It’s easy to understand why so many people have loved Pippin for more than 40 years.
It’s easier to understand why new Denver audiences are going to adore the touring revival, here until Sept. 20
The story is familiar and seductive. Just-another-guy wants more out of life, and he goes looking for it. He gets to realize his fantasies, and in a careful-what-you-wish-for journey comes back to realize that the best in life is what you already have.
It’s a well-worn theme, one that even Dorothy after a trip to Oz brought home.
“Well…if I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn’t there, I never really lost it to begin with.”
So how could a story so comfortable and show so much fun become little more than fodder for amateur summer stock and long nights at a high school?
Despite a long, strong run in the early 1970s, Pippin was relegated to the attic of ho-hum big-stage shows by 1980. The parable of Pippin — a young man looking for an extraordinary life as the son of a king — told through a circus-like show, grew stale. Until now.
Maybe it’s a generation of Baby Boomers come full circle in deep introspection. Maybe it’s a new generation painfully suffering from an acute sense of entitlement, but the search to find fulfillment and lead an extraordinary life is made relevant again by this high-energy revival.
The touring show is part marvel, part miracle and all Broadway spectacle. Filled with astounding circus-like acrobatics, Pippin boasts the frenetic awe of Cirque du Soleil, the grace of a Verdi opera and the edgy choreography that made Bob Fosse a Broadway god.
Sasha Allen delivers a heady, alluring performance as the Leading Player. She slyly turns her charm into something dark and menacing as the story unfolds. Matthew James Thomas is flawless as Pippin, the bumbling adolescent. So convincing, his own “extraordinary” acrobatic feats become jaw-dropping deep into the show. While Pippin unloads a wonder of surprises for new audiences and show veterans alike, Lucie Arnaz’s drum-tight trapeze act as Grandma Berthe is mesmerizing. For a night so full of oh-my-god-did-you-see-that stunts, dances and effects, it says something that the principles still managed to draw audience attention away from the manic cast.
John Rubinstein, who originated the role of Pippin in the first 1972 Broadway run, plays King Charles, Pippin’s father. It’s an ominous cue to the show’s new ending, Sabrina Harper as Queen Fastrada, King Charles’ wife, is so fast on the draw and the stage that some of her fleeting stunts and moves don’t last long enough for even a double take. She drove the show’s iconic vamp to new heights, and lows.
The entire troupe explodes graceful energy, whether its dangling from the sky or playing barnyard pigs for laughs. Unlike so many touring Broadway shows that play it safe for consistency and portability, this show is as fresh and boundless as Fosse would have envisioned it on any Broadway stage.
Some of the songs actually are fresh to the revival. They might all sound that way since Pippin is one of those successful shows that never produced a tune that most people could ever name after they walk out of the theater.
The cast and show never run out of steam. It’s a production that could easily come panting toward a curtain call. But Allan and Thomas never lose their pace, even as the show changes mood at the end. The show is so electric it’s nearly jittering when characters remind the audience it’s a show about a show. The effect is dizzying, and, well, it’s fun, all over again.
Given this slick makeover, it’s easy to see how Pippin will be favorite, again, far into the future.
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Pippin
Pippin runs at the Buell Theater in the Denver Center for the Performing Arts through Sept. 20. Tickets start at $25. Call 303-893-4100 or visit denvercenter,org. Shows are Tuesday–Sunday, with some matinees.