(center) Connor Ripperger as “Pippin” and the cast of “Pippin” from Music Theater Works/Photo: Brett Beiner
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“Pippin” is not your everyday musical. A fictional work that makes loose use of medieval historical figures, the title character is Charlemagne’s oldest son returning home from university and looking for meaning in life. Pippin’s saga is told by a performance troupe which in this imaginative Music Theater Works production, directed by Kyle A. Dougan, has been transplanted from the early 1970s zeitgeist of the original to the late 1980s-early 1990s world of 24/7 cable-news cycles. As prince of the Holy Roman Empire, everything Pippin does is considered news, reflected by four video screens of varying sizes strewn throughout a pop-art set with characters attired in colorful costumes.
Sonia Goldberg as “Leading Player” (center) and the cast of “Pippin”/Photo: Brett Beiner
Leading Player is played by Sonia Goldberg, who invites us to the show, promising Pippin and us great things. “Pippin” is self-conscious about being a theater piece from beginning to end, and deals with that quite cleverly, constantly breaking the fourth wall. The intimate North Theater of the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts leaves the audience exposed and close for direct interaction and the ensemble makes effective use of the space, constantly coming and going through aisles.
Pippin, played by Connor Ripperger, is not the usual template of the beautiful fool. This Pippin is not just going through the motions as an Everyman, but is an outlier who tries desperately to fit in at being a son, a prince, a soldier, a protester, a ruler, a lover, a family man—or even a performer in this very show—but falters under the pressure of what is expected of him by others.
By the time we get to the finale where the stage is stripped of lighting, costumes, performers and musicians, Pippin is completely alienated. And unlike the upbeat endings that have been tacked on to what even composer and lyricist Stephen Schwartz came to consider too bleak of a show, this version makes the point all too pointedly and poignantly that Pippin is in a dark place that he is unlikely to emerge from.
Music Theater Works’ “Pippin” at North Shore Center for the Performing Arts, 9501 Skokie Boulevard, Skokie, musictheaterworks.com. Through June 25.
A Goosestepping Good Time: A Review of “The Producers” at Music Theater Works I agree with real-life director L. Walter Stearns’ note in the program, that “This show has a little something to offend everyone.” The goal is not to offend for the sake of offending, however, but to shine a (literal) spotlight on tropes and mores, making them too outlandish to ignore.
