Review: PIPPIN is an Average Circus

Pippin brings the audience into a traveling circus who are performing a tale of Pippen a prince of a land who is struggling with finding himself. Pippen believes he is extraordinary and wants an extraordinary life but find out that an ordinary life may actually be the thing he has been looking for. The same can be said for this production. Pippin the musical really wants to be extraordinary when in fact it is just ordinary. The plot is just so so and none of the musical numbers are catching. There was one very big bright spot however and that was the circus acts.

Pippin being set at a circus means most of the supporting cast are acrobats or people who should/could be in the real circus. To give one example of how good these "Players," there was a moment when a female player was be held in the air by a male player. He then threw her up, she did a flip and was about a split second from her head hitting the ground but then he caught her. I audibly gasped and it was exhilarating. Enough can't be said about how great the circus acts/parts were. My only complaint was that there was too many acts going on at one time that is hard to watch them all. I would watch one thing and then realized I missed something else.

The cast as a whole was strong as well. The swing and Players did their jobs perfectly. Gabrielle McClinton completely embodied the role of Leading Player. Her swagger and dance moves were spot on. She could have been a little stronger in the vocals. She's not a bad singer by any means but she didn't seem confident in the long notes and wouldn't project as much during the long or high notes. Brian Flores as Pippin was a pretty good singer. He had a hard time with the high notes. Some notes (especially when he had to go to his falsetto voice) he completely missed. He got better and better as the show went on, really hitting his stride towards the end of act 2 but some of the notes should have been brought lowered for him.

The best singer was Bradley Benjamin as Catherine. She sounded great and was probably my favorite character. She knew how to play the funny moments, she didn't over sell them. While Priscilla Lopez and John Rubinstein were both hilarious but it was too much at times and Rubinstein would scream his lines for what felt like no reason at all.

Pippin is a fun show, not one for the kids as there are a lot of grown up situations but a fun one for adults. It won't be the best show this season at the Aronoff but if you're looking for something fun to watch, this show is it.
Pippin runs at the Aronoff from October 13 - October 18th.

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