Big Fosse Fun

Who gets a standing ovation in the middle a show?  

No one. Except Andrea Martin, who steals "Pippin."

What a wacky, wacky show. I'd never seen "Pippin" and probably never would've seen "Pippin" unless my theater-loving brother John said, "Wanna see 'Pippin'?" and I said, "Sure," not knowing much about it. Not that it mattered. John knows everything about "Pippin," even though he only saw one performance at UCLA years ago, and it was, in his estimation, terrible, terrible. "Did you know that Irene Ryan, Granny on 'The Beverly Hillbillies,' died on stage during 'Pippin'?" he asked before the curtain went up. "I must confess, I didn't know that, but what a way to go."

Last night, we saw the reinvented Cirque du Soleil-inspired "Pippin." It was super ridiculous, over-the-top big Fosse fun. Lots and lots of jazz hands, jumping, leaping, hanging upside down, magical feats and anti-war messages. And singing. Singing of not very good songs about  I-have-no-idea-what, other than love and sex in cages and weird locales and finding a corner of the sky. Pippin has a lot of trouble finding his corner of the sky, but eventually his inner GPS directs him toward humble, everyday bliss. Like I said, a wacky, wacky, silly, silly show. A good escape for the SJG. And personally, I'm just so glad nobody plotzed on stage. That would've brought the house down, and not in a good way.