Pippin

The Menier Chocolate Factory's tech heavy "Pippin" brought out the nerd in me. Arriving in the auditorium is a complete delight, wandering through a detailed teenage boy's bedroom before entering a crazy, laser driven, acting space oozing atmosphere. The great pity is that whoever designed the bedroom evidently had no hand in designing the reimagined narrative. "Pippin" the mmorpg is a total, illogical stinker.

Whenever video games turn up in theatre it seems the people plonking them there haven't a clue what video games look like or do. This "futuristic" production is a particularly onerous example of this problem. When "Tron" appears to be the biggest influence you've got to worry, and once they start mentioning "levels" you know all is lost. The reasoning behind the new setting is difficult to fathom, even more so once the original Fosse choreography starts. This is a "Pippin" stuck in a time warp of campy costumes, 70s synth, dated dance and gimmicky projections.

The whole thing doesn't come close to working, the concept overwhelming the original musical with a steady stream of poorly thought out additions. Our Pippin is a teenage boy playing an mmorpg. In it he plays along with a group of other players who are apparently a load of cyber bullies under the cosh of the "Leading Player" (why they are doing this is never explained). The fact that this means all sense of threat goes out the window, immolation not so scary when you consider it's just an avatar, isn't really explored. We can explain away this inherent problem by suggesting this might be a simulated reality (though the whole bedroom thing doesn't make much sense if so) but even that falls apart when two of the other real world figures wander in in the latter stages.

The production even has the audacity to suggest (as with everything it really isn't clear) that these games are a corrupting influence. An interesting argument but one that holds no water when the director hasn't a clue what he's talking about. I'm probably reading too much into this but frankly it's embarrassing that the creative team tried to crowbar something they clearly have little knowledge of, onto a piece that doesn't need it, creating nothing other than an incoherent, inconsequential mess.

That said, I actually found this completely hysterical with barely a dull moment. Probably not what Stephen Schwartz was aiming for when he wrote it, the moralistic tone just feels quaint, but as a camp "so awful, it's good" sense this is a laugh. Schwartz wrote some undeniably good tunes and the Menier has put together a terrific cast led my the ever fabulous Matt Rawle. Rawle does a remarkable job maintaining a creepy machiavellian quality despite the unintentional hilarity around him. He's got a stunning voice (though all the voices were over-amplified) and I spent much of the performance wishing it was him not Ricky Martin that will be taking up Che on Broadway.

Pippin was taken by an earnest Harry Hepple. He struggled at times with the high lying music but had enough charisma to make it through. He variously meets in-game characters played by Ian Kelsey, David Page and Frances Ruffelle all of whom sing well and manage to keep straight faces throughout (they're so good I actually briefly became convinced they were taking it seriously). Carly Bawden enters in Act II to attempt some genuine emotion but that ship had long sailed.

A total train wreck but the two and a half hour crash and burn is a sight I wouldn't have missed. A disaster of glorious enormity. I should feel offended, Mitch Sebastian has played the typical arrogant director in co-opting something he doesn't understand, but he's done it so horrifically that I couldn't but stand back and watch. Artistically the best course of action is probably to enter the Menier, observe the set and then leave. However, that would be to miss the sheer schlocky joy of one of the most misguided bits of theatre I've seen in a long time.

(Review of Performance on Saturday, January 7th, 2012 at the Menier Chocolate Factory)