BWW Reviews: A.R.T. PIPPIN Talkback Coverage

At ART, a series of talkbacks between cast members and the audience was scheduled to be held on four dates after Saturday and Wednesday matinees. On Wednesday, January 9, after an early (noon) matinee, around a dozen cast members attended a 3:00 p.m. talkback, with the surprise presence of Pippin director Diane Paulus, who also addressed questions from the audience and shared opinions of her own. Much of the talk surrounded cast members' knowledge of the show prior to coming to it, and, not surprisingly, much also revolved around the planned transfer to Broadway at the Music Box Theatre, with previews opening on March 25.

Orion Griffiths, whose circus performances in the show had astounded the audience, revealed that he had come to the show with no knowledge of it. What he did know was circus stunts, and after a number of such had been written into the show. he offered a balancing act that he had already known how to perform. It was that act that had delighted the audience during the immediately preceding performance. Viktoria Grimmy, also a circus performer, agreed that she had also had little knowledge of the show before being called upon by Gypsy Snider of Montreal's Les 7 doights de la main (7 Fingers), who created the circus for the production. "It really is a brand new story every day," Grimmy says of the show. Several cast members noted that people who had heard they were going to be in Pippin had been excited for them -- but that they either didn't know or didn't remember anything about the story.

Tony-nominated Patina Miller, who stars as Leading Player, revealed that she had never bothered to notice Pippin prior to her involvement in the current production. "The Leading Player was a man. I knew there was no part for me in it, so I never paid any attention to it." Then she looked into Paulus' production. "It's been amazing."

Other performers added that the combination of the show itself and the circus performance worked into the show made the production particularly exciting for them, and according to performer Anthony Wayne. "We're here because we love it. This is always fresh because it's our passion."

Audience members commented that the new production is very different to the one that many remembered seeing in its first Broadway incarnation. Some lyrics have been changed, and according to one member of the audience, "It's so different seeing this in color, not as a black-and-white show." The circus metaphor incorporated by Paulus has turned the sets and costumes into a riot of colors and patterns very different from the original black costumes used in the original Bob Fosse production. Some other audience members described the original as "cheesy, schmaltzy '70's" that they did not feel had aged well as it had originally been produced. Cast member Stephanie Pope suggested that many of the licensed productions of Pippin have in fact been "cheesy", with "too much razzmatazz, poor choreography."

Questions from the audience also addressed the fact that the day's performance time had been adjusted because of the presence of a very large school group, and inquired whether other adjustments had been made to reduce the amount of potentially adult content in the show, particularly in the "The Flesh" scene. The cast and Paulus agreed that no effort had been made to alter the show's content to accommodate an audience with a high under-18 attendance. Students present in the audience expressed in response that they hadn't been disturbed by the content; rather, they had been impressed to see the way the scene had been staged and that they understood that what they were seeing was art and not reality.

Paulus addressed the challenges of merging circus and circus performers with musical theatre and with musical theatre performers. "It was amazing that everyone wanted to learn crossover skills. There were circus performers who wanted vocal lessons, actors who wanted circus training." The issues became "how does acrobatics serve the dance? How does dance serve the acrobatics? As a whole, they are something greater as a company." In discussing the performers' interaction with the audience, and with the audience responses to the circus performers, which are very much the way they would respond at a regular circus, "What I love about this show is that it breaks the fourth wall. Your presence makes the show happen."

America's most uncoordinated childhood ballet and tap student before discovering that her talents were music and writing, Marakay Rogers finally traded in her violin for law school when she realized that she might make more money in law than she did performing with the Potomac Symphony and in orchestra pits around the mid-Atlantic. She has never recovered from being chewed out by Terrence Mann in public for hanging up her bow. A graduate of Wilson College (PA), Marakay is also a writer, film reviewer and interviewer for the Wilkes-Barre (PA) Independent Gazette, science-fiction publications, and other news outlets. She's also taught college-level communications, writing, and English literature classes, has received multiple writing awards, and is listed in Marquis' "Who's Who in America". In her free time, Marakay practices law and often gets it right.

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