fox Theatre into a stunningly visual big top circus, complete with gymnasts, jugglers and Hula Hoopers. In 2013, “Pippin” won four Tony Awards, including best revival of a musical and best direction of a musical.
The national touring production of “Pippin” will be at the Fox from Tuesday to May 10 — the first time since the original thrilled audiences 40 years ago.
The character of Berthe helps guide Pippin, the young son of the medieval French ruler Charlemagne, in a very modern journey through war, politics and love to find himself (or as in the words of one of the most memorable songs, find his “Corner of the Sky.”)
Barbeau, who is based in Los Angeles, joined the cast in this traveling show about five weeks ago.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution recently interviewed Barbeau, 69, by phone.
Q: I hear you do some incredible trapeze work in the show. How did you prepare for that? And how do you keep yourself in such top condition?
A: It is really about learning the choreography, and when they first hired me, I was still in LA and I went to circus school.
More than anything, it takes two things: one, a lack of imagination because I didn’t spend much time thinking about what could happen, what could go wrong; and it takes trust. I work with a fantastic dancer-acrobat, Preston (Jamieson). He is flying me around. He is doing the hard work. And I have complete faith in Preston.
I would never say I am athletic, but I spend my time in the gym working out and I knew I had the strength (to do this role) and then it was just a question of learning the choreography. … I do Pilates once a week when I am in town and not working. And I love to walk. Being on the tour has been fantastic for me because as soon as we get to a new city, I head out and three or four hours I am back and I have a sense of the new town.
Q: What do you think makes this revival so successful?
A: I think the reason this is successful, and as a revival, is because it is a retelling of the original story, and the story and the music is fantastic, and they held up. But the presentation is unlike (anything) anyone saw when it opened in the early 1970s. It really is an amalgam of circus performers in the vein of Cirque du Soleil as opposed to Ringling Bros.
Q: How did you get interested in the role of Berthe?
A: The song I sing as Berthe, as the grandmother, is very much in keeping with my philosophy of life. She is talking about how time passes in no time at all, and you need to live in the moment and you need to take advantage of what is here right now in front of you because there is no controlling the future and no telling what is going to happen.
Q: How do the major themes explored in the early ’70s resonate today?
A: We are dealing with universal themes that are as timely now as they were in the late 1960s and early 1970s when Vietnam was going on. We are dealing with religious persecution and war in the name of religion and some pretty broad themes that touch everybody's life.
The theme of the show is about a young boy trying to find meaning in life and he comes to his grandmother and she says you are thinking about it too much. You have to learn to live in the moment. He goes on to experience different things in life. Ultimately, people will have different interpretations about what is the most important thing in life. And maybe it’s just my interpretation, but I think it’s love and relationships — that is most important in life.
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