Does Pippin take directly from Faust?

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/11/14 at 11:55pm

I saw the revival once again and I wonder if Schwartz or Hirson ever addressed this.

Did the musical find its inspiration from Goethe and Marlowe or the legend itself?

Is the Leading Player trying to get his soul a-la-Mephistopheles? And is Catherine inspired by Gretchen? Pippin saves his soul like Faust does in the Goethe version (without dying of course).

[ajh]

Posted: 7/13/14 at 5:11am

I never got that connection before but it makes perfect sense. Thanks for pointing it out. I am off to ponder......

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/13/14 at 3:42pm

It only made sense to me. The players in the revival side with The Leading Player in the end, implying they just wanted Pippin's soul from the start.

The different stages he is shown by The Leading Player seem like a trick to convince him that giving up his soul is the best route for him but the plans are ruined by Catherine's purity, who the Leading Player seems to hate.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 7/13/14 at 5:09pm

It can be read that way, but the creators intended it slightly differently. (And, thanks to Bob Fosse, it came out slightly differently than even that.) I once wrote something about it.

Hope it helps.

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/13/14 at 5:23pm

Interesting, thanks g.d.e.l.g.i

Even if the intention was different, the themes and characters are very similar.

[g.d.e.l.g.i.]

Posted: 7/13/14 at 5:35pm

I find it vaguely similar to Candide, the revised version of which opened a season later and had much the same basic outline of "young idealist is crushed by real life and decides to settle for what he can get."

[blaxx]

Posted: 7/13/14 at 7:29pm

You see the Mephisto in The Leading Player? Isn't the finale's fire a representation of hell?

[wonkit]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 12:59pm

What you lose by using the FAUST analogy is the continuity of mistakes from generation to generation. The single moment that gets me every time with a good production of PIPPIN is seeing the son make the same mistakes as the father. There is no sense of this in FAUST where Faust pays the agreed for price at the end, as does Marguerite and their baby.

[darquegk]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 2:21pm

I see Pippin as much more of a secularized adaptation of EVERYMAN than Faust. The Leading Player and their associates lead Pippin through a life in which he searches for meaning, tries many things and realizes that none of them last. Additionally, Pippin moves from being a literal Everyman, an anonymous member of the chorus, to being "every man" as he takes the roles of royal, lover, politician, artist, priest and peasant, before finally trying on, discarding, and returning to, the role of husband and father, the only place in which he does any good for anyone other than himself.

Compare this to the way Death summons Everyman to his final judgment, and Everyman tries to recruit Family, Friends, Wealth and The Senses to speak as to his worth. In the end, only Good Deeds will go with him.

[wonkit]

Posted: 7/14/14 at 3:50pm

darquegk - excellent point. Thank you! I haven't read EVERYMAN for ages.

[blaxx]

Posted: 12/24/14 at 7:47pm

I saw the show recently and the ending still sends shivers through my spine. Could it be one of the darkest ending in the history of musicals?

Although Pippin's quest is now much clearer to me, the revival's ending seems a lot more evil than the Fosse production. If the players are really all in Pippin's head, they are one bunch of nasty Mansonians by the end. Funny to know Schwartz and Hirson didn't see them as evil - be one with the fire.

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 12/25/14 at 9:50pm

When The Leading Player is not played by a male Actor, the whole show means absolutely Nothing.

[trpguyy]

Posted: 12/25/14 at 10:02pm

^ what about a male actor in drag?

Merry Christmas!

[darquegk]

Posted: 12/25/14 at 10:18pm

How does the show mean less with a woman than a man?