Pippin

Actors are really working hard for their money these days. This fall, the cast of the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd — including Tony Award winners Patti LuPone and Michael Cerveris — will be playing instruments on stage in addition to their roles. The eight-person cast of the Bay Street Theatre’s Pippin, which features Tony winner B.D. Wong, isn’t being asked to take on that task; with the exception of some tambourines, the instrumental accompaniment is provided by a four-piece band led by John McDaniel. Still, this outstanding octet is doing double, triple, and quadruple duty as the show’s ensemble. Gone are the folk who traditionally back up the show’s “Leading Player” and take on a variety of small roles; here, someone is the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire one minute and a poor peasant the next.

Also gone, much more to the show’s detriment, is Bob Fosse’s sinuous, stunning staging and choreography. (Can anyone forget the iconic television commercial that gave some of us our first taste of Fosse magic?) In its place we have the much weaker one-two punch of Jack Hofsiss’s anything-for-a-laugh direction (most of the chuckles come from Emilio Sosa’s sometimes witty costumes) and Joey McNeely’s sub-par choreography, which doesn’t even attempt second-rate Fosse and instead settles for second-rate Las Vegas.

Watching this modest and modestly entertaining version of Pippin, one quickly becomes aware of just how much Fosse’s razzle-dazzle masked the deficiencies in Roger O. Hirson’s awkward book. Back in the post-Vietnam 1970s, the struggle of Pippin, eldest son of the great ruler Charlemagne, to find “complete fulfillment” may have seemed profound — and it might still resonate with any teenager or twentysomething who’s contemplating the meaning of life. But for the rest of us, the meandering quest of a rich white kid who just isn’t happy hardly amounts to a hill of beans, and the musical’s play-within-a-play concept seems unnecessary.

So, what has kept Pippin alive and thriving all this time? The simple answer is: Stephen Schwartz’s remarkably melodic score. Three decades after they were written, the songs “Morning Glow” and “With You” still sound fresh, “Extraordinary” still sets our toes tapping, and “Simple Joys” and “Glory” can still raise both heartbeats and the rafters. (How you react to “Corner of the Sky” may depend on how much time you’ve spent in piano bars.)

I suspect it’s the chance to sing the score that continues to attract top-tier talents to productions of Pippin. Why would the priceless and ageless Alice Playten consent to play Larry Keith’s mother if not for the opportunity to shimmy and shake her way through the showstopper “No Time at All”? For his part, Keith is a first-rate Charlemagne, finding some real pathos in the character. Stephanie Pope-Caffey slightly overplays the role of the scheming Fastrada but she does kick up a storm in “Spread a Little Sunshine.” Sebastian LaCause has little do to as her “strong but stupid” son Lewis, but is a wonderful and very game presence in the ensemble numbers.

Aside from its other issues, Pippin is an oddly unbalanced show in that the entire second act revolves around the prince’s relationship with a widow and her son. Fortunately, Anastasia Barzee gives a truly lovely performance as Catherine; and Raphael Odell Shapiro, though a bit too mature for young Theo, plays the role pleasantly. But, ultimately, Pippin rises and falls on the shoulders of its two leading men. David Larsen didn’t really register as the leading man of the ill-starred Good Vibrations but he turns out to be a properly callow, even moving Pippin. Unfortunately, his thin and twangy voice doesn’t do full justice to Schwartz’s soaring, beautiful songs. (Costumer Sosa’s decision to clothe Larsen in a wife-beater and tight jeans for most of the action, and in considerably less for the show’s final moments, serves as a helpful distraction.)

As Pippin opens with “Magic to Do,” one worries that B.D. Wong — here looking like a refugee from Siegfried & Roy’s magic act — will portray the Leading Player with the same blandness he brought to the role of the Reciter in the Roundabout’s Pacific Overtures. But such fears prove unfounded as Wong tears into the part, proving himself a consummate song-and-dance man and playing the character’s hard edges as well. Should some revival of Pippin ever make it to Broadway — and I’m afraid it won’t be this one — Wong might be the right choice for this demanding part.