During most of the academic year, WU’s student body works pretty damn hard-from the engineer to the graphic designer to the bio major, we pretty much bust our collective behind getting work done. Then spring arrives, all of a sudden playing Frisbee looks a lot better than finishing that book for class, and procrastination infects the campus. However, all is not lost, because you still have those crazy kids in All Student Theatre. In April, there’s still a healthy dose of hard work to be found in their ambitious musical productions. This year’s production of “Pippin” is no different in its mixture of hard working cast and crew, modest set, and fun (albeit acoustically awful) Quadrangle setting. AST took a difficult and rather nonsensical show and turned into an enjoyable evening by focusing on its college audience.
The show started off with a highly entertaining rendition of “Magic to Do,” performed by the Players, the devilish figures that lead Pippin and the audience through the musical’s story. The opening lagged a little bit, as if the Players hadn’t quite warmed up all the way before the show, but Leading Player Jay Reese did an excellent job of pepping up the piece and keeping it going. Happily, it didn’t take too long for the ensemble to warm up, and by the next big number, “War is a Science,” they were ready to go. Although main characters such as Pippin, Charles, and Catherine are absolutely essential (as well as a lot of fun), Pippin’s production success is defined by its ensemble. “War is a Science” proved to be a particular highlight, as the moans, gags, and crying during the carnage attested, and the little fiends oozed sexual pleasure and perversion in the second act pastoral scenes. Their acting ability, along with their fun costumes (designed by Megan Morley and Jayme Lawson) freed them to be sleazy or angelic when the plot called for it.
Enter poor Pippin, the confused elder son of Charles the Great, who doesn’t know what he wants to do except that it’s gotta be really, really great. Here again, Jerry McAdams uses his superb directing skills to pull at our heartstrings as we see Pippin bumble through life exactly like….a college student! Maybe it’s just because I’m graduating in a little less than a month, but Pippin’s journey embodied the troublesome searching that all twenty-somethings have to go through in order to get to that pie-in-the-sky stable adult world. Joshua Goldwasser turned in a fantastic performance as the confused but far from idiotic Pippin. His renditions of “Corner of the Sky” and “Extraordinary” not only showcased a fantastic voice, but also Pippin’s passionate spirit of adventure and longing. Charles (Paul Deatherage) was fantastic as the king who is benevolent to his son and barbarous to his enemies, and Fastrada (Laura Harrison) was a success as the evil little stepmother. Her relationship with Lewis (Drew McKeown), Pippin’s younger brother, was just incestuous enough to be incredibly instead of grossly funny. All three royal family members turned in fantastic performances, with Lewis’ He-Man naivet‚ the most enjoyable.
The word on the street was that “Pippin” is supposed to be some sort of anti-war play, and some even whisper that AST’s choice was rather risky. I’m not so sure about all that. While Pippin does expose the horrors of war through the “convert to Christianity or die” argument, what war boils down to is something that Pippin just doesn’t think he’s right for. After a bloody first act that ends with Pippin murdering his father, we get the sunny, sexy pastoralism of the second act. Catherine (Sarah Holtz), Pippin’s love interest, does a lovely job, the leafy set pieces are lovely, and Berthe’s number “No Time at All” was a fantastic audience sing-along romp. However, the second act just doesn’t seem real, which is a fault with the show, not the performance. Only when we get the finale, in which the Players seduce Pippin into almost committing suicide, does this show feel familiar. So, conflicting war and anti-war ideologies aside, the show was yet another fun, successful show from some of the hardest working students in show business.