(VHS) Pippin: His Life and Times

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Here's a Broadway musical about a young man who sets out to discover true meaning in his life, dabbling in war, sex, and politics before finding love. That may sound conventional, but it isn't. The title character of Pippin is the son of Charlemagne, the 9th-century emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and when Bob Fosse directed the original Broadway production in 1972, he transformed what had begun as a fairly innocent college project for composer-lyricist Stephen Schwartz into a burlesque filled with broad comedy, bawdy characters, and magical but dark situations. Pippin (played by William Katt, of TV's The Greatest American Hero) embarks on his quest, all the way coaxed and goaded by a narrator figure known as the Leading Player (Ben Vereen) while his stepmother (Chita Rivera) schemes.

Schwartz's pop-rock score may not be as recognizable as his work for Godspell and various animated films (The Prince of Egypt, Disney's Pocahontas), but it does include the soul-driven opener "Magic to Do" (showing off Fosse's signature white gloves), the soaring "Corner of the Sky," the lovely ballad "With You" (indelicately presented in a brothel), and the romping "No Time at All" (by Martha Raye as Pippin's grandmother). Not as technically polished as newer shows preserved on video (Into the Woods, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat), this live 1981 performance of Pippin is probably of greatest interest to Fosse fans as a record of his striking vision. (The original show won five Tony Awards, including for Fosse's direction and choreography and Vereen's performance.) Note, however, that this Canadian television production was supervised, not directed, by Fosse, and is missing some numbers from the original show. --David Horiuchi