Content warning: Implied sexual activity, mentions of death, murder and suicide

I will admit, I had never even heard the story of Pippin before walking into the SCC theater on closing night of the Undergraduate Theater Collective’s performance. Even with no expectations, I was blown out of the water. Pippin incorporated song, dance, storytelling, history, dance, commentary on themes universal and modern and did I mention dance? Before anyone came on stage, director Asa Weinstein ’25 gave special thanks to the cast and crew, highlighting the incredible efforts of stage manager Laurel Davidoff ’25 and choreographer Liam Delaney ’26. 

The first look at the stage was accompanied by rising orchestral music, courtesy of the band performing consistently throughout the show from a balcony set on stage. The band played atop a set or arches painted with gold stars, hiding the members partially from view while playing into the mystical showmanship of the performance. The audience is taken to the circus as soon as the curtain rises; in front of the set stand a group of actors in circus attire, including fluffy tulle, sparkly tights and traditionally clown-ish makeup highlighting eyes and mouths. Leading this cast of circus-folk is the Leading Player (Samantha Landay ’27). She appears to be a humble narrator, Fosse-ing through the show and providing helpful transitions to keep the audience on track, but her true nature as a ruthless ringleader, determined to keep the show on her road is exposed over time. 

After the opening performance of “Magic to Do” by the Leading Player and her cast, showing off their incredible vocal range and dazzling choreography, we meet Pippin (Teddy Peters ’28), who has just graduated and is setting forth his plan to “live a life that is extraordinary” through the song “Corner of the Sky,” which recurs in parts throughout the play. “Corner of the Sky” exposes Pippin’s deep desire to find a passion that is all his own, meaningful and the best and most fulfilling life he could possibly live. The way to fulfil this goal seems to fall into Pippin’s lap when his father Charlemagne (Nick Rubinstein ’27) calls his step brother Lewis (Preston Merrill ’25) to go to war with him. Pippin sees his chance to make a difference in joining his much more athletic warrior step brother and proud yet inattentive and out-of-touch father crusade the areas surrounding Rome to spread Christianity. Before they set off, the audience is introduced to one more character: Fastrada (Rachel Batsevitsky ’25), Pippin’s scheming stepmother who wants nothing more than her son Lewis on the throne. Thanks to Fastrada, we get a one-liner from King Charlemagne that will surely be quoted for the ages: “sometimes I wonder if the fornicating I’m getting is worth the fornicating I’m getting.” 

Pippin’s first time at war, shown through jazzy, sharp, on-point Fosse seems to be an eventual success, after he got the hang of chasing, not being chased. At this point, I noticed how the shadows of the actors grew, stretched or shrank on the backdrop of the arches. Intentional or not, this made the actors’ movements seem larger than life in pivotal scenes. After the war (and the group song “Glory,” a patriotic, dramatic piece that made undoubtedly everyone in the house want to conquer and ravage in the name of Christ) was over, Pippin was not satisfied. After Pippin has a quick discussion with a talking head, who popped out of a hidden door in the set, the Leading Player solos in an entertaining song and dance number about the simple joys, entitled accurately, “Simple Joys.” 

Berthe, played by Franny Gindi-Chiafullo ’24, is just like anyone else’s grandmother, if they all strutted across the stage in a slinky gold dress, singing “No Time At All” and encouraging their grandchildren to get laid. “No Time At All” was one of my favorite numbers of the show, because while Berthe implored Pippin to enjoy his youth, she encouraged the audience to sing the chorus along with her and included an incredible, sultry duet performance with an ensemble member of the cast (Brady Halvorsen ’28). Berthe’s sassiness and take no shit attitude garnered many laughs from the audience but nothing compared to the roaring that echoed throughout the house from one single-word line courtesy of Pippin himself: “Women!” For yes, our protagonist believed he had finally found the most fulfilling thing he could do with his life, and boy did he enjoy this realization. “With You” was a complex, vocal-riffing heavy performance featuring Pippin and three beautiful female members of the cast. Throughout this song, Pippin loses steam and becomes overwhelmed with the attention of his new suitors, and ends up naked, emotionally and physically, by the time the song concludes. 

Thus far, Pippin has searched through war and women alike for his life’s purpose, and we hadn’t even finished Act One. The amount of action and character development that was fit into one hour astounded me, but the play did not at all feel rushed or overwhelming; each rising action seemed logical and well paced, with interludes of Charlie Chaplin-style dancing to act out transitions, backed by jazzy music with no vocals. After women, Pippin stumbles upon protests and realizes that his father is slaughtering villages in the name of Christian conquest, (“Baptizing or beheading!”) and that reason no longer seems just to Pippin. Enter Fastrada, who sets Pippin up to try to kill Charlemagne while he is in Arles for yearly prayer. Fastrada assumes that if Charlemagne dies by Pippin’s hand (or blade), the throne will go to her beloved son, Lewis. This was not so, for after a dramatic showdown bolstered by equally dramatic lighting that threw Charlemagne and Pippin’s shadows on the set behind them larger than life, Pippin killed Charlemagne and became the next king, to the triumphant tones of “Morning Glow”. Here, we had a brief intermission where audience members were shocked to see that Charlemagne’s body was left on stage, lying there for all to see for the entirety of intermission, in fact right up until he was reanimated a few scenes into Act Two, when Pippin confessed to the Leading Player that he could not be king. It was here that the audience became more clued into the Leading Player’s power, and the realization that she may not be quite as harmless a narrator as originally thought.

Having now attempted to be king in addition to all his other pursuits and STILL not feeling fulfilled, Pippin was understandably downtrodden. He was reassured, however, that he was on “The Right Track” through an uplifting number with the Leading Player. All he needed to do was put faith in … the Universe? God? The Leading Player? And everything would turn out fine. After quick stints in art and religion (and a particularly racy joke about a touchy priest), Pippin is found laying in a ditch by Catherine (Sophia Scribner ’28), a determined widow looking for someone to take up the position at the head of her table. Catherine is a complex character, as we learn through her two solos, “There He Was” and “Kind of Woman.” Having dealt with the grief of losing her husband while maintaining her large estate and raising her son, Theo (Kat Troske-Roberts ’25), Catherine had been through more than her fair share of challenges; clearly she felt up to the task of getting flighty and worldly Pippin to stay in domestic life with her. 

However, here we see real tension between the Leading Player and the cast, as Catherine and Pippin begin to fall in love, which was not, apparently, part of the Leading Player’s script. Eventually it seems like Catherine acquiesces, though the audience is left to wonder just how much the Leading Player is pulling the strings. Pippin was originally determined to leave domesticity, lamenting the chores he had to do with Theo growing more attached to Pippin, providing endearing comic relief. Soon after belting out “Extraordinary” (as in, what his life was meant to be, and currently was not), Theo’s duck Otto becomes ill, and despite Pippin’s moving “Prayer for a Duck,” he dies. Sad as this definitely was, tragedy sparked passion in Pippin, and he did everything he could to try to cheer Theo up, including getting him a puppy, which did not suffice, because, as Theo rightly points out, a puppy is “not a duck! Dumbass!” Catherine and Pippin are drawn closer together, shown by a hilarious and well thought out scene in which Pippin and Catherine disappear under a sheet on a bed onstage, and the sheet begins to undulate suggestively, with them under it. Nevertheless, after the romantic “Love Song,” Pippin realizes that he cannot imagine spending the rest of his life at the estate with the people the audience now sees as his family. This reminds us that Pippin is afflicted with the desire to always have more fulfillment and wonder and meaning in his life. Catherine laments Pippin’s abandonment with the melancholy song “I Guess I’ll Miss the Man,” admitting that Pippin had many faults but she loved him and wished he’d stay.

Here, the Leading Player becomes the star of the show. She tries to convince Catherine that Pippin was all bad, and she should not be in love with him, much less imploring Pippin to come back. Then, she appears before Pippin with the promise that he will now get to experience the greatest, most fulfilling thing of his life: her Finale. The audience quickly realizes that this is suicide; he would be jumping into a set surrounded with 3D printed flames. The Leading Player encourages Pippin to be a part of this Grand Finale, imploring him to “think about [his] life, the power and the glory!” This alleged “climax” was set to a rendition of “Corner of the Sky,” with the cast dancing around Pippin, pushing him towards “the sun” for him to go out in a literal blaze of glory. 

Here, for me, the metaphorical and the literal came together and I was reminded what the show was truly about: the dangers of always searching for what you’ll never achieve, and not appreciating what is right in front of you. Pippin had spent two whole hours (and several years in the fictional timeline of the show) trying to attain the most fulfillment, perfection, the most extraordinary life possible and now the only thing left possible for him to do to cement his legacy and know that he had achieved greatness was to go out in a literal blaze of glory. The dancers surrounded Pippin, bodies contorting and pushing him towards the flames. But he resisted. Catherine and Theo join Pippin onstage, where the Leading Player strikes the set, silences the band and removes their makeup and clothes, for if they were not going to follow her script, then they couldn’t be in the show at all. However, Pippin found meaning in his life with his family, and here we anticipate the show ending happily ever after. However, this performance was not over yet. The Leading Player and her cast, undeterred by the loss of Pippin, Catherine and Theo, turned to the audience, creeping along the edge of the stage, inviting us to replace Pippin in the Finale. Now that the audience knows the true nature of the cast, how they symbolize the futile desire for ultimate perfection that will eventually lead to nothing but destruction, the audience is enraptured and afraid. Much to our dread, the show ended with young Theo getting lured to join the cast to find his own “corner of the sky,” in the heartbreaking final performance of “Theo’s Corner,” in which we all knew that Theo would eventually be destroyed by seeking fame and glory with the Players.

So, Pippin ended on a sour note. Tragedies teach us, I believe, which is why it was one of my favorite UTC performances. This play will stick with me for a long time, because it was eerie. It was entertaining. It was funny and unexpected. Humor and incredible dancing broke up the serious, weighty theme. The costumes were perfectly on point, flashy red and gold reminding the audience that this is, at its heart, a circus show. The set was magical and multifaceted; serving the purpose of holding the musicians out of the way, yet still on stage; providing a backdrop for shadows play during important scenes; concealing the body attached to the “severed” head after the fight scene; holding Charlemagne’s throne and contributing to the magical ambiance with golden painted stars against a navy backdrop. The beauty and magic of the show were maintained throughout the incredible storytelling, immaculate dancing and amazing artistry from the cast, crew and production team.