Parts to Perform

Pippin at the Music Box Theater

            Five minutes into the first act of director Diane Paulus’s revival of Pippin, any viewer, even while reveling in the glory of Stephen Schwartz's deistically perfect opening notes to "Magic to Do," would be of two minds.  On the one hand, the 1972 musical, unbelievably un-revived since its original five-year run, is so hugely and utterly superior that seeing it live in any format is an experience comparable to rapture.  On the other, one must wonder why Diane Paulus, in all her hare-brained glory, would ever feel the need to do anything in her revival but leave this masterwork of American musical theater exactly the way it was.

            First, the bad news.  True to form, Ms. Paulus has sped up every song in the show as if the American Theater Wing is now requiring a two-hour flat time limit for all shows wishing to be nominated for Best Revival of a Musical.  (She’s done this twice before, once with 2009’s Hair, notably in “I Got Life,” and once with 2011’s The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, in which she sped “I Got Plenty o’ Nuttin’” up to almost three times the time signature it was written in—a choice parodied by Gerard Alessandrini in the latest Forbidden Broadway in a song titled “I’ve Had Plenty o’ Gershwin.”  [Hair and Porgy and Bess both won the Tony for Best Revival of a Musical.  Pippin is nominated for the same award and nine others.])  The pauses between lines are almost obliterated by a hectic, unnecessary orchestration style, and the brilliant military satiric song “War is a Science” is now a patter song, which was an incredibly unwise decision by Ms. Paulus.  The song was written to impress with lyrical dexterity, not speed, and some of the lyrics, including the immortal: “A simple rule that every good man knows by heart / It’s smarter to be lucky than it’s lucky to be smart,” are lost in the fray. 

Many other changes were to follow, two most conspicuously.  To begin with, the production is circus-themed, with related choreography (climbing, balancing, unicycling, etc.) by Les 7 doigts de la main co-founder Gypsy Snyder.  Suffice it to say that acrobatics, as evidenced by this production, have no place in Pippin, and the zealous performers often seem to be creating the chaotic cacophony on the stage purely for its own sake.  (During the razor-sharp number “Simple Joys,” the doubtless athletic acrobats jump through hoops.  What does that have to do with anything?)  The unimpeachable score is spectacle enough, thank you.

The other major change in the production is that the Leading Player, a part memorably played by Ben Vereen in the original production, is now played by a woman, Patina Miller, who was recently nominated for a Tony for her participation.  But this brings us to the good news.

Personally, I don’t agree with the choice to change the Player’s gender.  Considering that this musical is gospel to many theatergoers, this kind of major upset is near-blasphemous and seems like radical feminism.  Further, I didn’t actually see Ms. Miller in the role—she was absent that night, and Stephanie Pope, her understudy, played the part.  However, Ms. Pope had a fantastic, catlike magnetism to her portrayal (coming nowhere near close to Mr. Vereen’s, of course, and slightly too mercurial to be believable), and regardless of her sex, if this kind of talent belongs to an understudy, Ms. Miller must certainly live up to the buzz.

Yes, Ms. Pope is talented, and so are many of her fellow cast members.  Matthew James Thomas’ Pippin is appropriately wide-eyed and enthusiastic, if less relatable that John Rubinstein’s in the original version.  Terrence Mann’s Charlemagne is funnily extroverted, and a good foil for Pippin.  And Andrea Martin’s Berthe is, of course, fantastic.  Though her “No Time at All” is burdened by trapezes and other such funambulism, she pulls off the raspy, good-natured performance as Pippin’s grandmother beautifully.  (Ms. Martin received a standing ovation after her performance, which included—cloyingly, but sweetly—a sing-along.)

A good deal of the actors share this talent, but frankly, as long as they can carry a tune and do the musical justice, it really doesn’t matter who they are.  The attraction of this Pippin is seeing this musical (probably among the five best ever written) on a live Broadway stage.  The liberties Ms. Paulus has taken might make you itch, but the viewer gets the last laugh when the cast hits the high note at the end of “Morning Glow.”  Afterwards, you can check the theater gift shop to see if they’re selling the original cast recording.