When Pippin opened in 1972, it was a sensation. Directed and choreographed by Bob Fosse, who was coming off his Academy Award-winning film version of Cabaret, it was a showbiz triumph of jazz hands, sexy dancing and theatrical magic.
It was also the Broadway debut of 24-year-old songwriter Stephen Schwartz, who's better known these days for the global megahit Wicked. He had written a version of Pippin — about the son of medieval emperor Charlemagne — as a college musical. And Schwartz says that behind the Fosse razzmatazz, the show had a real 1960s vibe.
"Sort of dealing with contemporary issues that kids such as myself were going through at that time," he says. "The Vietnam War, and sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll, and 'don't trust anyone over 30' and all those sorts of issues."
The current Pippin revival, opening Thursday, April 25, at the Music Box Theatre, is directed by Diane Paulus, who's recently staged Tony Award-winning revivals of Hair and Porgy and Bess. She saw Pippin three times as a kid growing up in New York City, and she says the episodic tale of a young person trying to find his place in life really resonated for her.
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