review: pippin at sidetrack theatre

Guys, I have been waiting years to see the musical Pippin on stage.

Now I know that's not a sentence you come across every day, but it really is true.  Or was, as I just saw it tonight so should probably put it into the past perfect ... wow, I've been teaching English too long!

Anyway!  I was thinking back and I think I must have first picked the CD up from the library when I was going through my phase of listening to every musical the library had (maybe not entirely best classified as a phase, come to think of it).  I liked Pippin so much that my best friend bought me the CD for Christmas one year (duly noted that not just did it have cool music; it also had a pink cover) and I have since become more or less fluent in most of the songs.  I skip all slow songs on principle (the principle, obviously, being that slow songs are boring), though I do remember being surprised in Pippin that I found almost all the songs pretty catchy.  Not quite all, but a way higher proportion that I typically do.

All that to say -- I have been waiting and waiting and waiting to hear of someone -- anyone! -- doing Pippin and no one ever is.  Until now!

In case you want to go, let me just give a little plug right now -- you want to go to the Sidetrack Theatre at 142 Addison Road in Marrickville.  There's still time, too -- it runs through Saturday, December 17 with performances at 8 pm.  There's also 3 pm matinees on the Saturdays.  $34 for adults, less for students.  Totally worth it.

I'd booked it ages back (okay, a couple weeks ago at least) and then got a promotional email from them offering two free tickets if I could email in the name of the guy playing Pippin first -- so, a quick trip to google later, and we were in business.  I didn't hear anything for a few days, but when I did it was to inform me that, YES!  I'd won!  This was fantastic, though slightly less fantastic in that they couldn't reimburse the ticket I'd already bought.  It all ended up great though, because this way two awesome friends were able to come along!

I'm always a little nervous to take friends to the theatre when it's a play I've requested because, well, if it's bad I feel a bit responsible.  (Yet another reason why it is totally cool to go to the theatre alone.)  Thankfully, though, we found the theatre just fine (it was my second time there -- previously having seen the Fringe show The Local, directed by Mick Hammell) and even made it on time.

Oddly enough, the play started 20 minutes late.  This wasn't really an issue, and actually made for a rather welcome change to me rushing in 10 minutes late.  Will wonders never cease!

My first slightly harried thoughts (still hoping to please said friends) were, "oh gosh, lots of make up!"  However, they quickly faded into just enjoying the show -- comedy tonight!  Well, not entirely comedy, but enough of it to keep me happy.  (My friends loved it, too -- phew!)

Where can I start though?  There's so much to tell you about!  I might just make a list -- acting, music, technical elements (set, costuming, etc.), the plot, particular highlights, how it compared to my ideas from the CD and miscellaneous.  I think that ought to do it.

As for the acting and singing, I was very impressed.  Pippin and the Leading Player, played by Mitchell Lagos and Benjamin Hoetjes, were excellent.  Pippin did an amazing job of coming across as fresh-faced, idealistic and innocent, but with real depth.  The Leading Player had tremendous energy and brought a lot of fun to the show.  The rest of the cast was very company-based and did a great job overall.  As with most Australian productions, the cast appeared very "normal," won their way into your heart with the vivacity.

The guy playing the young boy did a great job and provided some good comedy, and the guy playing the step-brother was particularly well-cast.  I mean it as a compliment to say he certainly looked the dumb soldiering oaf -- and did well at it.

The music was fantastic -- the musicians were all onstage and incredible.  The guy on the keyboard, Andy Peterson, in particular was excellent and managed to direct the ensemble while playing, don't ask me how!  All I know is he made a welcome distraction to observe during the slow songs.

No, really, that's all I know about the music.  For having played both piano and trumpet for eight years in school I know remarkably little about music.  I thought it was fun.  What else do you need to know?

As for the technical elements, I thought things came together very well for the most part.  The set was sparse, yet very appropriate.  They made excellent use of a sheet for a scrim in particular.  The costumes I thought were reasonable in concept, yet lacking in their actual execution.  They just weren't particularly flattering for the most part, which detracted slightly, but not excessively.  The lighting was great and the sound was good, except for the fact that the actors were all wearing huge sound packs on their backs that gave them all a slightly humpbacked appearance.  It was rather odd, but presumably necessary for some very scientific reason.

Special mention should go to the choreographer of the song I think of as the "Gentlemen and THEN!" song, though I have a suspicion that's not really what it's called.  It's a bit hard to describe, but I'm hoping if I reread this review years later I'll remember how very cool it was.

Another highlight was the drag queen solo by Pippin's grandmother and her entourage.  She really brought the house down and I was thrilled to actually be allowed to sing along to the chorus (they made a placard to show everyone the words so we all could).  It was magic -- though also led me to wonder if there were any straight men in the cast!

Throughout the whole show, there was incidentally a lot of general coolness going on -- magic, acrobatics, naturally singing and dancing -- in short, just sheer entertainment.  I, not surprisingly, ate it up.

One part the CD hadn't entirely prepared me for was the sex presented pastorally.  Although I had naturally heard the phrase, either my CD didn't have the musical interlude or I'd skipped over it.  Not really sure which, but they actually presented sex presented pastorally.  It's also a bit hard to describe, but that was it.  It reminded me vaguely of "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" in The Lion King on stage, but that might just have been because they both made use of body suits.  I thought the suits were a bit unfortunate for the girls, but again the concept was actually pretty decent, if not entirely (okay, remotely) appropriate for the under PG-13ers.

In other news, can I just say how cool it was to finally actually see this show on stage?  Having only ever heard the songs, I had a pretty decent idea of the story, but lacked certain salient details of, say, who sang which song.  That sunshine one for example -- hadn't realized it was the "bad" girl who sang it.  Hadn't known anything about a widow and her son, except from vague recollections of a long-past wikipedia adventure.  Hadn't got that Pippin would kill Charlemagne, much less that Charlemagne would subsequently resurrect.  And really didn't see the ending coming -- I mean, obviously I knew it was on its way, seeing as we were nearing the end of the songs, but I didn't know what it really was or what the moral actually was.  And, while I'm obliged to say I don't entirely agree with it all from a theological perspective, I disagree less than I was afraid I might have to halfway through the show.  It's really a rather reasonable moral, and one that gives the show a bit more depth than your average musical.   Actually, it was a great ending -- it was perfect and just fit and sent a decent message.  And of all the boys they could have picked to strip on stage -- they definitely picked the right one!

All things considered, I really can't work out why Pippin isn't done more -- it's a great score with so much potential.  And, might I just remind you, it's still playing through December 17 at the Sidetrack Theatre.  I might have been the only one, but I thought it deserved a standing ovation.

It's the longest show I've ever seen without an intermission (I thought there was one coming just after "On The Right Track," but nope!  Kim was wrong!), but I think it maintains a bit of its magic that way.

And really, it's all about the magic.


PS -- Wow, this show makes me ant to act so much.  I'd so love to be on the stage.  For various unfortunate reasons, this is not likely in the near future, except for the upcoming Backyard Shakespeare Bash my friend Sharon has very graciously allowed me to have as my birthday present in her spectacular backyard in February.  Stay tuned for details.  In the meantime, I'll leave you with a list of my favorite facebook status updates as taken from the lyrics of Pippin.  (Not that anyone else seems to recognize, much less appreciate, these, but I do.  Let's call it a perk of having my own blog!)

Kim ...

... would rather be a crab on a slab at the bottom of the sea.

... wants her life to be something more than long.  (And can, incidentally, think of at least three ways to take this phrase.  How many can you think of?)

... lives all her life in superlatives!!!