1981 Pippin "Corner Of The Sky": William Katt

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 6/15/14 at 11:27pm

He had a decent voice...not great..not bad.
1981 Pippin

[tazber]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 6:09am

I'm guessing you don't know that the whole show is available on DVD.

It's worth it just to have Ben Vereen's performance, but the original production (or this version of it) doesn't hold a candle to the current revival.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 10:45am

I know that it's available on dvd. But there are some who might have not seen much of the 1981 production.

[darreyl102]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 12:14pm

Never liked his voice- it's really weak. But he's cute. LOL

[Bettyboy72]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 12:33pm

Its sad he was relegated to doing soft core porn with Shannon Tweed in the later years of his career.

[LostinTranslation]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 3:16pm

And yet I like his version much better than Matthew James Thomas, who changes the melody around in what feels like a deliberate attempt to change the melody around. I want to hear a great version of the song and he changed it in ways that I don't care for.

William Katt was cast in a day when (and it still is the case) roles were filled by people who could act first, then their singing and dancing. Does anyone think that Rex Harrison would ever be cast today as Henry Higgins and yet his performance is memorable because he was an actor. He's an adequate singer and dancer, but a better actor.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 3:30pm

Unfortunately his acting in it wasn't much better than his singing.

[Patti LuPone FANatic]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 4:34pm

I wouldn't call Rex Harrison an adequate singer...not by any stretch of the imagination. I dare say that even Lauren Bacall sounds better than Rex Harrison.

[EricMontreal22]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 4:39pm

This production was a one off reproduction, staged in Canada specifically to filmed. Katt wasn't cast because he could (or couldn't) act--he was cast because he was a TV star at the time.

I still wish the complete cut (the tv edit as we've discussed here endlessly cut about 15 minutes, including the entire I Guess I'll Miss the Man which is pretty essential) was out on DVD, though I guess we'll have to make do with the poorer quality bootleg of it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/16/14 at 5:20pm

The two original Pippins I saw on Broadway were far, far better than William Katt:

John Rubinstein





Michael Rupert



And here is the 1975 TV commercial with Michael Rupert:

Michael Rupert as Pippin (1975 Commerical)