Betty Buckley in "Pippin"

Did anyone here get to see Betty Buckley in "Pippin" in the original production? I recently learned she took over for Jill Clayburgh and can only imagine how amazing she must've been. If there's anyway that I could hear how amazing Betty was, I'd be very grateful...

There was also not one actor in that cast that enjoyed working with Betty during that production. Apparently this was the height of her diva mindset. So many rules about who could address her, who could talk to her, but was free to be as nasty to the rest of the cast as possible.

Sleeping with Betty Buckley and other horror stories.

She was glorious in what I usually think is a thankless role. Her "Love Song" and especially "I Guess I'll Miss the Man" were beautifully sung. Her storytelling singing style worked especially well with the latter; I remember feeling a deep connection during that piece. In it, the actress playing Catherine steps out of character to play . . . the actress playing Catherine. Betty is one of the very few I've seen in the role who nailed it.

Rumpelstiltskin is right in singling that moment out as a tricky one.

Pippin is nearly impossibly metatheatrical for a mainstream musical- maybe hence why it really ISN'T a mainstream musical. At that point, Catherine stops being Catherine and becomes Actress/Catherine- not Betty, or Jill, but Actress/Catherine. And yet, Pippin never becomes Actor/Pippin. Only he and the Leading Player remain "real" or on the other hand "artificial" throughout the play. Everything around them is a construct- but not the construct of the actors in the show playing parts. Rather, the actors in the show playing Actors, playing parts.

Actually, Buckley's agent didn't just tell the production team for PIPPIN that she wasn't interested in the show- he told them she had left the business all together. The only reason she even ended up getting to do it was because she ran into the prop master on the street, who asked her if she was coming in for Catherine and told her he'd look into it when she said her agent had told her they weren't interested in seeing her.

She tells the story at length on her Downstage Center podcast with Howard Sherman.

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Yes somethingwicked, that's it! That was a terribly fvcked up thing for him to do.

Thanks besty for the link...that was an interesting interview. I had no idea she auditioned for PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE but I suppose a lot of singer/actresses of that time went up for that role.

I don't find it hard to believe that Buckley's head started to swell. She went right from performing at the Miss America pageant to New York City, booked her first audition singing a show stopping number in what would be a hit, Tony-winning musical (1776), went right from that to being the lead in a West End transfer of another hit musical (Promises, Promises), and coming right back to finishing the part she originated in 1776, and then during a brief hiatus moved into what was essentially the female lead in another big hit musical (Pippin). All by the time she was 25/26. That's a lot of continuous success right off the bat for a young actress. I'm sure Buckley let a lot of it go to her head.

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Checking my Playbills, I saw BB (twice) and don't remember her at all, but do recall JC quite well. A

I was most likely studying the PIPPIN.

I still have my Pippin program with ole Betty.

I think it is funny that you saw BB 2x and JC one time and you remember Jill....someone who couldnt really sing and was not really a pretty woman, ...maybe because she became a pretty big movie star ..and nailed the part as an actress..Love BB dont know how you could not remember her surprises me