Pippin: His Life and Times

I wasn't at all familiar with this musical. I had no idea what it was about. I knew Ben Vereen won a Tony Award for his performance in the 1970s production, and that there have been endless numbers of high schools and colleges of it. That's it. I stumbled upon this production on TV with no intention of watching it - and watched the whole thing, mesmerized and delighted. It's not so much the music, which is dated, and certainly not the Bob Fosse choreography, which is always *really* dated (jazz hands!!!). Rather, it is the amazingly layered story and themes, which are much more complex and timely than I ever expected, that drew me in. I suspect these very risqué, biting themes are completely glossed over/ignored in high school or college productions. And the performances by Ben Vereen, William Katt (he can sing?!? who knew!), Benjamin Rayson, and the amazing Chita Rivera are wonderful - I realize other reviewers did not like them, because they had seen other people in the role, but looking at them from a clean slate, I thought they were all perfectly cast and quite compelling. I really loved the simplicity of the production. Sure, I wish the camera work had been better, but given how rare it was (and still it) to film live theatrical productions, I thought the videographers did quite well.

Those people lucky enough to see this show in it's original Broadway run saw a brilliant cast performing a brilliant show with an equally brilliant director. The original cast, Ben Vereen, Irene Ryan (of Beverly Hillbillies fame) Leland Palmer, Jill Clayburgh, John Rubinstein, and others easily outshine William Katt (of Greatest American Hero fame) Martha Raye (of denture fame) and the rest. Still, it's a very good production, and nice to see that a Broadway show can, in fact, be filmed and appreciated without paying $100 to see it! The choreography is splendid. Katt's voice isn't horrible, in fact, he sings the difficult Stephen Schwartz music with apparent ease (not to same effect that John Rubinstein had, mind you) All in all, it's a good production, but more on par with what one would expect from a regional theater or really good community theater.

But it still manages to capture the look, feel, and spirit of the original stage production. Great musical numbers and dance numbers compensate, IMO, for the flaws of bringing it to video (and the original "director's cut" unedited version makes up for much of the cited flaws anyway).

Pippin isn't really adapted for video, but is rather simply a taping of a stage production (compare it to Cats - the video version _was_ staged for video). This is a mild flaw. Cats obviously takes advantage of F/X, close-ups, etc., while Pippin's camerawork is pretty much static.

The standout is Ben Vereen, at his peak here carrying the show. Chita Rivera (Fastrada) and Benjamin Rayson (Charlemagne) are the best of the supporting player. Katt and Denniston are kinda weak, and Martha Raye, while adequate, isn't as good as Irene Ryan in the original Broadway production.

Overall, Pippin is an entertaining musical which is competently captured on the (complete) video.

I first saw this movie while I was acting in a production of the show...just to get a feel for the songs and the choreography, not really paying much attention to the quality of the performances or the show as a whole. On repeated viewings since, however, I can say that...well, frankly, it doesn't make a very strong impression on me. I suppose there are several reasons for this; first of all, there's a lot of the script missing. But which script? There were actually two different "Pippin" scripts, which shared most of the songs and basic structure, but very little else. This production seems to be a mishmash of elements form both versions.

There are certain things I liked... Ben Vereen, of course, whose Leading Player was nearly flawless. William Katt did not sing as prettily as John Rubenstein, the original Pippin, but he seems to have a level of guts and passion that was missing earlier, as well, so that's okay, too. The nauseating "I Guess I'll Miss the Man" was cut (thank God). All good things.

But outweighed, unfortunately, by some negative aspects. First, casting...Chita Rivera has no place in the show. She doesn't sing it well, and the dance break seemed to be so that the producers could say, "Hey, look! We've got Chita Rivera!" The editing left a lot to be desired as well...there were whole expository scenes missing, and some really unnecessary ones left in. And most of all, it was just so FAST! Everyone spoke as if they would be penalized if the show ran over two hours...Ben Rayson as Charlemagne is most indictable for this, but all of the cast (even the incomparable Vereen) are guilty of it from time to time. I also felt that the ending was WAAAY too abrupt...there's so much more to be done with one of the most powerful final scenes in musical history, and they took the easiest possible exit.

All in all, I own it and watch it simply because there are way too few filmed stage versions of musicals available (the only others I can think of are Into the Woods, Sunday in the Park with George, Jeckyll and Hyde, Putting It Together, and Sweeny Todd).

I like movie musicals, but I like seeing them done on stage more than anything. I just wish there was a better reason than that for owning this one.

David Sheehan needs to be drawn and quartered for his handling of this classic musical (ugh - the cross-fades during the Manson trio dance, the poor framing, etc).

I love Chita Rivera but she is bit miscast as Fastrada.

William Katt might sound better if he was miked to the camera.

On the other hand, this is the only record we have this amazing musical circus. Obviously, even in pristine state, it would still lose something because it really is a live theater piece.

I simply have newbies watch it, explain the mistakes/edits, and have them listen to the original cast album.