Pippin (2013 Broadway production)
Jul. 2nd, 2013 09:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chuckroI have had a special love for this show since I was around 7 and was introduced to “Corner of the Sky,” and at 16 I played Pippin when my Youth Council Theater Arts program did the show.
Patina Miller opens the show as the Leading Player, wearing pants that would make David Bowie say, “Yknow, I think those might be a little tight.” My first reaction was that maybe she was overdoing it, pushing everything up to 11 right from the start. Then I realized she was just setting the tone and trying to keep up with Terrence Mann and Andrea Martin, who are amazing presences and were both very obviously having the time of their lives.
(Terrence Mann, in case you don’t know, is the reason Russell Crowe will always earn my ire for his performance in Les Mis. Mann is the original Javert, and I also saw him as Chauvelin in The Scarlet Pimpernel playing the same kind of “dripping with gravitas” role, which Crowe cannot and did not hope to match. I actually didn’t know Mann was in this until I cracked the Playbill, which is like )
What got them lots of awards, I suspect, was that they took the show’s circus theme well beyond anything I've ever seen before—acrobats, jugglers (fire AND knives), trapeze, hula hoops, unicycles. It was really impressive. Perhaps the most impressive was Andrea Martin, a 60+ year-old woman doing a trapeze act while singing. Needless to say, that’s not typically part of Berthe’s role!
I wasn’t particularly crazy about Matthew James Thomas as Pippin. Granted, I’m biased because it's a "me" role, but his voice is too breathy and “rock and roll,” and his delivery was oddly inflected at times. I had seen him in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark as Peter Parker, and I can see how he would fit for both roles, as both characters are everyman characters.
(Granted, for all of its universal appeal about finding something totally fulfilling to do you’re your life, this is a story about privileged white boy problems, as Pippin pretty much has anything and everything available to him as the son of the at-the-time most powerful man in the world. But anyone who tries to make me feel bad about identifying with and enjoying the show despite that will be summarily deleted from my comments. Take it to Tumblr.)
They changed a bunch of lyrics (primarily to “War is a Science”) that I wasn't sure why; they changed a bit of dialogue for slightly more current jokes. If you’re not intensely familiar with the original recording and original script, you’d never notice.
My only real complaint: They stuck the finale. In the original ending, Pippin falters rather than jump into the flame, Catherine and Theo arrive, and he opts to go to them while the Leading Player throws a fit and tears down the set. When the lights are out and the music is gone, he assures Catherine that he doesn’t feel that he’s compromised, or like a coward, just that feels trapped, but happy. The ending is that Pippin isn't totally fulfilled by domestic life—it isn’t the magical thing that he was searching for, he finds it an acceptable alternative to flaming out.
In this version, Catherine and Theo appear as scheduled and the Leading Player goes apeshit, but instead of the usual exchange, Pippin and Catherine duet, “I never came close, my love / we nearly came near / it never was there / it always was here.” They went ahead and confirmed that he was satisfied with love and domestic life with Catherine; that he’d found his fulfillment. Theo, having hung back during this, steps forward after they leave the stage, and sings a chorus of “Corner of the Sky,” which lures the players back in—signifying that it’s his turn to go through this coming-of-age drama, and making the entire experience seem more universal. (And that part works, don’t get me wrong.)
My issue is that, in the original Pippin’s line is, “I never came close, my love / we nearly came near / it never was there / I think it was here.” Love and marriage (and parenthood, which Theo’s presence in the original is meant to indicate) aren’t perfect fulfillment, they’re a near-miss, and he’s not even certain about that. Because nothing is perfect, there is no perfectly fulfilling achieving that can’t destroy you in attempting it. But he’s willing to bet on a life lived over a life sacrificed on the altar of perfection.
(This is, of course, colored by my opinions of life and marriage. But I’m glad no one ever tried to tell me that finding love would make me feel totally fulfilled and complete. Jethrien is awesome, as is ARR, but they aren’t the only things in my life and I think it would be unhealthy for all of us if they were.)
Overall: Man, I love this show. See it. It’s worth it for the acrobatics alone. Or just for Andrea Martin. Or for the chance to see Terrence Mann live on Broadway again.
Patina Miller opens the show as the Leading Player, wearing pants that would make David Bowie say, “Yknow, I think those might be a little tight.” My first reaction was that maybe she was overdoing it, pushing everything up to 11 right from the start. Then I realized she was just setting the tone and trying to keep up with Terrence Mann and Andrea Martin, who are amazing presences and were both very obviously having the time of their lives.
(Terrence Mann, in case you don’t know, is the reason Russell Crowe will always earn my ire for his performance in Les Mis. Mann is the original Javert, and I also saw him as Chauvelin in The Scarlet Pimpernel playing the same kind of “dripping with gravitas” role, which Crowe cannot and did not hope to match. I actually didn’t know Mann was in this until I cracked the Playbill, which is like )
What got them lots of awards, I suspect, was that they took the show’s circus theme well beyond anything I've ever seen before—acrobats, jugglers (fire AND knives), trapeze, hula hoops, unicycles. It was really impressive. Perhaps the most impressive was Andrea Martin, a 60+ year-old woman doing a trapeze act while singing. Needless to say, that’s not typically part of Berthe’s role!
I wasn’t particularly crazy about Matthew James Thomas as Pippin. Granted, I’m biased because it's a "me" role, but his voice is too breathy and “rock and roll,” and his delivery was oddly inflected at times. I had seen him in Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark as Peter Parker, and I can see how he would fit for both roles, as both characters are everyman characters.
(Granted, for all of its universal appeal about finding something totally fulfilling to do you’re your life, this is a story about privileged white boy problems, as Pippin pretty much has anything and everything available to him as the son of the at-the-time most powerful man in the world. But anyone who tries to make me feel bad about identifying with and enjoying the show despite that will be summarily deleted from my comments. Take it to Tumblr.)
They changed a bunch of lyrics (primarily to “War is a Science”) that I wasn't sure why; they changed a bit of dialogue for slightly more current jokes. If you’re not intensely familiar with the original recording and original script, you’d never notice.
My only real complaint: They stuck the finale. In the original ending, Pippin falters rather than jump into the flame, Catherine and Theo arrive, and he opts to go to them while the Leading Player throws a fit and tears down the set. When the lights are out and the music is gone, he assures Catherine that he doesn’t feel that he’s compromised, or like a coward, just that feels trapped, but happy. The ending is that Pippin isn't totally fulfilled by domestic life—it isn’t the magical thing that he was searching for, he finds it an acceptable alternative to flaming out.
In this version, Catherine and Theo appear as scheduled and the Leading Player goes apeshit, but instead of the usual exchange, Pippin and Catherine duet, “I never came close, my love / we nearly came near / it never was there / it always was here.” They went ahead and confirmed that he was satisfied with love and domestic life with Catherine; that he’d found his fulfillment. Theo, having hung back during this, steps forward after they leave the stage, and sings a chorus of “Corner of the Sky,” which lures the players back in—signifying that it’s his turn to go through this coming-of-age drama, and making the entire experience seem more universal. (And that part works, don’t get me wrong.)
My issue is that, in the original Pippin’s line is, “I never came close, my love / we nearly came near / it never was there / I think it was here.” Love and marriage (and parenthood, which Theo’s presence in the original is meant to indicate) aren’t perfect fulfillment, they’re a near-miss, and he’s not even certain about that. Because nothing is perfect, there is no perfectly fulfilling achieving that can’t destroy you in attempting it. But he’s willing to bet on a life lived over a life sacrificed on the altar of perfection.
(This is, of course, colored by my opinions of life and marriage. But I’m glad no one ever tried to tell me that finding love would make me feel totally fulfilled and complete. Jethrien is awesome, as is ARR, but they aren’t the only things in my life and I think it would be unhealthy for all of us if they were.)
Overall: Man, I love this show. See it. It’s worth it for the acrobatics alone. Or just for Andrea Martin. Or for the chance to see Terrence Mann live on Broadway again.
