By ANNA BRENNER
Audiences flocked to the 450-seat Kiplinger Theatre last Thursday, Friday and Saturday for three performances (two of which were entirely sold out) of Pippin, the Stephen Schwartz and Roger O. Hirson musical. Jointly produced by the Melodramatics and Flexible Theatre Company, this Pippin was directed by Emily Ranii ’07, the Guest Director at Cornell’s Schwartz Center for the Performing Arts, and presented a bare bones rendering of the show, stripped of much in the way of set, costumes, and the entire ensemble of the musical. Yes, I am still talking about Pippin — the historically opulent, behemoth of a show, which, on Broadway, literally features high-flying circus acts — stripped down. Needless to say, I was intrigued to see how the show would work once deprived of all of its usual glitz and glitter, in a world in which the magic of the players was never really very magical at all — and, well, it didn’t. At least, not completely.
Courtesy of the Melodramatics Theatre Company Inc.