Re:
Pippin...
The players are not, and never have been, some real life troupe. This isn't the Pandemonium Shadow Show (although Ray Bradbury’s take on this story would be very interesting), or some medieval Manson family taking in young men and murdering them. The players are in Pippin's mind, a fever dream, a hallucination, a figment of his imagination, just as we all have those internalized voices that tell us we're not good enough, rich enough, beautiful enough, etc., and that we have to make our goals conform to the shallow and misplaced goals we see touted by the media and our so-called societal leaders ("Why, we're right inside your heads" is the clue).
The whole show, up to the ending, has essentially been Pippin with a (metaphorical
and literal) gun to his head, considering what led him here through a suicidal lens. That's why his family is populated by perverse stereotypes and his fantasies filled with frightening characters of his own creation, why he seemingly fails at everything throughout the show. He is building up the stones to step into that box and light himself on fire (or, if you subscribe to the Diane Paulus approach, "leap from the highest height into the hottest fire") by convincing himself life was worthless, but this is how to solve it.
Just one problem... he couldn't hide from himself that he
was good at something. With time and effort applied, not striving to be stupendous but just to do what he could, he (eventually) rose to the occasion as a lover and a father. When Catherine and Theo break ranks with the troupe, they're not fed up with being the lure. It means Pippin is realizing that, oh crap, now he has someone... some
thing... to live for. So he'll never be a war hero or successful politician or something "extraordinary"; life will never be a carefree romp. Maybe an average life is all that he really needs to be good at. Maybe that's his "corner of the sky."
Which leaves us at the end, and we have two ways to play that. (Well, one, because Schwartz only allows the new ending to be licensed, but two endings exist at least.)
Ending #1: After the Players all leave, Catherine asks Pippin: does
he think he's a coward and a compromiser, like they said? No. Then how
does he feel? Pippin's original reply, the line that got licensed after Dramatists Guild arbitration, was "Trapped... but happy. Which isn't too bad for the end of a musical comedy. Ta-da!"
Fosse thought "but happy" was a cop out. After all, Pippin can't yet be sure his decision was the right one. He hopes it will be, but no one in that situation goes from having no idea what they want to knowing exactly what they want in only a few minutes. Pippin has made a choice, but he's still scared. He knows that he has given up some of his ideals and he must accept compromises for the first time. So Fosse cut "...but happy," much to Schwartz's chagrin. Still, John Rubinstein figured out how to play it in a way that fit, something not too many other actors (
cough cough Greatest American Hero
cough) pulled off successfully:
"Trapped..."
(waits for applause to die down, then looks from Catherine to Theo and smiles; as if genuinely discovering this fact:) "Which isn't too bad..."
(lets this sink in for a beat, allowing the audience a moment to absorb that "trapped" as it's used here might not honestly be an all-bad thing; then, with a smile, appending Fosse's wry button:) "...for the end of a musical comedy."
(and then, before the audience can decide if that button undercut the previous one's earnestness:) "Ta-da!"
Enough of both Fosse and Schwartz about it to (theoretically) appease either side.
Ending #2: Well, this relies on casting Theo as a surly teenager, someone not too far removed from where Pippin is at the beginning of the show, as Schwartz now prefers it. Much simpler here: it's one thing that Pippin made it through to the other side; problem is, he can't protect Theo from the same journey.
And yes, I believe it is the same journey. We create outrageous expectations for our young people and then sabotage their chances at attaining them, asking them to grow up faster with each generation, coming of age and rites of passage be damned. We rarely offer them role models and guidelines, and we destroy the ones they have. We tell them they can have anything they want, but it’s not true. And we wonder why hopelessness among young people is more and more prevalent, why murder and suicide among teenagers continues to increase. To some, when everything else is trashed, all that's left is the Grand Finale.
But
Pippin has an answer: Look, you don't have to be extraordinary. It's unrealistic anyway. You don't have to reach the pinnacle to be a person of worth. Sometimes succeeding at average, ordinary, everyday life is enough. And you don't have to follow all the rules and get everything "right" to do that.
Formerly gvendo2005
Broadway Legend
joined: 5/1/05
Blocked: After Eight, suestorm, david_fick, emlodik, lovebwy, Dave28282, joevitus, BorisTomashevsky, Seb28
Updated On: 1/5/21 at 07:34 PM
