Do you like the way dreams stick to the sky? Are you ready to run where you can ramble? Then you’re ready for Pippin with Small Town Starts Theatre Company. Come journey with them through their anecdotic revue of Stephen Schwartz (music & lyrics), Roger O. Hirson (book) and Bob Fosse (also book) because STSTC has magic to do…and it’s just for you! Directed by Joel Roberson with Musical Direction by Kelly Stoneberger and Choreography by Olivia Winter, this charming little cobbled-together story takes you on a journey with pretty music, fun moves, and a good deal of talented community folk putting their all out there to make this show sparkle.
I think the thing people enjoy most about Pippin, aside from its beautiful music, is its intrinsic nature to be whatever the director and/or theatre company wants it to be. (I say ‘think’ because I’m no great fan of the musical myself but can both recognize and appreciate when a company has done well with a show, which STSTC certainly has in their current production of Pippin.) The general open-endedness of Pippin should be a director’s candy-store, letting them create whatever their visionary heart desires, within reason of company budget, people, etc. And Director Joel Roberson seems to have done just that. Taking a circus adjacent approach, with hints of a travelling show— sans the intense high-wire acrobatics and performing lions, tigers, and bears— Roberson creates a hybrid atmosphere, using mostly shimmering costumes and dance moves to create the ‘magic’ that the audience experiences. One thing that Roberson does astonishingly well is the complete collapse-clear of the set at the end of the show. It happens with such precision and expedience that it’s really quite impressive. (Shoutout to Set Designer Tim Beavers, and Stage Crew Grace Wantz!) There’s some other delightful little Easter Eggs in Roberson’s vision…like the Avenue Q puppets who appear overtop of Charlemagne’s map during “War Is a Science.”
You get hints of that ‘circus’ flare coming through strongly in the show’s sartorial selection, by way of Costume Designers Miranda Secula-Rosell & Jennifer Secula. There are a lot of spangly, flashy pieces that scream ‘circus’ or in this case, Vaudeville-Burlesque-Sideshow. It’s a more traditional approach to the show’s aesthetic but one that works extremely well for the ensemble and the named players. There are lots of popping colors, flashy pieces— particularly the red number featured on Fastrada— and corsets galore for a few of the more risqué numbers (though Director Joel Roberson tamps them down so heavily about the only thing risqué in them is the corsets). If there’s one complaint in the costume selection for the show it’s the fancy Renaissance Princess dress used on Catherine. Yes, it’s unfortunate when everyone else in the cast gets to wear something glamorous, shiny, covered in sparkles and sequins and your character is meant to be a young, widowed farmer dressed simply, but that’s the trade-off for playing the role of the ‘ordinary woman.’ The dress is just too opulent and decadent, creating large incongruities when she’s singing “Kind of Woman.” Though if that’s the biggest issue in the show’s design work, the production is well ahead of the game.
Dakota Secula-Rosell sheds some illumination on the production, carefully crafting mood lighting to capture the various emotional essences of the songs. There’s a lot of dark and shadow play that happens throughout the performance, which works well with the enigmatic nature of the ensemble and Lead Player. You never quite know what they’re up to, though at times (partially thanks to the lighting and partially thanks to Roberson’s blocking) some of the moments are sending up Godspell vibes with Pippin as buddy-Christ and the ensemble as the disciples. Secula-Rosell really adds a lasting impact to the show’s finale with the ‘full light’ effect as well (it creates the desired intention of the show’s ending) and she strikes a balance with some of the softer colors, like the pinks used for the introduction of Catherine.
If the show has a major flaw it’s the sound balance. Sound Designer Miranda Secula-Rosell has a challenging conundrum set out before her that hasn’t quite been resolved but as STSTC learns how to best fit inside the Synergy Dance Studio space, a resolution may yet present itself. With the cavernous ceiling and general vacuum of space floating above the black box, the monitors for the audio tracks are consistently louder than the body mics on the performers. Whether or not this can be adjusted by perhaps placing the monitors further back or adjusting mic levels remains to be seen, but for this performance the mics, at times (and only on certain performers) felt as if they were not picking up at all, in comparison to the musical tracks. That said, there were some performers for whom this wasn’t an issue— Pippin in particular, who seemed capable of pounding out his numbers at peak volume, microphone or not. There are also moments where the players/ensemble are ‘background chatting’ and because of the prevailing sound balance issues, create more auditory issues where mimicking chat/talk/noise without actually making it might better serve the challenge of the space.
Vocally the show was sensational— from a blended, harmonized, and tonal standpoint. When you could hear the performers strongly, they sounded beautiful. Musical Director Kelly Stoneberger brings this ensemble of over a dozen voices together perfectly for group numbers like “Morning Glow” which packs a powerful emotional punch at the end of the first act, and for the more sinister number “Finale.” You get solid duet harmonies from Pippin and Catherine during “Love Song” and Stoneberger’s acapella work with both Catherine and Pippin is noteworthy. Add into the vocal beauty of the show the rigorous, Fosse-esque dance work by way of Choreographer Olivia Winter and you can almost completely overlook the sound balance issues. Winter really takes those Fosse-inspired movements and brings them to the forefront of the numerous dance-breaks featured in the various numbers. But she’s simplistic about it. With community theatre often comes varied levels of dancing capability and Winter is smart in her dance-blocking as well as her routines; stronger dancers up front, scattered windows, simpler moves. It makes for a clean show and simple, clean choreography beats complicated moves that only a quarter of your ensemble can execute any day of the week. Winter makes use of featured dancers— including herself, Delaney Goodwin, and Jordan Wheeler for numbers like “With You” and really infuses a lot of those slinky-swanky moves into those routines. Winter also gives exquisite solo choreography to Leading Player and Fastrada for their respective solo numbers, showcasing their keen dancing capabilities.
You’ve got an engaging ensemble (featuring: Alexandra Overby, Chiamaka Nwokeji, Collin Graham, Delaney Goodwin, Jordan Wheeler, Maddie DiNello, Olivia Winter, Ronni Snyder, Rory Long) who dance, sing, move scenery, become scenery, and are engaged with the curious world that is this production of Pippin. Taking most of their cues from Lead Player, you get the sense that they might be little minions of hers, or perhaps a part of her somehow, as they do her bidding, particularly during dance routines where a simple ‘follow-me’ gesture is all it takes to get them moving into action. Keep your eye on Maddie DiNello in particular, her ‘torch’ antics are quite hilarious.
Among the ‘named’ players you have Berthe (Katie Ketter), Pippin’s grandmother, who does a delightful job with her one and only number, “No Time at All.” You can’t even call the role of Berthe a ‘princess track’ (as the role implies walking on for a scene or number but also significantly impacting the plot in some way, and while Pippin takes off for nonsense shortly after this number, I don’t think Fosse or Hiron would agree that it’s necessarily because of the song.) Ketter lives up her best life in this number, just having fun with getting to be the raunchy ‘old’ (you do what you can in community theatre folks, and her makeup age-lines are on-point, blending in with that foxy, silvery wig to give her a more ‘granny-aged’ appearance) grandma of the heir-apparent and she’s delightfully engaging when it comes time to encourage the audience to sing along. (Keep your eye on Archer Ketter, who has the bouncy-red-singalong-ball and has the biggest, most pitiable pout once she snatches that ball away!) There’s also Tim Beavers as Charlemagne, who has a good handle on how to crisply articulate his patter through “War is a Science.”
Enter Fastrada (Tia Silver) new wife/mother-in-law to Pippin. And direct mother of Lewis (Alex Gibbs, who acts up the epitome of bronze-over-brains for the character and struts around creating madcap moments of comedy for this otherwise ‘bit-part’ role.) Silver has the most impressive makeup plot in the whole show. She’s got a masterful handle on 1930/1940’s Hollywood Golden-Era glam— complete with Marilyn’s beauty mark and Betty Boop’s eyes. That’s actually a perfect descriptor for how she’s playing the character, a little silliness from Betty Boop, a little sensuality from Marilyn Monroe, a little wholesomeness fro, Eunice Quedens (aka Eve Arden) and a whole lot of vocal panache for her semi-solo number “Spread A Little Sunshine.” Silver brings this decadent balance to the character; you’re never sure if you’re going to get the flirtatiousness of Marilyn popping out of her mouth, the cheeky charm of Betty Boop, or something a little more wholesome when she moves her way through her parts in the show. And her dance moves during that number are sublime.
While you don’t ‘meet them’ until the second act, Catherine (Savanna Wright) and Theo (Archer Ketter) are critical to Pippin’s anecdote. Ketter deserves some sort of Oscar for scenery-chewing. (When he’s not being upstaged by that too-cute-for-words dog, Brisket, who steals the whole dang show with her 30-second cameo) Once Pippin decides he’s checking out from the whole domestic scene, and Catherine starts on with her little ditty, Ketter is sitting in the background being a hysterical, typical tween-boy. There’s dessert on the table. Untouched. And he’s sneaking it. The audience is roaring almost to the point of overlooking the fact that Catherine is trying to pour her heart out in a song. It’s really hilarious. You get a beautiful taste of Ketter’s voice at the very end of the production as well (it’s a shame the Theo character doesn’t actually get more vocal features because Ketter’s voice is ready and waiting for them!) Wright’s Catherine is dulcet and delicate. There isn’t anything overly special about her performance, but that’s the way it’s written. She has a good, clean vocal sound for “Kind of Woman” and there is an earnest sense of being smitten with Pippin when she sings “Love Song” in duet with him.
Kaleb Bauerlein, as the titular character, has all of that energy that’s all balled-up in his desperate need to have fulfillment. With a really beautiful voice that soars nicely through the more iconic numbers like “Corner of the Sky” you get crystalline vocal clarity to carry those brilliant Stephen Schwartz lyrics from the moment he enters the show. There’s a naïve nervousness that still somehow percolates into excitement when Bauerlein starts “With You” and he has a good balance on how to be funny without ‘acting funny.’ This is best evidenced in “War is a Science” when he keeps bursting in with that dopey, goofy grin for his intentionally ill-timed choruses. You get some of that raging poprock-tenor from Bauerlein as well, in the latter half of the production during “Extraordinary” too. And a tenderness from him during “Prayer for a Duck” (which is hard to feel solemn about because Ketter is stealing that moment with his mimeograph-actions of trying to ‘pray like Pippin.)
I’ve seen many a Pippin over the years and I can never recall leaving the production feeling as vexed about Leading Player as I did with Dani Rizzo. Not because she didn’t do it well— let me be clear, she’s exceptional— but trying to wrap my head around exactly what it was she was doing was unraveling my brain in a melting sort of way that one hopes to reserve for complex mathematical equations or solving global warming. Rizzo has this sneer…it’s indescribable (excepting maybe that it reminds me of the fear instilled upon me when I watched the ’68 film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Child Catcher would creep through the streets.) The way Rizzo is playing up Lead Player is this queerly beautiful blend of menacing and enticing. The bend of the character tends to lean more toward evil and powerful or captivating and seductive; Rizzo is doing it all and then some and it’s enigmatically confusing and yet dizzying delightful. Like if you ran into Rizzo’s Leading Player at the corner of a dark alley late a night, you know following her would ultimately lead to your grizzly death but you follow her anyway and not because she’s got a ‘moth-flame’ effect going on but some other indescribable thing that draws you to her. It might be the way she makes her body look disjointed and almost unhinged from itself when she’s executing a lot of her intensive choreography or the way her vocals slip over numbers like velvety hot soup that you know will taste good but is also going to burn your tongue. There’s no ‘puppetmaster’ effect immediately in play but you never doubt that Rizzo’s Leading Player is in total control, even when she intentionally appears as if she’s not. And when she sings, particularly “Simple Joys” her voice really is a radiant aural gem sparkling its way through that number. When she duets opposite Pippin for “On the Right Track” it almost has “All for the Best” meets “Poor Unfortunate Soul” vibes, where she’s clearly a con-woman but so well-disguised that Pippin can’t see it until its much, much too late. It’s a fascinating and intriguing, albeit intensely vexing, performance from Dani Rizzo as Leading Player, one well worth watching.
With a limited one-weekend-only run, you won’t want to miss your chance to see a very solid, well thought-out, carefully executed production of Pippin. Catch their production this weekend, before their little corner of the sky disappears into ‘grand finale’ the likes of which you’ll never see.
Running Time: 2 hours and 20 minutes with one intermission
Pippin plays through January 26th 2025 with Small Town Stars Theatre Company at the Synergy Space Dance Studio— 519 Old Westminster Pike in Westminster, MD. Tickets are available at the door or in advance online.
