Pippin
Garden Theatre • Winter Garden, Florida
by Carl F. Gauze
Direction and Musical Staging by Rob Winn Anderson
ASL Translation and Direction by Michelle Mary Schaefer
Starring Lane Breimhorst, Edwin J. Perez II, Christopher Russell
Well, this is the darndest piece of theater I’ve run into lately. While the show is the product of Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson, it is forever known as Bob Fosse’s premier production in 1972. In other words, all the giants of Broadway got together and made one of the greatest stage productions of the post-war era, yet this show is rarely performed. In my 20-plus years of theater commentary, this has long been on my bucket list.
The story begins with King Charlemagne (Russell) who attempts to teach his son (Breimhorst) how to rule an empire or least hire good subcontractors. Maintaining those royal traditions is hard work. There are all those details of heraldry, keeping the church at bay, and managing lords, ladies, serfs, and jesters. You need good help, and must keep an eye open to weed out those with revolt on their minds. The king looks to his son Pippin to carry on his royal tradition. Problem is, Pippin wants nothing to do with royalty and its trappings. He and his friends prefer a hippie lifestyle free of the court, the ministers, and their functionaries of a large corporation. Worse than that, Pippin hooks up with an attractive widow in desperate need of a male protector. A romance like this could kill a kingdom, but after a few big dances he gets bored and decides to go back to being king, a job he legally qualifies for, if the local usurper wants to retire early. Shall he follow his big head or that pesky small one? Decisions, Decisions.
I’m leaving stuff out, of course. There’s a ton of details, making this a complex yet engaging piece of theatrical rarity. Fosse’s conceit for this show is it’s a traveling circus, presenting a morality story to enlighten the upper classes and allowing for a minimal set in theory. Sets were stunning, sparkling with jewels and bangles and making the whole business of a Middleville kingship a storyland delight, with no mention of infectious diseases or invading Visigoths. That is the joy of musical theater: you only need so much reality to set the scene, and then you are free to happily-ever-after as you see fit.
This a rarely produced yet delightful story, and it’s set right in the middle of the thriving Winter Garden food and bar scene. Make a visit before this erstwhile traveling show leaves town. ◼
