PIPPIN at the Southwark Playhouse - Magic to do...

Stephen Schwartz first wrote PIPPIN in the late 1960s while at university.  With the success of his musical GODSPELL in 1971, it was natural that he was asked if he had anything else in the trunk...  The concept of PIPPIN was dusted off although none of the original songs survived.  The 1960s still hangs over the show's plot - a young man's search for the meaning of his life - but oddly enough it's the spirit of the original director/choreographer that tends to hang over it's revivals.

He was Bob Fosse and he continues to shape revivals in almost the same way as Pippin's nemesis, The Leading Player, shapes the show.  It really is quite fascinating... When presented with Roger O. Herson's book and Schwartz' score, Fosse threw their whole concept out and gave it what is now recognized as the Fosse style - helped immeasurably by Tony Walton's stylized sets, Patricia Zipprodt's playful Commedia dell' Arte costumes and Jules Fisher's imaginative lighting design.

The rehearsal period was marked with frequent spats between Fosse and Schwartz, who at one point tried to pull rank by reminding him he *was* the composer of GODSPELL.  Fosse threw him out of the rehearsal room.  This was to be the year when Fosse did the unique trick of winning the three main Director awards across the showbiz board: Academy Award (CABARET), Emmy Award (LIZA WITH A Z) and the Tony Award for PIPPIN.

Although it didn't receive the best reviews, Fosse had an idea how to perk up the box office; he filmed a television ad which consisted of a whole minute of star Ben Vereen as The Leading Player and two chorus girls doing a quintessential Fosse number 'The Manson Trio' - how did he get away with that?? - strutting and primping against a backdrop of the show's logo.  The voice-over said you could see the other 119 minutes of PIPPIN at the Imperial Theater; a simple idea to us now but then it was revolutionary and the show ran for four and a half years!  In London, it famously flopped, lasting only 85 performances despite Fosse directing a cast of Paul Jones, Elisabeth Welch, John Turner, Diane Langton and Patricia Hodge.

Fosse's sexy, dangerously slinky style has been in evidence in the two previous productions I have seen and the last Broadway revival dropped the Commedia idea for a circus troupe... it's almost like all is thrown at a production to divert attention from the skimpy-but-bizarre book...

A bunch of strolling artists, under the direction of the Leading Player, present the story of Pippin, the eldest son of King Charlemagne, who struggles to understand his place in the world and how he can possibly be a credible successor to his war-mongering - and distant - father.  He isn't helped by his scheming stepmother Fastrada who is ever watchful for her own son's advancement.  He goes to war with his father but finds it an ugly business, he visits his exiled grandmother Berthe and follows her advice to live for the moment but finds hedonism an empty experience too.  

Pippin then is led to believe that revolution is the way forward and is tricked into murdering Charlemagne, but the compromises he has to make in politics make him flee.  Eventually he finds a home with Catherine, a young widow and her son on her farm... but again, he leaves her, still unconvinced that is his lot in life.  Through all of this The Leading Player has been initiating the action so reveals to Pippin (and the young strolling player who is pretending to be the character) that his purpose in life is to provide a Grand Finale... to jump into a ball of fire.  Will The Leading Player get the Finale to their show... or does Pippin finally come to his senses?

For all the nods to Alienation and Meta-staging, by the time the show-within-a-show goes off the rails thanks to the young player not wanting to die for Art, I for one am fed-up with Pippin, who has been fairly tiresome all the way through it... I usually side with The Leading Player... anything for a Grand Finale and give the punters some bang for their buck.

Herson's book, although at times amusing enough, cannot really contain the weightier themes it raises or more importantly, use it's characters, in particular Fastrada, Charlemagne and Berthe, all of whom are more interesting than drippy Pippin.  The eventual collapse of the make-believe world when the Leading Player closes down the show and leaves Pippin and Catherine to face life with no coloured lights or music feels like it ran out of steam rather than pose any major break in the story-telling; this was accomplished much more successfully in INTO THE WOODS when the fairy-tale characters sacrifice their Narrator to the murdering Giant, only to find themselves lost in the story with no idea how to end it.

What always has me returning to the show is Schwartz's score - his finest - which again doesn't quite fit within the meta-world of the book, but features some dazzling Broadway show tunes: it's wonderfully seductive opening number "Magic To Do", Pippin's 'I Want' number "Corner Of The Sky", Berthe's infectious, sing-a-long "No Time At All", Fastrada's dissembling "Spread A Little Sunshine", the choral loveliness of "Morning Glow", Catherine's pop-infused "Kind of Woman" and her break-up ballad "I Guess I'll Miss The Man" are enough to make me overlook any other flaws in the show - oddly enough the original cast recording was on Motown Records, which explains why Michael Jackson and The Supremes covered songs from the score.

This production started life at Manchester's Hope Mill Theatre and it filled the Southwark Playhouse space well with Maeve Black's design of the faded glamour of the touring troupe's Victorian music-hall proscenium and thrust stage.  It was directed in a no-nonsense style by Jonathan O'Boyle which certainly played to the show's strengths: my only issue with his direction is that he really should have toned down his two leading ladies - Genevieve Nicole's Leading Player was overstated and too obvious while Mairi Barclay, in the twin roles of Fastrada and Berthe, seemed to be channeling Janette Krankie for the former and Su Pollard for the latter.

I did enjoy Jonathan Carlton's questing Pippin - although Maeve Black's costumes just seemed to accentuate both his and Ms Nicole's chunky backsides - Rhidian Marc was good fun as Charlemagne, Tessa Kadler gave Catherine a winning naturalness and I also liked Scott Hayward as Theo, Catherine's stroppy son; he also features in the show's coda which was added in 1998, Catherine and Pippin leave the dark stage to start life without coloured lights or music only for Theo to walk onto it and be immediately confronted by The Leading Player and the troupe... life (and death) begin again...  

A special mention for Aaron J. Dootson's impressive lighting and the equally impressive choreography by William Whelton - and to Bob Fosse for his original choreography for 'The Manson Trio' routine, you cannot improve on the best.

I last saw PIPPIN seven years ago in a not-very-good production at the Menier... I hope it's not another seven until I can see it again.