ajhlovestheatre

PIPPIN – The 50th Anniversary Concert

Music and Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Book by Roger O. Hirson

Directed by Jonathan O’Boyle

Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London – 29 & 30 April 2024

https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/pippin-50th-anniversary-concert/

This 1974 Broadway smash, which flopped in London originally but has been revived numerous times since, is an incredibly malleable beast. Bob Fosse’s striking initial vision for it was as a macabre commedia dell’arte, a smirking, snarky dance of death, making it the show that, even more than A Chorus Line which it predates by a year, established ensemble dancers as a group of individuals rather than a homogenised, faceless bunch of chorines. The 2012 Menier production presented it as a computer game, the Tony-winning Diane Paulus Broadway revival a decade ago set it in a circus and the post-Covid London revival that transferred from a pub garden in Vauxhall to Charing Cross saw it as a hippie festival, just steps away from Hair which it sometimes resembles. With its innate theatricality, illusion and emphasis on dance as a mode of storytelling, Pippin is not necessarily a show one would automatically think of for a concert treatment.

Staged concerts have become more elaborate of late however, and director Jonathan O’Boyle has history with this piece: his pre-pandemic production that played Manchester’s Hope Mill then Southwark Playhouse in London, is one of the finest accounts of Stephen Schwartz and Roger O Hirson’s musical that I’ve seen. This new Pippin, featuring an all-star cast, a sizeable choir courtesy of Arts Educational School, and the onstage 20 piece London Musical Theatre Orchestra under the baton of Chris Ma, is basically the show as written but minus the scenery. In order to achieve maximum emotional impact, this loosely structured tale of a troupe of players putting on a show about the youngest son of medieval emperor Charlemagne and his quest for the meaning of life ideally needs more specificity than it gets here, but there’s still a heck of a lot to love.

The blazing talent on stage, Joanna Goodwin’s fabulous Fosse-lite choreography (of which there is plenty) and the transporting tuneful songs (it’s not as well known as the same composer’s Wicked but it’s a considerably stronger score) go a long way to papering over the cracks in the book, which, without an overriding theatrical concept, feels dramatically undernourished and self-consciously peculiar, especially in the second act which gets bogged down in a half-hearted romance and lots of existential pontificating. The ending, where the Leading Player (Broadway’s Alex Newell) strips everything away (sets, lights, costumes, wigs…even the band “get your hands off that goddamn keyboard”) to show Pippin what a “regular” life would be like without magic, isn’t as powerful when there’s not much to strip away…the transformation in Diane Paulus’s Broadway version where the colourful Big Top, with its elaborately costumed cast members, becomes the bare brick back wall of the theatre under harsh strip lighting is probably the most effective and astonishing to date. Nonetheless, it’s a fascinatingly downbeat ending to a show, or rather concert edition, where dazzle dazzle is its predominant stock in trade.

Newell lacks the sinister edge of a really great Leading Player but sings the score sensationally well, riffing and opting up to exhilarating effect, and is often very funny. Jac Yarrow in the title role also sings superbly, and successfully projects the self-absorption and bravado of the character, although the vulnerability that makes Pippin so compelling mostly eludes him. Cedric Neal’s glittering Charlemagne is great fun, and Lucie Jones, despite being saddled with a bizarrely unflattering costume, displays terrific comic chops, as well as a real sense of heartbreak, as Catherine, the widow who falls for Pippin. The four players who make up the versatile, athletic chorus – Jak Allen-Anderson, Sally Frith, Amonik Melaco and Gleanne Purcell-Brown – carry the show, and are just glorious.

The evening is stolen though by two women in supporting, but essential, roles. Firstly, Patricia Hodge, who was the original London Catherine back in the mid 1970s at what used to be Her Majesty’s Theatre, sidles on as Pippin’s majestic but thoroughly naughty grandmother and delivers an object lesson in seducing an audience while never breaking character. She’s simultaneously haughty and earthy-warm, and makes the life-enhancing, ear-wormy singalong ‘No Time At All’ (“join in with the choruses, but the verses are all mine”) the uplifting heartbeat of the show. It’s a wonderful fully-rounded performance which deservedly got the first huge ovation of the night.

Then there’s Zizi Strallen firing on all cylinders as Charlemagne’s scheming wife Fastrada. Sexy as hell, with legs that go on forever, and an exhilarating vocal belt that I did not know she was capable of, she’s authentically stunning. It’s a triple threat performance that transcends mere camp (although she certainly is that)….she’s deliciously nasty, overpoweringly erotic and absolutely hilarious. A real star turn.

The orchestra and choir are magnificent, although the sound design could be a little more crisp and some of the tempi seemed a little off at times, although that may just be teething troubles. There are several moments where the sheer wall of sound hits you like a bombastic sugar rush of gorgeous noise, and it’s in those sections where any reservations are swept joyfully away. The excellent O’Boyle’s knowledge of, and respect for, the piece ensures that, strange as it sometimes is, it’s admirably clear in its focus and storytelling. It’s just a shame that this Pippin is only on for two nights.