Review of Pippin (1981) by David Z — 25 Jun 2008
I don't know how to rate this one. To start, THIS ISN'T THE ORIGINAL FOSSE PRODUCTION. It makes some serious cuts and turns to humor rather than focusing on the themes and subtext that were in the original production.
That being said, how does what's left fare? Mostly well. William Katt is quite good, if a little out of his element with some of his higher notes. Schwartz's score is one of his weakest when left in context but they are pretty enough songs on they're own.
What's left of Fosse's staging is good but one can only imagine what the original production (unlike this Canadian tour that was filmed) would have really been like. I could go on forever with "This was good BUT" statements.
This particular video production is good enough and they're are still certainly some strong moments (the Finale is still shocking and surprisingly moving) but you can't help wishing we could have seen Fosse's own production, rather than a production based off of his production.
This review of Pippin (1981) was written by David Z on 25 Jun 2008.
Pippin has generally received very positive reviews.
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