BWW Interviews: Sasha Allen Leads National Company of PIPPIN to Music City Tonight

When you spend all your time on the road, life can be...well, challenging...even if you are Sasha Allen, who stars as The Leading Player in the completely spectacular and altogether magical national touring company of Pippin, the Tony Award-winning Stephen Schwartz musical that's been mesmerizing audiences all over the country just as certainly as the recent Broadway revival became the talk of the Great White Way.

The show opens at Nashville's Tennessee Performing Arts Center on Tuesday night, March 10, guaranteed to thrill local audiences for eight Jackson Hall performances with its high-flying presentation of young Pippin's search for self, set to a memorable Stephen Schwartz score and featuring an impressive ensemble of actors, acrobats, musicians and minstrels.

"This production features a beautiful acrobatic element, which adds a stunning and creative twist from the original. While vibrantly costumed, the cast performs unbelievable feats of flexibility, balance, grace, and agility," says Kathleen O'Brien, TPAC president and chief executive officer. "There are powerful voices throughout the cast and one that is particularly exciting is the voice of Sasha Allen, who plays the Leading Player. Folks may remember her as one of the top finalists on the fourth season on NBC's 'The Voice,' and we are thrilled to have her perform here in Nashville. She is just amazing!"

Pippin is so amazing, in fact, and the production is so spectacular, so inspiring and so stunning - words not to be taken lightly - that Allen compares the experience to the sensual and rapturous delight that comes on a plate bearing a slice of "very rich chocolate cake."

"Pippin is beautiful and the acrobats only make the show more beautiful," she explains via telephone during the tour's stop in Des Moines, Iowa, a couple of weeks ago ("It's very cold here, but I'm a New Yorker, so I can handle anything!"). "The music is wonderful and the circus aspect to this production really makes it spectacular."

And all those circus aspects require that the leading lady playing the Leading Player show off her own lithe body, giving her a physical workout that clearly equals her vocal fireworks at every performance.

"My stamina is great," Allen says, her voice ringing with confidence and charm. "My body is in the best shape it's ever been, which is essential because this show really challenges you. The circus aspect of this production makes it unique, but it also keeps you on your toes and keeps you in shape."

Before she took the role, Allen - who's known to fans both theatrical and otherwise for her Top 5 performance on season four of NBC's The Voice, her Broadway debut as Dionne in Hair, and her starring role as a 16-year-old in the cult movie musical Camp - talked to her friend Patina Miller, who won rave reviews on Broadway in the same role. "Patina and I are friends, so of course I talked to her, asked her advice, and she told me I should be prepared!"

Sasha came to the role by an interesting turn of theatrical circumstance. Her manager fell in love with Diane Paulus' vision of Pippin, and encouraged her client to audition for the national tour.

Ultimately, cast as The Leading Player, Allen took on the role that made Ben Vereen a household name during his turn in the original Broadway production, and which became Patina Miller's when Paula envisioned the show for a new century.

"All I could think about was Ben Vereen and his performance of the role. Now, with the Leading Player cast with a woman, it's a completely different show from what people might expect. Watching Patina, who is a good friend of mine, really changed the show for me, so I decided to audition for that role, after all.

"I knew this show would allow me to expand myself and to work on both my acting and singing chops."

Judging from Allen's rave reviews on the road, it's easy to see the two are a perfect match: "It's definitely one of the best decisions I've ever made! My character is great and the book is so juicy, really juicy."

Pippin is the second time that Allen has worked with Diane Paulus, having previously made both her West End and Broadway debuts in Hair, and while both shows are about young men seeking answers to all the questions that have young men for all time, it's difficult, the actress maintains, to compare the two shows.

"Hair is so much about the Vietnam war, about facing death - and in many ways, Hair's Claude and Pippin are so much alike. They are both naïve young men who are forced to face what life is dealing them," she surmises. "Both shows are dark, but you have to play the darkness...and you find that in both shows, no matter how different they are, love saves the day, just as it often does in real life."

The finale of Pippin, she promises, encapsulates the beauty - and the darkness found within that beauty - in such a way that it's her favorite part of the show and something to which audiences always seem to respond affirmatively and emotionally: "Love is what saves the day."

About the show:

Pippin, the most nominated Broadway show of 2013, won four Tony Awards including Best Revival of a Musical, Best Direction of a Musical (Diane Paulus), Best Actress in a Musical (Patina Miller), and Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Andrea Martin). Pippin won four Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Outstanding Director of a Musical (Diana Paulus), Outstanding Choreography (Chet Walker and Gypsy Snider), and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Andrea Martin). Pippin won seven Outer Critic Circle Awards, including Outstanding Revival of a Musical, Outstanding Director of a Musical (Diane Paulus), Outstanding Choreographer (Chet Walker), Outstanding Lighting Design (Kenneth Posner), Outstanding Actress in a Musical (Patina Miller), Outstanding Featured Actor in a Musical (Terrence Mann), and Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Andrea Martin). Pippin also won the Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical. This thrilling production continues to dazzle audiences at the Music Box Theatre in New York City.

With a book by Roger O. Hirson and music as well as lyrics by Stephen Schwartz, Pippin features music supervision and arrangements by Nadia DiGiallonardo, orchestrations by Tony Award winner Larry Hochman, scenic design by Tony Award winner Scott Pask, costume design by Dominique Lemieux, lighting design by Tony Award winner Kenneth Posner, sound design by Jonathan Deans and Garth Helm.

Pippin is the sixth production featured in the 2014-15 HCA/TriStar Health Broadway at TPAC season. Performance schedule, prices, and cast are subject to change without notice. The season is supported by The HCA Foundation on behalf of HCA and the TriStar Family of Hospitals. Institutional sponsors for TPAC include Nissan North America, and Coca-Cola. TPAC is funded in part by support from the Tennessee Arts Commission and the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission. TPAC reminds ticket buyers that the only official place to buy tickets online is at www.tpac.org.

photos of Sasha Allen by Matthew Murphy

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