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Reviews Pippin Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz Reviewed by Cory Vaughn Entire contents are copyright © 2009 Cory Vaughn. All rights reserved. Clarksville Little Theatre, thwarted once again in its repeated bids to bring Chicago to its stage, has instead arrived at the one piece of musical theatre that manages to be even raunchier! It's just as well, I say. Chicago is en vogue right now; everybody is doing it! The unorthodox choice often turns out to be the better one anyway, and what musical could possibly be less orthodox than Pippin? It is definitely not a show for children. It is probably not a show for all adults of all tastes. For that matter, it is not even one of my favorites. And yet, I was surprised how much I ended up enjoying it, and I must give Clarksville Little Theatre and Director Ron Johnson major points for the courage it took to bring this difficult show to a fairly conservative region, in what is probably the closest we'll ever see to its dark and risqué original form. Definitely worth a look. Pippin is the episodic and completely speculative "story" – told in a highly presentational style a la its original director, the late Bob Fosse, and framed as a play-within-a-play by a troupe of traveling ragtag performers – of the life and times of Charlemagne's titular son as he moves, much like Candide, from one unfulfilling life change to another seeking . . . it's not quite clear. In his own words, expressed in one of composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz's most enduring songs, Prince Pippin (Chris Hancock) is constantly searching for his "Corner of the Sky", seeking glory and fulfillment in school, war, politics, prayer, and sex, without committing to or finding much lasting happiness in any of the above. This motif, the Search For the Meaning of Life, has been a constant theme in Schwartz's work; he'd touched on it before with the Disciples of Godspell, and would revisit it again and again through the immigrants of Rags, the Genesis family of Children of Eden, and even the witches of Oz in Wicked. But in Pippin, his first big hit on Broadway circa 1973, the darker side of the Search is mined perhaps more than in any of his subsequent works, due mainly to the involvement of Bob Fosse and his famously pessimistic outlook. By today's standards, the story this musical tries to tell seems platitudinous and doesn't hold up to close scrutiny, but even as the dated book by Roger O. Hirson grows new layers of mold and the 70s sentiments behind it fade into distant black-and-white memory, Pippin remains enjoyable and even thought-provoking due to Schwartz's infectious score, Hirson's cheeky humor, and most of all Fosse's groundbreaking choreography, recreated for the CLT stage by Patricia MacDonald. Clarksville's production opens with a fine rendition by the cast of the famous white-fluorescent-gloves-on-black-lights invocation number, "Magic To Do"; but then once the story itself gets underway, the production takes a while to get back its footing due to the seeming discomfort of its leads and an accompaniment combo that sounds quite frankly adrift. In the title role, Chris Hancock is saddled with a character so flighty, so aloof, so cold, so boorish, and so boring, that it is difficult for us to even root for him; Prince Pippin is the very model of the brooding GenX teen before the term was coined. It is a notoriously challenging role to play, and while 18-year-old Hancock is game, he is not helped by a very soft voice (underdeveloped, but pleasant enough and worthy of further cultivation) and the repeated use of sporadic and meaningless hand gestures. The real star of the show, despite what the title would have you believe, is CLT regular Kathy Todd Chaney, taking on the traditionally male role of the gruesome narrator known only as the Leading Player. The gender-bending didn't bother me, and Mrs. Chaney dances quite well, although she does improvise going up and down octaves quite a bit. Fortunately, both leads' performances improve as the evening progresses. I wish I could say the same for the band. While I applaud Musical Director Dennis Blake for coaching the principals and chorus to a much-better-sung show than the last one I saw at Clarksville, the music is much too loud (further exacerbating Hancock's projection difficulties) and every single song is played painfully slowly, with the exception of one crucial dance number, which, by contrast, is barreled through at breakneck speed. Having one of the actors accompany certain numbers on guitar while onstage didn't help, either, because it's done so arbitrarily, without being fully integrated into the show. Worst of all, the transitions from song into dance break are muddy and often involve the music stopping altogether. Still, it's better than those canned accompaniment tracks the company sometimes uses. But not much. On Friday night, the one song that both leads share with the band, the Act Two opener, was a downright mess! The supporting players are entertaining without exception. Dale Strange creates an imperious, blustery, slightly dirty old man out of the poorly-written role he is handed as Pippin's famous pop, King Charles the Great, dominating much of the first act and pattering away nicely in his musical lesson on why "War is a Science". Cindy Crenshaw Smith, so good in Bunbury's Dearly Departed last spring, brings much-needed energy and a strong belt voice in her one scene and song as Pippin's randy and free-spirited granny; I'm not normally one to fall for a written-in audience sing-along, but even I couldn't resist joining in on Smith's jovial rendition of "No Time At All". Andrew McGill lands every laugh there probably is to land from his one-note role as Pippin's brawny, dimwitted, and subtly gay half-brother. Janet Morris, another Clarksville mainstay, would not have been the first person I'd have thought of as Pippin's conniving, sexpot shopaholic stepmother (Chaney, ironically enough, would have been ideal in this role), but she's a trooper as always and makes good on her one song. And then, at the halfway point, the superb Jayme Thomas comes out of nowhere in the pivotal role of a lower-class widow who completely changes the trajectory of the show, much to the Leading Player's chagrin. I should also mention how impressed I was with eleven-year-old Patrick Koshewa, who resists the temptation to go for the cutes in favor of delicious bratty pluck as Thomas' son (he plays a pretty mean recorder, too). The set is simple and easily adaptable, particularly during one crucial and evocative transformation at the end, and for once, nobody bumps into anybody else, as was the case in CLT's over-peopled Seussical last season. However, the highly-touted "illusions" are rather obvious, and the Phoenix Lighting Company should not be given special thanks in the program so much as complaints from the patrons for straining their eyes with so much darkness. No costumer is credited, which leads me to believe that they were all pulled from the company's stock. The leads are well-dressed, particularly Strange, but the ensemble's costumes range from the bizarre and the gaudy to the skimpy and appalling; the chorus women even simulate horrific orgiastic sex during one dance break wearing nude flesh-colored leotards! Yet I think this was probably intentional, in keeping with the tone of the original production, and it succeeds. Finally, I must mention that I appreciated how the curtain call of this production followed the quintessentially Fosse-esque method of granting an individual bow to each and every cast member, regardless of role, allowing everyone from the leads down to the banner holders a well-earned moment of recognition. It certainly helps to have a reminder of each cast member, especially at the end of the evening when the audience is asked, according to an old CLT tradition, to vote by secret ballot for their first and second choice of the best performances of the cast members; winners become instant finalists for the end of the season awards. Oh! That reminds me; ladies of gentlemen of Clarksville Little Theatre, since I forgot to drop off my ballot at the end of the evening, my first and second choices for Actor and Actress are, respectively: Strange, Koshewa, Thomas, and Smith. Since I can’t vote for all of you, I will instead wish you best of luck, and recommend your show to my readers.
Pippin www.clarksvillelittletheatre.org/ Remaining Performances: September 17-19 at 8pm Starring: Kathy Todd Chaney, Chris Hancock, Jayme Thomas, Dale Strange, Janet Morris, Andrew McGill, Cindy Crenshaw Smith, Patrick Koshewa, Neill Arnhart, Trevor Boley, Carrie Chastain, Katie Hay, Victoria Hay, Kayla Jenkins, Jerrod Kraft, Josh Martin, Meredith McBride, Brian Morris, Josh O’Brien, Kevin Renn, and Kari Scharfenberger. Posted September 14, 2009
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