Baldwinsville Theater Guild Brings ‘Pippin’ Back to Life With Jazz Hands and Seventies Sensibility Intact (Review)

Long before his Broadway megahit “Wicked” hit the stage, singer Stephen Schwartz scored big with “Pippin.” His 1971 “Godspell” had been an off-Broadway triumph, but this new musical, produced the following year on the Great White Way, was steeped in the spirit of the times, not so far removed from the summer of love. Now enjoy an exuberant production of Baldwinsville Theater Guild“Pippin” may be showing its age, but it’s still a very enjoyable rollercoaster ride of a show.

An episodic story about a young man trying to find his way in life, the show brings an obscure figure from medieval history to life as the hero. We know very little about the historical Pépin le Bossu, son of Emperor Charlemagne and leader of an aborted rebellion against his father. “Pippin,” the musical, reinterprets his character as the prototypical seeker trying to find “his thing.”