Pippin

Synopsis

A band of travelling players tell the tale of Pippin, first born son of the warlord Charlemagne, who, after a sheltered life of academe, discovers women and war. Longing to live an extraordinary life, Pippin makes a series of choices, but learns ultimately that glory for the individual is usually at the expense of others.

Our Review:

14 December 2004

Full disclosure time: I have been mildly obsessed by Pippin - a 1972 Broadway musical that became of the longest running musicals of its decade but was a fast fade when it came to London’s Her Majesty’s Theatre in 1973 (running for just 85 performances) - ever since I first saw it as a young teenager growing up in South Africa in the late 70s.

I still treasure the original South African cast recording I have of that production, and seriously consider “Corner of the Sky” from Stephen Schwartz’s lovely score for the show to be one of my all-time favourite theatre songs.

While Schwartz is currently riding high once again as composer of the massively overblown hit Broadway musical Wicked, it’s a pleasure to re-encounter this much smaller ‘concept’ show, in altogether more modest surroundings, that perfectly suit its quirky charms.

The Union Theatre, a tiny but versatile ‘found’ space beneath a railway arch in Southwark that is dripping in...

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