Pippin @ Menier Chocolate Factory

The Menier Chocolate Factory's bold new reimagining of Pippin is unlike any production you've seen before. While Stephen Schwartz's musical has often been written off as childish - largely because The Jackson 5 covered one of the main songs, Corner of the Sky - director Mitch Sebastian restores the dark,  sensuous, adult quality of the original whilst creating a Pippin which is decidedly 21st Century.

Pippin is the son of the great Charlemagne, ruler of the Holy Roman Empire. A prodigious scholar, the future emperor is looking for fulfilment everywhere from war and politics to art, religion, sex and love. Except it's more complicated than that, because all the characters are 'players'. In the original, this meant a group of travelling players wandering through the woods, but in 2012 what could they be but video gamers? The decision to update the story to the world of video games (and internet porn pop-ups!) works so well it's hard to imagine the story any other way.

Video projections and musicals haven't always been the easiest bed fellows (remember The Woman in White?) but they are one of the main attractions to this production, sucking the audience straight into a virtual world of computer games, Skype sex and Twitter revolutions. While some older members of the audience unfamiliar with the gaming world found this quite overwhelming, I thought it was just perfect for the story and added a whole new layer to the show, a sharp commentary on the pervasiveness of technology in our modern lives. It also allows for some truly spectacular staging but I don't want to say too much and ruin the surprise!

Of course, no matter how impressive the projections are, a musical can't survive on its staging alone. Luckily, the Menier is famed for the quality of its casts, perhaps because in such a small theatre the tiniest of faults is magnified so everyone has to be flawless. The cast of Pippin is no exception.

I was first attracted to Pippin after hearing that Matt Rawle would be the Leading Player. Having been captivated by his Che, Zorro and Martin Guerre (the latter only on video sadly as I was far too young for the original production), I knew I was in for a treat. Matt brought all the charm that seduced Anne Robinson to a captivatingly malevolent Leading Player. I found it hard to keep my eyes off him.

However, the real revelation for me was Harry Hepple as Pippin. He combined a beautiful voice with an innocence and naivety that perfectly suited the character. I loved the fact that Hepple, as well as Ian Kelsey as Charlemagne, kept their northern accents, it really added to the idea that these are real people playing a video game. Similarly Frances Ruffelle's Essex giggle and inherent naughtiness worked perfectly as the scheming stepmother Fastrada. Carly Baldwin (below with Hepple) brilliantly juxtaposed the character of Catherine with the real life 'player' and again has a delightful voice. On top of all that, the new production recreates to stunning effect parts of the original Fosse choreography (that seem to have become more famous than the songs), which lends the production an even more surreal, virulent quality, especially when performed by the very unnerving, unhinged half-brother Lewis (David Page). 

In short, both the performances and the production of Pippin blew me away and I recommend you go and see it while you can.

Photos: Tristam Kenton @ Broadwayworld.com