Pippin Reviews!- Page 4

[mlsheehan]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 12:10am

"This is a “Pippin” for the 21st century..."

"awe-inspiring"

"fun (with an exclamation point)"

"Ms. Martin who truly scales the heights. Berthe, Pippin’s foxy granny, has only one big song and scene to call her own, but, boy does she own it."
-NY Times

[djoko84]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 12:12am

These are all mostly raves. The only NY critic that was mixed about it was Brantley who I rarely agree with anyway. This will have no impact on the Tonys at all. Expect it to sweep as it should.

[ucjrdude902]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 12:12am

Don't you think though that R+H has more money to pull out one hell of a campaign?

[bobs3]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 12:17am

Barry and Fran must be livid over the NY Times review but they will get over it. The show will prove to be a popular hit that will run for several years (especially once the original cast contracts expire and the Weissler's start with the stunt casting).

[NewYorkTheater]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 12:29am

Excuse me dj, but Brantley's was not the only mixed to negative review. Terry Teachout of the Wall Street Journal wrote "I went home feeling as though I’d been yelled at for 2½ hours" And even some of the mostly positive reviews have some zingers. Jeremy Gerard of Bloomberg/Businessweek says the show "is fabulous if you’re 10 years old"
Will this make a difference? I wouldn't think so, especially if it does well at the Tonys.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 12:57am

I saw it tonight and to seem to agree with Brantley to a degree. The show is a helium filled confection that rises fast in the begining of the first act and then slowly starts a descent (right after Berthe's number). I found a great deal of the second act troublesome. This more to the book then the direction.
I too missed the raw sexuality of Fosse's staging which I remember from seeing it in college.
I still however had a great time at the theatre, was wowed a number of times. It was like eating cotton candy. Hell, I want to do Andrea Martin! OK, I would have to switch sides first...but you catch my drift.
Would I recommend it? Yep! Go sit back and load up on sweets, pop corn and circus peanuts.

[bk]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:00am

Well one problem is there shouldn't BE a second act. Period. Just as there shouldn't be a second act in Follies or A Chorus Line - all three shows were designed to play in one continuous act - when you interrupt the flow of Pippin to throw in an artificial intermission, then it loses whatever momentum its had and the last third of Pippin isn't strong enough to warrant a separate act.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:02am

BK I think you are right. There are a few songs that could be lost as well.

[mikem]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:20am

(Spoilers, maybe)

I don't understand Brantley's comments about Patina Miller. He seems to be upset that her Leading Player comes across to him as cold and hard. Why does the Leading Player have to be all warm and fuzzy and lovable? Doesn't it actually make more textual sense that the Leading Player is NOT that warm and fuzzy and lovable?

[WiCkEDrOcKS]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:24am

I think his issue is that she (for him) isn't a very welcoming presence. The first words in the show are "join us." If you're not on board with The Leading Player, and if you don't feel any reason or impulse to actually join him/her, there's a major problem from the start. He also seems to thinks she lacks a charming, "likable" edge to offset the darkness of the character.

That's what I got out of his (brief) description of Miller. Updated On: 4/26/13 at 01:24 AM

[CurtainPullDowner]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:29am

And Pippin (and the audience) have to really like him to follow his lead.
If he/she is just scarey or sexy it don't work.

[mikem]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:30am

WickedRocks and CurtainPullDowner, thanks for that explanation. That makes sense. I guess I was thinking more along the lines that one can be cold and hard and still be seductive, but it's true that it's not very welcoming.

I would have to agree that Patina's Leading Player is not very welcoming (at least for me). I felt in Magic to Do, she was kind of saying, "Join us because we'll dazzle you," not "Join us because we would love to have you come along."

Updated On: 4/26/13 at 01:30 AM

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:38am

I think the word is seductive. Ben Vareen was a very seductive and likeable Lead Player.
That has to make the END work as well when she (he) invites the audience to do the closing number.

[broadwaybabe1234]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:40am

i felt more entranced by Miller than welcomed by her but i feel that was in tune with the rest of the revival.

i am surprised at Brantley's review, do you think this will deter the Miller's chance of a tony award? or that maybe Drood will sneak up and nab the tony?

wishful thinking...

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:42am

Pippin is not a great musical. Fosse managed to mask some of the flaws by distracting from the material with his original staging and now Paulus has done the same in another way. These reviews very much mirror the originals, which did not have as much praise for the material as for some individual elements (Fosse's staging, Walton and Zipprodt's designs) and performances (Vereen, Ryan). Everything is as it was.

[CATSNYrevival]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 1:58am

In regard to the intermission, I've actually always found it difficult to sit through Pippin as a one act. Even on DVD I usually pause it at some point and take a break. And I'm actually a bigger fan of the book than I am of the score which I assume means I have terrible taste since everyone is always harping on the book.

I really like where they chose to put the intermission for this production and I really don't think it interrupts the momentum all that much. I also love the added line about attention spans being shorter than they used to be and the little bit of "Magic to Do" that the Leading Player sings at the end of "Morning Glow." I'm going to be really bummed if they leave that part off of the cast recording and try and pretend like this particular production doesn't have an intermission like PSClassics did with Follies.

[Wilmingtom]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 2:07am

I'm with bk - no intermission works best with this show. You want the production to wash over the audience without giving them too much time to think about it.

[Musicalplay]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 2:11am

this show will close in 4 months without NYT you are dead . Except wicked which is just because we have idiots in the world

[PlayItAgain]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 2:36am

^ HA! your an idiot if you think this is going anywhere by the end of summer, its playing to 90% capacity and will pick up some awards.

[SNAFU]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 2:49am

Musicalply, you joined topost that? Hello Sue under a different name!

[MaddieBB12]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 5:43am

No matter what any review said about her, I'd say Patina Miller is going to be pretty happy this morning. She got engaged last night after the show.

[Up In One]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 6:26am

With only 900 seats at the Music Box and these reviews expect Pippin to be the next BOM for the rest of the year with only premium seats available. A shrewd move renting a small house and lightening up the show with a circus theme so ten year olds can see it. Lowest common denominator works on Broadway too.

BTW have you seen BOMs regular price schedule? OMG if Pippin goes this way well never get to see Pippin until Bieber is brought in after his career cools down. Say 2025?

Regular Prices:
Orchestra: $169.00 - $252.00
Orchestra Partial View*: $145.00 - $189.00
Mezzanine Rows A-D: $155.00 - $252.00
Mezzanine Rows E-L: $155.00 - $189.00
Select Premium Locations:
Premium Seating: $352.00 - $477.00
Mid-Premium Seating: $252.00 - $299.00

[MaddieBB12]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 6:57am

If they EVER put Bieber in the show, here's what would happen:
His ridiculous fan girls-the same ones who cut themselves after he did drugs and who are jealous of Anne Frank- would go up at the show with all their BFFs and mothers and would be disgusted by the amount of women gropping their precious Justin during 'With You' and would send hate mail to the women playing Catherine. They would be furious that he wasn't on the recording and would probably scream and be distracting (espically during the finale). They couldn't have him do the top of Act 2...
His fans would KILL the show and Broadway is no place for him.

[John Adams]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 7:36am

>> "Pippin is not a great musical. Fosse managed to mask some of the flaws by distracting from the material with his original staging and now Paulus has done the same in another way."

I wholeheartedly agree. The story that the troupe of actors need to tell is a very poor one. It's a mishmash of historical characters and events that have been overly-simplified and fictionalized in order to illustrate a "moral" that is completely unrelated, and arbitrarily tacked on to the "real" lives of the historical figures.

The troupe really does have "magic to do". It really will be a "miracle play to play" in the sense that it will take a miracle to make this story interesting to watch.

The success of the plot in Pippin doesn't rely on the strength of the story, but in how well a bad story is told by its acting troupe. In the case of the Lead Player, it's hard to determine if that character is meant to be "real", or also a fictionalized representation (perhaps of a 'conscience' or 'the Devil') like the play-within-the-play's historical, yet fictionalized characters.

Ultimately, the success of Pippin as a production relies on how well its director tells a convoluted-story-within-a-convoluted story. I agree that "Pippin is not a great musical" because its success is based more on the spectacle of its presentation, not the material.

Updated On: 4/26/13 at 07:36 AM

[yankeefan7]

Posted: 4/26/13 at 7:45am

PlayItAgain - Why? Sometimes I think the NY Times guys can't win. People seem to think they "hate" everything and then when Brantley loves "Matilda" people think he is getting soft - lol