I want to share my friend's review of "Pippin" and I'd like to hear your opinion regarding his review:
Pippin – Music Box Theatre
Posted on July 26, 2013 by Angry Greg
God this is a difficult one for me. Having played Pippin in college (albeit in a pretty hedgy production and with less than two weeks rehearsal), this show is extraordinarily near and dear to my heart. Yes, the little pun was intended. So here we are with the first large scale Broadway revival of a show I adore, starring an actress I hate. Yes, hate is a strong word – and after tonight I hate her even more. Patina Miller is now on my boycott list – I will never subject myself to her over the top disconnected antics again. Flame away. Beyond her, I was really enjoying most of the show until the finale. Which just didn’t hit for me in the slightest. But really the only way I can talk about this circus-themed revival is to go scene by scene. All of the below is based off of the assumption that you are already familiar with this musical. If you are not, spoilers can abound.
* Magic To Do begins and I realize that my fears of the undeserving tony award for best actress are not unfounded, from the first ‘Join Us’ I am pulling faces…thankfully from standing room. Luckily once the curtain comes down I am able to enjoy the rest of the number – the circus stunts are fun.
* Pippin commands the stage with the first verse of Corner of the Sky. And this is NOT a good thing. I find myself wondering if I will hate this production completely and utterly. I am shivering in my shoes. It’s not that he’s ‘bad’ its just that… it’s supposed to be his FIRST TIME playing the role. As soon as the song is over and we move into the rest of the show I find that I actually quite like Matthew James Thomas – and I kind of think he deserved a Tony nomination.
* War Is A Science. Terrence Mann as Charlemagne milks every moment onstage with gusto. I adore him. He steals the show. And more importantly his interplay with Thomas is fantastic. Charlotte D’Amboise is also fine as Fastrada even if not necessarily a standout.
* Glory. Hurts me. And bores me. And then Patina thankfully leaves the stage and I get some nice knife juggling and circus-y stuff that is appropriately guiding Pippin through. We get our first major introduction to Catherine as a Clown who helps keep the Headless Soldier’s head propped up. It’s a nice unobtrusive way to establish the connection – and gives the whole sequence more purpose than usual. At this point I’m thinking ‘yay – so as long as she-who-will-no-longer-be-named isn’t onstage I’ll be a happy camper.
* But of course she is back to sing Simple Joys with such vibrato and unnecessary rifts that I don’t know why the song exists. The production is clever enough to cover this up with a lot of fun hoop and bouncy ball tricks, which serve no purpose other than allow me to survive this song.
* And Andrea Martin enters to save the show with her Tony Winning Berthe. The highlight of this scene for me was not the comedy nor the razzle dazzle of the trapeze. Rather it was her plaintive ‘I’m going to sing this last chorus to Pippin’. And she does. And it is touching. And in the back of my head I know she’s just leading him towards his finale. And I cry. And I am a very fulfilled Greg.
* I remain fulfilled as we head into With You and the orgy sequence. Thomas is hysterical in the song. It may be my favorite performance of this song ever. The cage is awesome. I am even able to ignore lady voldemort’s paste on grin.
* D’Amboise’s Spread a Little Sunshine sheds light on the frayed edges of the production – and the thing that bothers me most about this revival. I feel as though if I didn’t know the show I’d almost miss the fact that she organizes the confrontation between father and son. That said the magician’s act and her dance number were both lovely to watch. This was an example though of my fear that the show would lose the plot in its attempts to entertain.
* Morning Glow closes the first act. Everyone sounds great, although I think there were possibly a little bit more vocal stylings then necessary. But then she-who-will-not-be-named starts singing a weird little Magic To Do reprise bookend that I think just kills the moment. Although the finale intro after that bookend I thought worked more smoothly than it usually does when the intermission is put in this position.
* I find many of the jokes in the politics sequence to simply not play as funny as they could. But again, I’m really close to the show so this could be me. But it brings us to On The Right Track. This is the scene wherein Thomas really impressed me – because I was able to still enjoy the song thanks to his shenanigans despite half the stage being taken up by a mugging scenery chewer who has absolutely no real connection with their stage partner. Also the ‘I realized it wasn’t God who touched me’ – awesome line change.
* Rachel Bay Jones I actually quite enjoyed. With the exception of course that the Leading Player interplay wasn’t working for me — mainly because it didn’t really build, it was just as harsh at the missed entrance as the ‘Stick to the part’ line.
* I was scared to death when Extraordinary started to turn into a big ensemble number but it worked for me in the end. And the rest of the Ordinary Life sequence worked quite well for me with the exceptions noted above.
But then we come to the finale…. and everything turned into a hot mess. It began promising enough with Pippin running around onstage alone unable to find anyone and I crossed my fingers that it was a sign of things to come. But then they do a little dance and there is no fire trick. When Pippin says ‘that’s the finale?’ I am thinking ‘yeah right’. Then there is a changed line that this is the ‘build’ up. The Player than goes on to explain that Pippin will leap into a pit of fire. And I’m like ‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO THIS SHOW?’. And here is why— we’ve been watching circus ‘tricks’ all night — how could you NOT show the ‘trick’ and then keep the line ‘but that was just a trick!’ ‘yeah when he does it, it’s a trick but when you do it it’ll be for real’. That line slams everything into an unexpected reality that was just not present. Then they sing about the Sun – even though they’re telling him to jump DOWN into a PIT – what kind of explosive finale would that be for the audience anyway? I found myself so completely disconnected that for the first time since I’ve done the show, I didn’t have a shred of emotion for the rest of it. Andrea Martin (bless her) ‘almost’ pulled me out of it when she had her moment with him during the sequence but it didn’t get me there. And the whole ‘I’m a Diva and you’re ruining My show’ brought it down even further — it was like the rest of the troupe didn’t care and wasn’t involved and…. ugh… now I’m rambling.
Suffice to say the show just fell apart for me at the end completely. But honestly – if you’re out for entertainment everything but the last 7 minutes will give it to you. I’m now going to go download the tracks that Pippin and the supporting characters sing and make that my Pippin Revival playlist. Then I’ll hack Ben Vereen’s versions into the gaps hehe.
http://www.angrygreg.com/2013/07/pippin-music-box-theatre/
"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one".
-Felicia Finley-
